Paulette Smariga raised the "Donating a Collection to an Institution"
issue again.  She said "... The Smithsonian Institution -- the world's
largest museum and research complex -- includes 19 museums and
galleries but non of these are dedicated to musical history."

With regard to real appreciation of machines (including musical ones),
the Smithsonian might be considered somewhat hostile to most of us.
They believe in preserving them, not running them.  Some may be run
by white-gloved curators occasionally to produce "media resources,"
but they are unlikely to "demonstrate" them.

They advised the Debence Museum to exhibit machines and play recordings.
The Debence folks play on for every visitor.

I'm sure that the Smithsonian policy is correct for a few extremely
rare instruments in original condition, but not for the majority of
collected instruments.

Wallace Venable