Collection Management
Dovetail Cultural Resource Group offers collection management services to assist our clients with all lab-related needs. Dovetail’s full-service lab has vast experience assisting agencies, ranging from localities to branches of the federal government, processing and preparing collections for final curation. Dovetail’s knowledge of the collection management field, as well as strong and long-standing relationships with State Historic Preservation Offices in many areas, ensures that our lab-based projects are consistently completed on time, on or under budget, and meet or exceed client standards. Our significant collection management knowledge and our collaborative approach with our clients assures the acceptance of collections by state facilities upon initial submittal.
One of Dovetail’s specialties is acquiring large collections from excavations conducted by other firms. We administer the transfer of the materials from various repositories to our laboratory and fully process the assemblage to meet all required curation goals. This includes washing, cataloging, detailed analysis, photographic documentation of artifacts, direct labeling, finalizing all associated documents, and coordination with the chief curator and their staff.
We have successfully curated collections with the following repositories, among others:
- Northeast Region Archeology Program, National Park Service
- Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, National Park Service
- Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs
- Virginia Department of Historic Resources
- North Carolina (Office of State Archaeological Research Center)
- Washington, D.C. State Historic Preservation Office
- Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory
- Fairfax County, Virginia
- Facilities of the Virginia Army National Guard
- Numerous local repositories
