Spring 2012 - Dress and Textile Specialists

influences, economic prosperity, global trends and the regional technical excellence in textiles and
clothing over a 100 year period using clothing, accessories, photographs, film archive and narratives.
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How to move a dress collection without a database, Meg Dorman, Curator, Kensington
Palace
I work at Kensington Palace for Historic Royal Palaces. In 2009 we were asked to move the Royal
Ceremonial Dress Collection to an interim store as a building project was about to start and the
current stores were to become part of the new visitor hub. We decided to make the most of the
move. We had no central database that contained catalogue information and locations of objects in
one place - we had several different ones that had to be used simultaneously.
In 2009 the collection was spread over 6 different rooms and two floors. We found a space in the
Palace that could hold the entire collection in one area which was a bonus. This meant that visits to
the stores could be more easily managed and we wouldn't have to carry objects through the visitor
route.
The first step we took was to take inventory. We wanted to plan where every object was going to go
in the new store so that the actual move could be done as smoothly as possible.
In the new store (with a new layout) everything would be in a different place. To make the transition
a bit simpler we took photos of every hanging object and an overall photo of every drawer. These
were printed out in advance ready for the move.
We wanted to change the inventory as little as possible so as we were moving from drawers into
boxes we had boxes made to the same size as the drawers. Then the contents could be easily packed
into the new boxes without lots of changing locations. The photos were attached to the outside of
the box to make it easier to find things in the new stores. We printed new labels in advance as well
and these were placed in Melinex envelopes on the outside of the boxes.
The actual move went quite well. It was done with in-house staff moving boxes before we opened
(the route to the new stores went through exhibition spaces) and then placing them during the day.
Every object was listed on a spreadsheet showing its old location and its planned new location.
We tried to make the most of the move by improving access as much as possible for ourselves and
the visitors to the collection. To keep the collection together we had to stack boxes on racking
almost to the ceiling. This makes it difficult to run a stores visit on one's own as the boxes are large
and sometimes high. Some objects we knew we accessed frequently and these were placed in rooms
with spaces for tables and on lower shelves.
We learned some lessons - you can't plan carefully enough! Planning where every object goes in
advance was incredibly helpful. If you have the time/money make sure the boxes you use can be
handled by one person if possible. If budget permits then movers would be helpful as well - moving a
collection for months on end takes a toll on your staff! The photos have been great, especially when
looking for objects on high shelves.
We re-used about 200 boxes and purchased 350 new ones. We moved 21 hanging racks of
garments. The move took three months with six members of staff working constantly. The Royal
Ceremonial Dress Collection contains approx 12,000 objects.
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