We welcome donation requests of relevant historical materials. Please note that we have a process that we must go through to evaluate and accept donations. Do not bring items to any of our locations or mail or drop off unsolicited items.

If you are interested in donating materials to the Historical Society’s collection please email Amber at [email protected].

Please include a detailed description and history of the items as well as dimensions and photos if possible. Once a request has been made it goes to our collections committee, which reviews and votes on accepting the item. If it has been accepted, staff will reach back out to you to go over the donation process and arrange the transfer of the items.

-Donors must fill out and sign a Deed of Gift form, which transfers full legal ownership of the items to the Historical Society.
-Donations are made unconditionally and without restrictions. No donation is to be accepted with the understanding that it is to be exhibited.

The archival materials in our collection, including photographs, documents, newspapers, books, maps, and more, are made available to researchers through our Mason County Research Center. Many of our artifacts are on display in our numerous exhibits at Historic White Pine Village and the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum. The Research Center also includes our Mason County Heritage Vault, where a large number of special artifacts that are not on display can be seen in a “visible storage” area. This is a way where we can ensure that these artifacts are in secure, museum quality storage, but also have them visible to visitors.