How do I make sure a label never gets separated from its specimen?

Tie every specimen to its data three ways: a catalog number painted on the specimen, a label inside the same box carrying that number, and a catalog entry under the same number. Then any one of the three can rebuild the others. Keep each specimen in its own box with its label, move flats level and slowly, and when a label does come loose, stop and match it by number before touching anything else. This page covers where labels go in boxes and flats, the recovery routine after a move or a spill, and why a label that cannot be matched is close to a total loss.

Why one copy is never enough

A label that has drifted into the wrong box is worse than a missing one, because it makes the wrong specimen look documented. NatSCA's guidance on geological collections puts the rule plainly: keep every label with its specimen or box, because separated or mixed-up labels cause data loss [1]. Museums guard against it with redundancy: the National Park Service paints accession and catalog numbers on rocks and minerals and prints the same numbers on the label kept with the specimen [2]. The point of the painted number is that a specimen found on the floor can still find its way home.

Specimens that cannot be marked (powdery, fibrous, tiny or fragile pieces) depend on the box alone, so give them the most secure boxes in the collection. The marking method and its exceptions are on catalog numbers and marking the specimen.

Placing labels in boxes and flats

NPS guidance on geological storage says all containers should be clearly labeled [3], and for asbestos minerals in sealed bags, "The contents should be clearly marked on the bag" [4]. A label written on the outside of a box or bag is a finding aid; the record that matters is the one inside, matched by number. Adhesive labels on the outside of a box are fine for finding things, but never put one on the specimen or on an old label: the NPS Museum Handbook lists pressure-sensitive tapes and labels among materials not to use on objects [2].

For drawer and flat layouts, and how to number the drawers themselves so a specimen can be found from the catalog, see flats, drawers and cabinets. Box sizes that leave room for a label without crowding the specimen are on what size box.

Habits that prevent most separations

• One specimen, one box, one label. Two specimens sharing a box will one day share a label.
• Open one box at a time. When you take a specimen out to look at it, its label stays in the box and the box stays open where you can see it.
• Never take the label to the sink. If a specimen needs cleaning, the label and the box stay on the bench with a note saying where the specimen is.
• Move flats level. Carry them flat, one at a time, and do not stack open flats.
• Check after handling. When a visitor has looked through a flat, check number against label for each box before it goes back.

When a label falls out: the recovery routine

Stop as soon as you see a loose label, a specimen out of its box, or an upset flat. Permanent mix-ups usually happen in the minutes that follow, when someone puts things back by eye.

1. Freeze the scene. Do not put anything back. Photograph the flat or the floor as it is.
2. Gather everything on one clear table, keeping loose labels in one pile and loose specimens in another. Keep boxes that still hold both specimen and label separate; they are probably fine.
3. Match by number first. For each loose specimen, read the painted number and find the label and catalog entry with that number. Put matched pairs back in their boxes.
4. Match unnumbered pieces by the catalog. Use the catalog's description, dimensions and photographs. A catalog photo is often the only way to tell two similar specimens apart, which is one reason keeping the catalog recommends one for every piece.
5. Do not guess. A specimen you cannot match with confidence goes in a box marked "Label separated, [date], probably no. ___ or ___," with the candidate labels in a separate envelope. Record the event in the catalog entries involved.
6. Write a short incident note: what happened, what was matched and how, what is still uncertain. NPS guidance on documenting a problem in a collection asks for the date, specimen name, catalog number, a description of the problem and the steps taken, recorded in the permanent record [5]. The same habit works at home.

After a move, a spill or a leak

A house move is one of the likeliest times for a collection to lose data. Before the move, check that every box has its label and every specimen its number, and pack whole flats or drawers as units with the drawer number on the outside. After the move, unpack one drawer at a time and check number against label against catalog before opening the next.

Water is worse than a move, because it destroys labels as well as shuffling them. A 1922 museum paper on preserving minerals noted that paper labels are destroyed by water [6]. After a leak or a spill:

1. Get the specimens and labels out of the water, keeping each box's contents together.
2. Lay wet labels flat on clean paper to dry, each next to its box; do not peel apart stuck labels while wet.
3. Check whether any specimen in the wet boxes is water-soluble or water-sensitive (see minerals that must not get wet) and dry those first.
4. Reprint damaged labels from the catalog and keep the damaged originals in a sleeve with the specimen. An old label, even stained, is part of the specimen's history; see provenance and old labels.

Why a lost label is close to a total loss

The species can usually be identified again. The locality, collector, date and history usually cannot, and those carry most of the value of a typical specimen (see why the label matters as much as the specimen). The only things that can bring the data back are the painted number, the catalog and a photograph. If none of the three exists, the honest label is "locality unknown," and what to do with such a piece is on a specimen with no data.

Making the number do its job

Everything on this page depends on a number that is on the specimen and in the catalog. If your collection does not have one yet, start with catalog numbers and marking the specimen.

References

1. Emma Nicholls, Horniman Museum and Gardens, *Care and Use of Geological Collections*, Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA), undated presentation. https://www.natsca.org/sites/default/files/Care%20and%20Use%20of%20Geological%20Collections-%20NatSCA.pdf
2. National Park Service, *NPS Museum Handbook*, Part II, Appendix J: Marking, 2000. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/museums/upload/MHII_AppJ_Marking.pdf
3. National Park Service, Kathy Hall, *Storage Concerns for Geological Collections*, Conserve O Gram 11/2, April 1998. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/museums/upload/11-02_508.pdf
4. National Park Service, Greg McDonald, *Health and Safety Issues with Geological Specimens*, Conserve O Gram 11/11, September 2006. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/museums/upload/11-11_508.pdf
5. National Park Service, Sally Y. Shelton, *Byne's "Disease": How To Recognize, Handle and Store Affected Shells and Related Collections*, Conserve O Gram 11/15, August 2008. https://nps.gov/subjects/museums/upload/11-15_508.pdf
6. A. L. Parsons, *The Preservation of Mineral Specimens*, American Mineralogist, vol. 7, pp. 59 to 63, 1922. https://msaweb.org/msa/Collectors_Corner/arc/minpres.htm