Museum settling into new home

The National Plastics Center has officially moved to its new home at Syracuse University. A cargo van filled with items arrived Dec. 5 from Leominster, Mass., according to this story in the Syracuse, N.Y., The Post-Standard. "It's a lot of cubic feet of stuff. It's plastic artifacts wrapped in plastic bubble wrap stored in plastic bins, " Sean Quimby, director of SU's Special Collections Research Center, told the newspaper. "The very experience of doing this kind of drives home the importance of plastic." According to this news release from the Syracuse University Library, the collection includes:

• Nearly 3,000 books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and industry publications
• Papers, business records, and manuscripts from plastics companies, plastics-industry entrepreneurs, and members of the Plastics Hall of Fame, including the records of Union Products, maker of the iconic pink flamingo lawn ornament
• Thousands of artifacts, including molds and machinery, fine art, toys, car parts, medical devices, housewares, and jewelry. The artifacts include objects made of natural plastics such as horn, ivory, and tortoiseshell, semi-synthetic plastics including celluloid, and fully synthetic objects including those made of the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite.

Suzanne Thorin, SU's dean of libraries, said some of the plastic artifacts will be put on display in the library's special collection exhibit area, and the rest will be stored. Plastics News wrote about the planned move back in November, noting that the center wasn't drawing enough visitors at its Leominster location to cover its expenses. One question that we had at the time is answered in the Syracuse story: why is the collection going to New York? The university and the National Plastics Center were connected by SU alum Harry Greenwald, of Chicago, according to the story. Greenwald, now retired, bought and sold dozens of companies in the plastics industry, and is a member of the university's Library Board of Advisors, Thorin told the newspaper.