Enrichment · Passion Projects

The story stays
with the object.

A watch, a quilt, a bundle of letters: the object survives, but the story of who owned it and why it mattered disappears with the people who knew. Catalog each one the way museums do, with a number, the facts, every owner in turn and the story, and print a label to keep with it.

Catalog an objectWhat you get
$5one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $5

Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Passion projects kit, $39 for 34 items.

Your collection

The worked example is made up: three objects from one family estate, numbered as a lot, with a quilt stored somewhere it should not be. Saved on this device only.

Loading the object form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Enrichment · Passion Projects$5

What you finish with
A record per object with an accession number, name, maker, date, materials, measurements, condition and photograph status; provenance, one line per owner with years, how it passed on and how you know; its story; where and how it is stored, an appraised value if any and notes. Counts the collection by condition; flags objects at risk, missing photographs and owners with no source. Prints an object label.
Who it is for
Families sorting an estate or a relative’s keepsakes, students doing a family history or museum studies project, and anyone keeping a small collection.
Format
Browser catalog with a saved record per object. Prints a full record, an object label, the whole catalog as a table or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file to pass to relatives.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Passion projects kit ($39) and the Enrichment Suite pass ($119), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Passion Projects space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Gather objects that came together as one lot and number them in order.
  2. Photograph each one, front and back, before you handle it much.
  3. Fill in the facts, then the owners in turn, noting how you know.
  4. Write the story while the people who know it can still tell you.
  5. Print a label for each object and keep it in the box.

Catalog an object

Numbering like a museum

Reading an accession number2026 . 1 . 32026the year it was cataloged1the lot: things that came together,such as one estate3the item within the lotWrite it on the box, a tag tied to the objector acid-free paper beside it, never on theobject itself.
A numbering habit borrowed from museums. It keeps a record and its object together for the next generation.

Provenance is a chain

Provenance is the history of ownership: who had it, when and how it passed on. Write each link with its source, whether a will, a letter or a family story. A story is still worth recording; marking it as a story keeps the record honest.

Where things last

Most damage to keepsakes comes from light, heat and damp, so attics, basements and garages are the worst places to store them. A closet in the lived-in part of a home, acid-free boxes and tissue, and clean hands do more than any special product.

Sources

  1. Smithsonian Institution, Museum Conservation Institute. Caring for your family treasures (si.edu).
  2. National Park Service. Museum Handbook, Part II: Museum Records, accessioning and cataloging (nps.gov).
  3. American Institute for Conservation. Caring for your treasures (culturalheritage.org).
  4. Library of Congress. Collections care: textiles and paper (loc.gov).

The worked example is made up. Valuable or fragile objects deserve a conservator’s or appraiser’s look; this catalog records them, it does not value them. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.