I served a couple of years volunteering at a very large museum
(a science museum, but they're all kind of similar) and thus I've
written a bit about this sort of thing before.

For the most part, museums are a rotten place to dispose of anything
that you particularly treasure.  Museum curators are much like
librarians: they worry less about the artifacts and more about the
space it will occupy.  Mostly, it goes to the warehouse, which might
be in the museum itself but more probably in one or more anonymous
industrial buildings with indifferent climate control.

Our museum was donated some glorious stuff, and I'm sorry to say that
a lot of it wasn't treated very well, and even more never saw the light
of day -- or any museum visitors.  It lived for years in the warehouse
on the west side of Columbus, and they were clearly collections of
things that were really beloved.  I think that the museum was once
offered a player piano of some variety but (fortunately) never got it.
It would have suffered a miserable fate.

If you _do_ donate something to a museum, see if you can make it a
permanent loan or some other arrangement whereby you keep possession
of the artifact.  That way they can't sell it or destroy it.

To take the museum's part in all of this, it's wise to remember that
no museum shows all of its stuff all of the time, because there's no
room to exhibit it properly.  Moreover, the museum operates every day,
and any mechanical device on display will likely have to do the same,
and probably get thoroughly beat up in the process.  That means
maintenance, and typically a good deal of it.  Money and skilled staff
are typically scarce.

It sounds a bit crass, but it's worth considering that if you can sell
your stuff, anyone who pays money for something is likely to appreciate
it and care for it.  My father went through this with his clock
collection after tangling with several museums.  I think he was
ultimately happy that everything got sold to other collectors.

Mark Kinsler
Ohio