American Heritage Preservation Grants

February 2009 Grant Announcement

Alabama  |  Alaska  |  California  |  Colorado  |  Florida  |  Georgia  |  Illinois  |  Indiana  |  Iowa  |  Louisiana 

Maine  |  Maryland  |  Massachusetts  |  Minnesota  |  Missouri  |  Montana  |  New Mexico  |  New York 

North Carolina  |   Ohio  |  Oregon  |  Pennsylvania  |  Rhode Island  |  South Carolina  |  Tennessee  |  Texas 

Vermont  |  Virgin Islands  |  Virginia  |  Washington  |  West Virginia  |  Wyoming 

Alabama

Farley L. Berman Foundation - Anniston, AL
Award Amount: $2,536

Contact: Mr. Robert Lindley
Collections Manager
(256)237-6261; RLindley@BermsnMuseum.org

Project Title: "Works of Art storage: from toxic conditions to conservation shelving"
The Berman Museum of World History, in Anniston, Alabama, will purchase new metal shelving units and acid-free materials to store its unique two-dimensional and three-dimensional art collections. The new storage facilities will allow the collection of American and European art, with pieces dating back to the fifteenth century, to be more available for exhibitions shared with the community.

Alaska

Kodiak Historical Society - Kodiak, AK
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Katie Oliver
Executive Director
(907)486-5920; katie@baranovmuseum.org

Project Title: "Spruce Root Basket Conservation"
The Baranov Museum in Kodiak, Alaska, will treat a rare nineteenth-century Alutiiq spruce root basket discovered in an archaeological excavation in June 2008. This project will also create a permanent support for storage and exhibition of the basket. The conservator will instruct Baranov Museum and other local museum staff on the creation of storage and exhibition supports for baskets.

California

City of Ontario - Ontario, CA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Mr. Steven Thomas
Curator of Education
(909)983-3198; sthomas@ci.ontario.ca.us

Project Title: "Conservation of Ontario National Guard Unit Banner"
The Museum of History and Art, Ontario, California, will clean and conserve a 1946 National Guard banner, the unit “colors” of the 224th California National Guard, the Ontario unit that served in the Pacific during World War II and the Korean War. The project will also construct a new frame that will allow for better storage and handling for exhibition, improving the banner’s accessibility to the community.

Riverside County Economic Development Agency - Riverside, CA
Award Amount: $2,612

Contact: Ms. Teresa Gallavan
Manager
(951)955-6682; tgallavan@rivcoeda.org

Project Title: "Environmental Monitoring Project"
The Edward-Dean Museum and Gardens in Riverside, California, will purchase temperature and relative humidity data loggers and install one unit in each of the museum’s eight rooms that house the artifacts and rare manuscripts collected by the museum founders. Information gained from these units will be used to establish stable environmental conditions within the museum, thus mitigating the effects of fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity.

City of Roseville - Roseville, CA
Award Amount: $1,406

Contact: Ms. Lola Aguilar
Archivist
(916)746-1232; laguilar@roseville.ca.us

Project Title: "Southern Pacific Railroad Collection"
The Roseville Public Library will rehouse in preservation enclosures negatives, slides, and photographs from its Southern Pacific Railroad Collection. These images were taken in and around the railroad town of Roseville, home to a railroad roundhouse and repair facility. To improve the collection’s accessibility, the library will also create digital copies of the originals.

Marin History Museum - San Rafael, CA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Dawn Laurant
Chief Curator
(415)382-0770; dawn@marinhistory.org

Project Title: "Conversation of Saucelito"
The Marin History Museum in San Rafael, California, will treat a fragile painting called the Saucelito portraying the maritime history of Marin County, which was painted by artists James and John Bard in the mid-twentieth century. Once treated, the painting will be on exhibit in a gallery with the model of the second ferryboat Sausalito, providing an opportunity for visitors to see the two ships together for the first time.

Colorado

Town of Estes Park - Estes Park, CO
Award Amount: $2,255

Contact: Ms. Betty Kilsdonk
Director
(970)577-3760; bkilsdonk@estes.org

Project Title: "Improvement of Flat File Collection Storage at the Estes Park Museum"
The Estes Park Museum in Estes Park, Colorado, will purchase archival supplies and a new flat file case to rehouse the museum’s map, oversize photograph, and paper collections. The collections cover a broad period dating from Estes Park’s initial settlement in the 1880s, through the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915, to important commercial developments of the late twentieth century.

Ute Pass Historical Society - Woodland Park, CO
Award Amount: $2,700

Contact: Mrs. Beth Dodd
Curator
(719)686-7512; uphs@qwestoffice.net

Project Title: "Restoration and Conservation of the Ute Pass Historical Society's Ute Indian Cradleboard"
The Ute Pass Historical Society in Woodland Park, Colorado, will conserve and stabilize the most significant object in its collection, a nineteenth-century Ute cradleboard created for a boy. Particular attention will be paid to the fibers in the headpiece, allowing the museum to continue exhibiting this important cultural artifact.

Florida

Maitland Historical Society - Maitland, FL
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Betty Sample
Curator of Collections
(407)644-1364; bsample@maitlandhistory.org

Project Title: "Maitland Historical Society's Telephone Collection"
The Maitland Historical Society in Maitland, Florida, will purchase archival boxes, folders, and sleeves to rehouse its Winter Park Telephone Company collection, which includes historic manuscripts and photographs, instruction manual documents, and Bell System magazines, integral to understanding the technological, social, commercial, and physical growth of this small central Florida town.

Georgia

Augusta State University - Augusta, GA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Mrs. Carol Waggoner-Angleton
Special Collections Assistant
(703)667-4904; cwaggone@aug.edu

Project Title: "Environmental Monitoring Project"
Augusta State University will purchase environmental monitoring equipment and software to help maintain proper storage conditions for library special collection materials and archeological artifacts. Among the materials benefitting from this monitoring will be colonial-era Georgia documents and southeastern Native American artifacts dating from the Mississippian period.

Georgia Historical Society - Savannah, GA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Nora Lewis
Library and Archives Manager
(912)651-2125; nlewis@georgiahistory.com

Project Title: "Georgia Historical Society: Monitoring Environmental Conditions"
The Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia, will purchase monitoring equipment for temperature, relative humidity, and visible and ultraviolet light. The monitoring devices will enable the society to maintain stable environmental conditions and ensure the long-term care of its collections, which include an original draft of the U.S. Constitution, a compass and snuff box belonging to Georgia founder James Edward Oglethorpe, and the correspondence of national figures such as U.S. presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Illinois

McHenry County College - Crystal Lake, IL
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Sandra Lang
Art Gallery Curator
(815)455-8785; slang@mchenry.edu

Project Title: "Environmental Improvements for the Portrait in Print Collection"
McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, Illinois, will purchase ultraviolet filters and environmental sensing equipment to reduce ultraviolet light exposure and more effectively monitor fluctuations in the storage conditions of its “Portrait in Print,” a collection of etchings, woodcuts, lithography, intaglio, and serigraphy fine art print portraits of leading American poets, painters, politicians and writers. Some of the creators of these prints include Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Mauricio Lasansky, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, and Andy Warhol.

Indiana

City of Crawfordsville - Crawfordsville, IN
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko
Director
(765)362-5769x101; clegutko@ben-hur.com

Project Title: "Stabilization of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum's Textile and Oversized Historic Object Collections"
The General Lew Wallace Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana, will purchase acid-free boxes, tissue, storage tubes, and other archival supplies to rehouse the textile and oversized objects collections, including a Civil War uniform worn by General Wallace in 1861; a silk dress that is the collection’s only piece of clothing worn by Susan Wallace, General Wallace’s wife; a Civil War saddle; a Mexican war drum; and six Kilim and Navajo rugs.

Iowa

German American Heritage Center - Davenport, IA
Award Amount: $2,555

Contact: Ms. Scharlott Blevins
Activity Coordinator
(563)322-8844; director@gahc.org

Project Title: "German American Heritage Center: Newspaper Preservation Project"
The German American Heritage Center in Davenport, Iowa, will purchase archival boxes, storage cabinets, and environmental monitoring equipment for a 29-volume set of original, locally published German-language newspapers from the 1870s through 1915. The newspapers contain an anthology of information on German American immigrant life, business, culture, births and deaths, and political and social issues of the time important for understanding the German American perspective in this community.

Louisiana

City of Baton Rouge - Baton Rouge, LA
Award Amount: $2,740

Contact: Ms. Melissa Eastin
Archivist / Librarian II
(225)389-4960; meastin@ebr.lib.la.us

Project Title: "Preservation of the Baton Rouge Collection through Environmental Monitoring and Re-housing of Archival Materials"
The East Baton Rouge Parish Library will purchase two thermo-hygrometers, a portable light meter, and acid-free storage boxes to rehouse archival materials held by its local history collection, the Baton Rouge Room. The environmental monitoring equipment will be of special benefit to the library as its archival materials (e.g., photographs, city documents, maps) are currently subject to high levels of humidity and damaging light.

Maine

Museum Company - Lewiston, ME
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Karla Leandri Rider
Coordinator of Collections and Visitor Services
(207)333-3881; kleandririder@museumla.org

Project Title: "Museum L-A Textile Project"
Museum L-A, an industrial history site in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, will buy archival storage material for more than 100 high-priority large textiles in the collection. These tablecloths, linens, and bedspreads tell the story of the local textile industry as well as the national story of industry and innovation. Improving the storage of these items will make them more accessible to the community and will allow the museum to continue tying oral histories to the textiles produced in these mills.

Monhegan Museum - Monhegan, ME
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Dr. Robert Stahl
Associate Director
(207)596-6963; fitzgeraldlegacy@aol.com

Project Title: "The james Fitzgerald Estate: Improvement of the Works on Paper Collection Storage"
The Monhegan Museum in Monhegan, Maine, will purchase a flat file storage cabinet, archival supplies, and environmental monitoring equipment to rehouse and store works on paper, sketches, drawings, and unframed watercolor paintings of many local sites by artist James E. Fitzgerald (1899–1971). The new storage facilities will allow the collection to be moved from temporary off-site storage to the museum for improved access and exhibition.

Dyer Library Association - Saco, ME
Award Amount: $2,972

Contact: Ms. Jessica Routhier
Museum Director
(207)283-3861x114; museum@sacomuseum.org

Project Title: "CAP Implementation: Environmental Monitoring"
The Saco Museum in Saco, Maine, will purchase monitoring equipment for its exhibitions and storage areas, including humidity and temperature data loggers, a hand-held light meter, Blue Scale Textile Fading cards, and the necessary compatible software and equipment. Grant funds will also support two days of onsite training for Saco Museum staff in the use of the new equipment.

Maryland

Alice Ferguson Foundation - Accokeek, MD
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Doris Sharp
Collections Manager
(310)292-5665; dsharp@fergusonfoundation.org

Project Title: "Environmental Monitoring and Light Control for the Alice Ferguson Foundation Farmhouse"
The Hard Bargain Farm, a historic site in Accokeek, Maryland, will purchase ultraviolet light shades and environmental monitors for the farmhouse. Installation of the shades will reduce the harmful effects of ultraviolet light on the collections, and the monitoring equipment will provide the foundation’s staff with the information necessary to implement appropriate environmental controls.

McDaniel College - Westminster, MD
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Barbara O'Brien
College Archivist
(410)386-2793; bobrien@mcdaniel.edu

Project Title: "Disbinding Seven James Thomas Ward Diaries for Preservation and Access"
The McDaniel College Library will provide conservation treatment for seven diaries (1890–1895) written by its founder James Thomas Ward, a Methodist minister and avid diarist. Ninety-nine of Rev. Ward’s diaries are held by the college and the Library of Congress. They are an essential source for information concerning the college, Maryland history, Methodism, and nineteenth-century domestic life.

Massachusetts

Town of Barnstable - Barnstable, MA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Lucy loomis
Library Director
(508)362-8448; sturgislib@comcast.net

Project Title: "John Lothrop's Bible - - A preservation project"
The town of Barnstable’s Sturgis Library will create a microclimate display case to hold the Bible of Rev. John Lothrop, Congregational minister and one of the founders of Barnstable, Massachusetts. Lothrop brought the 1605 Bible with him to America on board the Griffin in 1634. It was burned by candle wax during the trip and repaired by Lothrop, who filled in the missing text from memory.

Canton Historical Society - Canton, MA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Marie Gibbs
Vice President
(781)828-0073; familygibbs@aol.com

Project Title: "Cleaning and Fabric Stabilization of the 1787 Martha Howard Quilt"
The Canton Historical Society in Canton, Massachusetts, will clean and stabilize damaged areas of the custom-dyed wool fabric of an eighteenth-century quilt designed and created by Martha Howard, one of the founding members of the town. Following conservation treatment, the Martha Howard Quilt will be padded and wrapped in acid-free tissue and placed in an acid-free, archival-quality box for protection and long-term storage.

Sargent-Murray Gilman-Hough Historical Society - Gloucester, MA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Barbara Silberman
Senior Program Advisor
(978)281-5801; bwsilberman@yahoo.com

Project Title: "Conservation of a Candlewick Spread (c.1812) for the Bedchamber of Judith Sargent Murray (1715-1820)"
The Sargent House Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts, will clean and treat a candlewick bedspread created in 1812. The conserved bedspread will provide the centerpiece of a reinterpretation of the bedchamber of Judith Sargent Murray, a late eighteenth-century advocate for women’s equality and education. Central to the story of the house and its occupants, this bedchamber was the site of her writing desk where many of her progressive ideas were captured.

National Fire Protection Association - Quincy, MA
Award Amount: $2,980

Contact: Stephanie Naoum
Association Archivist
(617)984-7447; snaoum@nfpa.org

Project Title: "Conservation of Books; Fires and Public Entertainments, 1897"
The Charles S. Morgan Technical Library of the National Fire Protection Association will treat Edwin O. Sach’s important work, Fires and Public Entertainments: A Study of Some 1100 Notable Fires at Theatres, Music Halls, Circus Buildings and Temporary Structures during the Last 100 Years (1897). This book, which is frequently consulted by a wide range of researchers, has suffered greatly from water damage and is in a highly fragile state. In addition to the conservation treatment, the library will digitize the book, making a scanned copy available free of charge on its Web site.

Minnesota

Regents of the University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN
Award Amount: $2,760

Contact: Ms. Eunice Haugen
Registrar and Museum Coordinator
(612)625-2737; hauge363@umn.edu

Project Title: "Preserving Heritage Through Environmental Monitoring"
The Goldstein Museum of Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a repository for an extensive collection of international textiles, apparel, decorative arts, and graphic design, will purchase environmental monitoring equipment for the collection storage area, research center, and exhibition gallery. This equipment will allow museum staff to monitor light levels as well as temperature and humidity levels, which will allow staff to observe trends and fluctuations and make adjustments to ensure the environmental stability of the collections.

Missouri

National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Missouri - Sainte
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Miss Lorraine Stange
Executive Director
(573)883-3105; bolduchouse@sbcglobal.net

Project Title: "Dehumidifying the Beauvais Linden Basement"
The Bolduc House Museum, an eighteenth-century French colonial house in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, will install a vapor barrier and a portable high-capacity dehumidifier in the basement of the Beauvais Linden House, a structure housing much of the collections of the museum. These measures will mitigate a moisture problem that has grown in recent years, allowing the museum to continue to interpret the colonial history of the community.

Montana

Montana Historical Society - Helena, MT
Award Amount: $2,987

Contact: Brian Shovers
Library Manager
(406)444-7415; bshovers@mt.gov

Project Title: "Map Treatment Project"
The Montana Historical Society Library will physically stabilize and encapsulate 11 of its most significant maps, including the first map of Montana, which was created in 1865. The library will also digitize these maps, adding the resulting digital copies to statewide digital archives and providing print duplicates for the use of the public.

New Mexico

Union County Historical Society - Clayton, NM
Award Amount: $2,991

Contact: Mrs. Kristen Christy
Executive Director
(575)374-2977; uchs@plateautel.net

Project Title: "Faces of Union County, New Mexico"
The Herzstein Memorial Museum, part of the Union County Historical Society, in Clayton, New Mexico, will improve the storage of more than 1,600 photographs and 1,500 negatives that represent more than 100 years of community history. Funds will be used to buy folders, boxes, shelving, and environmental monitoring equipment that will allow the museum to care for its collection in the future while also making it more accessible to the community.

New York

Phillips Free Library - Homer, NY
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Priscilla Berggren-Thomas
Library Director
(607)749-4616; phillip1@twcny.rr.com

Project Title: "Eli Carpenter Portrait & Frame Restoration Project"
The Phillips Free Library in Homer, New York, will repair damages to a historically significant oil portrait and frame of Eli Carpenter painted in 1843 by Sanford Thayer, who was both a locally celebrated portrait artist and teacher of some renown in the community. The conservation measures will allow the portrait to remain on exhibit in the library.

Historical Society of Rockland County - New City, NY
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Jessica Kuhnen
Curator of Collections
(845)634-9629; jkuhnen@rocklandhistory.org

Project Title: "HSRC Textiles and Costume Collection Storage Room Phase 11"
The Historical Society of Rockland County, New City, New York, will purchase and install two mobile storage units for the textiles and costumes room. Following installation of the storage units and shelving, 1,100 pieces of clothing and 60 textiles will be stored in an environmentally secure setting, and their accessibility for researchers will be improved.

Young Morse Historic Site - Poughkeepsie, NY
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Mr. Kenneth Snodgrass
Executive Director / Curator
(845)454-4500x11; k.snodgrass@lgny.org

Project Title: "Locust Grove Visible Light / Ultraviolet Light Filtering Window Shade Replacement"
The Young Morse Historic Site’s Locust Grove, in Poughkeepsie, New York, a 40-room mansion in the Hudson Valley, will purchase ultraviolet light-filtering shades for 31 windows. The shades will reduce the harmful effects of ultraviolet light and facilitate the long-term preservation of the mansion’s paintings, textiles, and furniture.

Schenectady County Historical Society - Schenectady, NY
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Kathryn Weller
Curator
(518)374-0263; curator@schist.org

Project Title: "Improvement of Collections Storage Project"
The Schenectady Museum of History will purchase and install new steel shelving units in the main repository for the collections. The museum staff will then relocate the most fragile specimens, including textiles, wood, bone, and ivory objects, to the new metal cabinets, protecting them for future research and exhibition.

North Carolina

Asheville Art Museum - Asheville, NC
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Cole Hendrix
Assistant Curator
(828)253-3227x124; chendrix@ashevilleart.org

Project Title: "Ruth Asawa Conservation"
The Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, North Carolina, will reshape and clean the metal of a wire sculpture by Ruth Asawa, an artist who is both locally and nationally important for her connection to the Black Mountain College. The conservator, who is also the artist’s daughter, will undertake the conservation and present an educational program about her mother’s life and work and conserving this piece of work.

Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, NC
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Dr. Stephen Whittington
Director
(336)758-5827; whittisl@wfu.edu

Project Title: "Museum of Anthropology Plains hide conservation"
The Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will conserve an important and endangered Comanche painted hide. Conservation of this artifact will allow the hide to be used in exhibits and programs about Southern Great Plains culture during the mid-nineteenth century. The hide and its treatment will also be featured in the museum’s online artifact database, giving it an even greater audience and highlighting the importance of preserving historic objects for future generations.

Ohio

North Canton Heritage Society - North Canton, OH
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Kathleen Fernandez
Executive Director
330-456-36 x96; kathyfernandez@neo.rr.com

Project Title: "Ultraviolet Light Amelioration Project"
The North Canton Heritage Society in North Canton, Ohio, will purchase ultraviolet filter film for its windows and lightbulbs, which will greatly reduce the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation on the society’s collections. A large portion of the collections represents the history of the Hoover Company, worldwide manufacturer and distributor of vacuums, which was headquartered in the town.

Oregon

Bosco-Milligan Foundation - Portland, OR
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Cathy Galbraith
Executive Director
(503)231-7264; cathyg@visitahc.org

Project Title: "Improvements of Collections Storage"
The Architectural Heritage Center in Portland, Oregon, will install new collections storage shelving and upgrade existing shelving to better care for the 20,000 architectural fragments in the care of the museum. Better storage of these artifacts, which include stained-glass windows and decorative cast iron, will allow the community and researchers to better understand Portland’s built environment.

Pennsylvania

North Museum Corporation - Lancaster, PA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Margaret Marino
Executive Director
(717)358-4445; margie.marino@fandm.edu

Project Title: "Herbarium Improvement Project for the North Museum"
The North Museum of Natural History and Science in Lancaster, will purchase flat file cabinets and buffered archival folders to rehouse 26,981 dried botanical specimens of flowering and nonflowering plants in the herbarium collection. These diverse specimens were collected locally from the early 1800s through the 1950s and have been used to produce a list of rare and endangered plants in Pennsylvania.

Delaware County Community College - Media, PA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Karen Rege
Director of Library Services
(610)359-5145; krege@dccc.edu

Project Title: "World War II Poster Preservation Project"
The Delaware County Community College will restore and stabilize 19 original World War II posters for display and educational purposes. Government and civilian agencies produced the posters to promote various war efforts such as recruitment, blood donation, the planting of victory gardens, and the purchase of war bonds.

Pennsbury Society - Morrisville, PA
Award Amount: $2,965

Contact: Kimberly McCarty
Curator
(215)946-0400; kimccarty@state.pa.us

Project Title: "Conservation of Great Hall Chandelier"
Pennsbury Manor in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, will conserve its Great Hall chandelier. Dated to circa 1710, the brass piece is a focal point of the reconstructed country plantation of William Penn and an object of discussion for every tour of the manor. When the treatment is complete, the chandelier will be reassembled and returned to its place in the Great Hall.

Historic Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Megan Harris
Archivist
(215)686-1254; megan@betsyrosshouse.org

Project Title: "Conservation, Housing, and Exhibition of John Ross' Probate Papers"
The Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will create an archival microenvironment for the long-term preservation of the probate papers of John Ross, Betsy Ross’s first husband. These papers provide the inventory of his belongings at the time of his death, as well as the only known copy of Betsy Ross’s signature as “Elizabeth Ross.” Grant funds will also be used to create a secure exhibit case for these papers, making them accessible to the public for the first time.

Christ Church Preservation Trust - Philadelphia, PA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Carol Smith
Curator / Archivist
(215)925-1695; csmith@christchurchphila.org

Project Title: "Conservation of 18th Century Vestry Minutes"
The Christ Church Preservation Trust, a historic site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will conserve two of its vestry minutes, which cover the years 1761–1784 and include rich historical information on many pivotal events in the formation of the United States. The pages of the book will be washed and physically mended, loose pages will be reattached, the cover will be cleaned, and the entire volume will be rebound and housed in a specially constructed archival box for long-term storage.

Wagner Free Institute of Science - Philadelphia, PA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Mr. Donald Azuma
Site Manager
(215)763-6529x19; azuma@wagnerfreeinstitute.org

Project Title: "Armature Repair of the Museum's 19th Century English Draft Horse Skeleton"
The Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will repair damage to the mount brackets that support the skeleton of an English draft horse, the focal point of the institute’s Nineteenth-Century Exhibition Hall. Conservation of this exhibition mount maintains the museum spotlight on real specimens in the context of a Victorian museum setting, promoting interest in science and learning in younger children and scholarly interest in the history of science, museums, and education.

Rhode Island

John Brown House - Providence, RI
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Phoebe Simpson
Technical and Conservation Librarian
(401)273-8107x24; psimpson@rihs.org

Project Title: "Rhode Island Civil War Restoration Project"
The Rhode Island Historical Society Library in Providence will conserve and physically stabilize important Civil War-related records concerning the Third Regiment, Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. This project will serve as a catalyst for the society’s program to conserve all of its Civil War manuscript volumes.

South Carolina

Historic Columbia Foundation - Columbia, SC
Award Amount: $2,084

Contact: Miss Alexis Thompson
Collections Manager
(803)252-1770x34; athompson@historiccolumbia.org

Project Title: "Improvement of Environmental Monitoring of Collections in Historic Houses"
The Historic Columbia Foundation in Columbia, South Carolina, will purchase humidity and temperature monitoring equipment for the five historic houses that the foundation oversees. The new equipment will allow staff to assess long-term changes and adjust the environment for five structures and the 6,500 objects housed in those structures, ensuring long-term preservation of the history of the city.

Tennessee

University of the South - Sewanee, TN
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: John Tilford
Information Technology Fellow
(931)598-1787; jtilford@sewanee.edu

Project Title: "Conservation of two watercolor paintings by Rev. John Hopkins, cira1860"
The University of the South will provide conservation treatment to two watercolors on paper. These highly unstable works of art, both painted in 1859 by the Rt. Rev. John H. Hopkins, constitute one of the earliest recorded topographical views of the location of the university, as well as the school’s earliest architectural proposal. The first items to be added to the university’s permanent collection, tradition holds that these paintings were among the few items sent away from the school for safekeeping during the American Civil War.

Texas

Stephen F. Austin State University - Nacogdoches, TX
Award Amount: $2,985

Contact: Ms. Carolyn Spears
Director, Research & Sponsored Programs
(936)468-2408; cspears@sfasu.edu

Project Title: "Anna Raguet Conservation Treatment Project"
The Stone Fort Museum, in Nacogdoches, Texas, will conserve two fragile silk gowns owned by Anna Raguet Irion and Harriet Irion, a mother and daughter who were members of an influential nineteenth-century Texas family with ties to Sam Houston. Custom archival boxes will be designed and constructed to rehouse the gowns upon completion of their treatment.

El Progreso Memorial Library - Uvalde, TX
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Virginia Davis
Archivist
(830)278-2017; vlwdavis@hotmail.com

Project Title: "Preserving first issues of the Uvalde Leader-News"
The El Progreso Memorial Library will purchase preservation enclosures and re-house the only known copies of the first three years of the local newspaper, The Uvalde Leader-News (1898–1901). Because of their condition and the fact that they have not been duplicated or reformatted, these issues have never been made available to researchers.

Vermont

Rowland E. Robinson Memorial Accociation - Ferrisburgh, VT
Award Amount: $2,600

Contact: Miss Jane Williamson
Director
(802)877-3406x000; rokeby@comcast.net

Project Title: "Conservation of Daguerreotypes"
The Rokeby Museum, in Ferrisburgh, Vermont, will conserve two daguerreotypes that depict two of the four generations who lived at the site and were active in the Underground Railroad. The first photograph shows Thomas Richardson Robinson, a Quaker who moved to Vermont in 1792, and the second portrays his son and daughter-in-law, Rowland T. and Rachel G. Robinson, nationally active abolitionists. The conserved images will be showcased in an upcoming exhibit at the site.

Virgin Islands

Planning and Natural Resources - Charlotte Amalie, VI
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Ingrid Bough
Territorial Director of Archives
(340)773-5715; ingrid.bough@dpnr.gov.vi

Project Title: "Environmental Montioring for Special Collections/Archives"
The Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums of the Virgin Islands will purchase equipment and software to help build a systemwide, coordinated environmental monitoring program for its special collections and archives storage in St. Thomas and St. Croix. This system will help safeguard the manuscripts, rare books and publications, photographs and negatives, microfilm, Danish West Indian and early government records dating back to the early 1700s, maps, architectural drawings, video recordings, renderings, and photographs from deterioration caused by temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Virginia

Albemarle County Historical Society - Charlottesville, VA
Award Amount: $2,180

Contact: Mr. Steven Meeks
President, Board of Directors
(434)296-1492; president@albemarlehistory.org

Project Title: "Restoration of First African American Mayor Portrait"
The Albemarle County Historical Society in Charlottesville, Virginia, will conserve a painting of Charles Barbour, the first African-American mayor of Charlottesville, who served from 1974 to 1976. The painting will be cleaned, flattened, and returned to its frame and exhibited as part of an inclusive historical interpretation of the city.

Washington

Center for Wooden Boats - Seattle, WA
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Ms. Elizabeth Davis
Executive Director
(206)382-2628; betsy@cwb.org

Project Title: "Storage Cover for Historic Herreshoff Sailboat"
The Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington, will have a custom canvas cover designed and installed on Shrimpo, a sailboat built and designed in 1914 by Nathaniel Herreshoff, who built and designed five of the six racing sloops that consecutively won the America’s Cup. The cover will protect the boat from rain while in storage, preventing deterioration of the wooden hull. The design process will be shared with visitors, and interpretive signage will discuss the importance of preventive care of boats in the collection.

West Virginia

Arthurdale Heritage - Arthurdale, WV
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Mrs. Heather Dalton
Executive Director
(304)864-3959; ahi@arthurdaleheritage.org

Project Title: "Conserving "Eleanor's Little Village""
The New Deal Homestead Museum and Archive in Arthurdale, West Virginia, will purchase shelving, archival folders, and other storage equipment to better preserve the extensive collections of New Deal–era textiles, photographs, and other archival documents relating to this 1930s homesteading experiment. The improved storage conditions will allow increased accessibility of the collection for exhibitions and researchers alike.

Wyoming

Laramie Plains Museum - Laramie, WY
Award Amount: $3,000

Contact: Connie Lindmier
Curator
(307)742-4448; lpmcurator@bresnan.net

Project Title: "Conservation Treatment and Stabilization of Two High Priority Women's Gowns in the Collection of the Laramie Plains Museum"
The Laramie Plains Museum in Laramie, Wyoming will conserve two silk ball gowns. One gown was worn by prominent Laramie resident Mrs. B.C. Daly, to the inaugural ball for President Grover Cleveland in 1893, and the other is a short flapper gown from 1922 worn by Mrs. Alice Hardie Stevens, the founder of the Laramie Plains Museum. The dresses will then be exhibited as part of a focus on the role of women in the community.