Count me there too. It burns me to no end that the academic historians and museum folks are always hot to keep “the commoners” from acquiring the slightest piece of history, and then they turn around and toss piles of it.
A buddy of mine was able to participate in digging at a site that was being developed in a city out west here. The town archaeological people allowed him to keep ONE bottle from amongst hundreds recovered. Couple years later he’s walking by the dumpster near the society place and there are the boxes of recovered bottles, in the dumpster. Bottles people would pay literally hundreds of dollars apiece for...
Each one of those doctor bills would be a precious connection to the past for some purchaser. Digitize them, catalog them and SELL them...
I was told by someone who claimed to know that tons of old stuff was dumped into Lake Michigan by the Milwaukee Museum because they didn't have room for it. People would donate their grandparents' belongings, the museum would accept them and then find out that they were not vital to their collection. Then they would dump the unwanted goods into the Lake in the middle of the night, rather than put them up for sale. They didn't want the folks who made the donations to find out.