Norman Rockwell Museum

Purpose: Sustaining Cultural Heritage The goal of this project of the Norman Rockwell Museum is to care for, document, and make available to the public more than 100,000 objects in the archival and Reference Center collections; integrate the collections throughout the museum's departments; and ultimately publish the collection contents through education programs, exhibitions and multimedia shows, and interactive Web access. The Collection Care and Conservation Plan is a three-year project to inventory, catalog, reorganize, and rehouse the museum's archival collection. Under the direction of the curator, museum curatorial staff (including a collections manager and a curatorial assistant hired specifically for the project) will begin systematically cataloging and reorganizing the 100,000-item archival collection to make it accessible to a broader audience. This grant will support the first year of the project. Priority aspects of the project include purchasing additional shelving units; installing water sensors and collections storage furniture; providing cold storage for the negative, tape, and film collections; and purchasing acid-free, conservation-appropriate supplies. The staff will copy the first 1,500 of 18,000 acetate negatives and archive audiocassette tapes with oral histories recalling the life and work of Norman Rockwell.