American Heritage Preservation Grant Announcement
March 2010
Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | District of Columbia | Florida | Illinois | Indiana
Iowa | Kansas | Louisiana | Massachusetts | Michigan | Missouri | Montana
New Hampshire | New York | Ohio | Oregon | Pennsylvania | South Dakota | Texas
Vermont | Virginia | Washington | Wisconsin
Arizona Historical Foundation - Tempe, AZ
Award Amount: $2,887; Matching Amount: $4,450
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Ms. Rebekah Tabah
Photo Preservationist
480-965-3283; rebekah.tabah@ahfweb.org
Project Title: "Preservation of the Arizona Historical Foundation Lantern Slide Collection"
The Arizona Historical Foundation will clean, organize, repair, and re-house approximately 3,000 glass lantern slides. Often sold in "thematic sets," lantern slides were at one time a near ubiquitous form of audiovisual material, a forerunner of the filmstrip. Due to their size and fragility, however, many have been lost. The Arizona Historical Foundation’s collection dates from 1880-1930 and documents Navajo, Hopi, and Apache reservation life, in addition to the area’s changing desert and mountain landscapes. This material is in high demand by archeologists, cartographers, hydrologists, conservationists, ethnologists, Native Americans, and historians seeking visual documentation for the history of the American southwest.
Postal History Foundation - Tucson, AZ
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $3,185
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Ms. Charlotte Cushman
Librarian
520-623-6652 ext. 107; ccushman.phf@mindspring.com
Project Title: "Environmental Improvement and Preservation of Postal History Collection"
The Postal History Foundation’s Slusser Memorial Philatelic Library will purchase equipment to monitor the humidity and temperature levels of its storage environment, ultraviolet filters for its lights, and archival enclosures. Focusing on the postal history of the western United States, the library’s holdings include more than 30,000 books, journals, stamp catalogs, maps, photos, vertical files, and official Post Office publications.
University of Arkansas System - Fayetteville, AR
Award Amount: $2,984; Matching Amount: $6,886
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Dr. Nancy McCartney
Curator of Zoology
479-575-3456; nmccartn@uark.edu
Project Title: "Preservation Project for Bird Eggs"
The University of Arkansas Museum in Fayetteville, AR will use grant funds to complete the re-housing of a collection of 1,578 bird eggs collected around the state between 1885 and 1933. Providing a unique historical record of the bird population before the era of DDT, this collection was the basis of the monograph, The Birds of Arkansas, the seminal work on local birds first published in 1924. The work will include moving the eggs from small, acidic trays into new archivally-safe trays and reorganizing the eggs taxonomically in new museum cabinets for better use in research.
City of Gilroy - Gilroy, CA
Award Amount: $2,256; Matching Amount: $502
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Mr. Tom Howard
Gilroy Museum Lead
408-846-0446; Gilroy.Museum@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Project Title: "Conservation Treatment of Portraits of Key Figures in the Creation of the 1910 Gilroy Free Public Library Building"
The Gilroy Museum in Gilroy, CA will use grant funds to conserve two portraits of individuals central to the creation of the 1910 Gilroy Free Public Library building, which now houses the Gilroy Museum. One portrait is a photograph circa 1900 of local philanthropist Carline Hoxett, which will need cleaning, repair of small tears in the surface, and archival framing. The second portrait is a lithograph of Andrew Carnegie taken from a portrait painted by F. Luis Mora. The surface will be cleaned, repaired, and archivally re-matted. Once restored, these portraits will be hung in the museum’s main gallery and will be the focus of a campaign to help the community understand the overall needs of the collection, and how preserving these artifacts will help preserve the stories of Gilroy.
Table Bluff Reservation Wiyot Tribe - Loleta, CA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $1,518
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Helene Rouvier
Cultural Director / THPO
707-733-5055; cultural@wiyot.us
Project Title: "Weaving Traditions: Caring for Basketry at the Wiyot Heritage Center"
The Wiyot Heritage Center in Loleta, CA will clean and archivally mount a collection of baskets, nets, and other woven regalia. Wiyot baskets are internationally recognized for their skill and artistry, and were used for both everyday functions and for ceremonial purposes. With very few baskets surviving the colonial encounter, the remaining collection is of utmost concern for preservation. The native and larger community will benefit from an accessible and secure basket display, bringing an appreciation of the skill, artistry, and living spirit of native baskets. The Center will also encourage tribal citizens to learn these same techniques with their personal or family baskets.
Southern California Asian American Studies Central - Los Angeles, CA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $26,268
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Mr. Jeff Liu
Associate Director
213-680-4462; jeff@vconline.org
Project Title: "Storage Improvement in the Asian American Studies Media Resource Library"
Southern California Asian American Studies Central’s Media Resource Library will use grant funds to help support the acquisition of archival-quality shelving to help protect the film and video documentation that the library has amassed over the last four decades. This shelving will provide a more stable home to the important films, videos, oral histories, home movies, educational films, and experimental shorts collected and specifically created to help tell the stories of Asian Pacific America. They include a wide range of interviews with farm workers, civil rights activists, and military leaders, as well as the works of pioneering artists and leading documentarians, in addition to those of proud mothers and fathers capturing family celebrations.
Museum of Ventura County - Ventura, CA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $0
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Mr. Charles Johnson
Librarian
805-794-0594; library@venturamuseum.org
Project Title: "Restoration of City and County Directories"
The Museum of Ventura County in Ventura, CA will use grant funds to restore and conserve 12 volumes of the city directory from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These commercially produced books are rare records of the people and businesses in the city over time, providing insight for staff and researchers on land use and community development patterns as well as genealogy of individuals living in Ventura. The books will be disbound, cleaned, and rebound so that they can continue to serve as an invaluable resource to their community.
City of Canon City - Canon City, CO
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $0
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Mr. Cliff Hight
Archivist/Curator
719-269-9036; cwhight@canoncity.org
Project Title: "Storage Improvement--Cleaning and Housing Books from the Historical Holy Cross Abbey"
The Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center, Cañon City, CO will use grant funds for the cleaning and archival housing of 200 books donated to the museum by the Holy Cross Abbey. From the 1920s through 2007, the Abbey was a monastery, a boy’s school, and a center of the community for European immigrants working in the mines of Fremont County. The book collection is wide ranging, with volumes dating from 1766 to 1988, covering topics including religion, science, geography, history, and anthropology. Notable works include a copy of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, and The Works of Washington Irving. Once conserved, the collection will be the focus of exhibits and community programming based on the content of the collection, as well as the importance of conservation.
Historical Society of Washington, D.C. - Washington, DC
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $34,727
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Yvonne Carignan
Preservation Department Head
202-383-1851; carignan@historydc.org
Project Title: "Preserving the Capital Photo Service Collection"
The Historical Society of Washington, DC will re-house, preserve, and make accessible 3,600 oversized photographs from the Capital Photo Service Collection, a collection of images from 1957-2000 of local businesses, organizations, schools, political and other groups in locally significant settings. Because not only groups but individuals in many of the photos have been identified by name, this collection provides a valuable visual record of the last half of the 20th century, reflecting the diversity of the local communities within the Nation’s Capital.
Stetson University - DeLand, FL
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $8,323
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Dr. Roberta Favis
Curator & Art Professor
386-822-7340; rfavis@stetson.edu
Project Title: "Conservation of Drawings on Paper by Oscar Bluemner"
The Stetson University’s Duncan Gallery of Art in DeLand, FL will use grant funds to conserve 28 drawings on paper by American Modernist Oscar Bluemner. The drawings offer insight into the artist’s process as he created drawings of a location prior to painting it. The collection includes full-scale black and white studies for some of his most important works. Due to the large scale, up to 22" x 30", many of the works were folded in thirds and have become very fragile. The drawings will be unfolded, smoothed, and repaired in preparation for the first-ever exhibit of these important works in a specially-designed gallery.
Vizcayans - Miami, FL
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $5,575
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Gina Wouters
Assistant Curator
305-860-8453; gina.wouters@vizcayamuseum.org
Project Title: "Conservation Treatment of 42 Works on Paper at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens"
The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, FL will use grant funds to treat 42 works of art on paper collected by the estate’s creator, James Deering, in the 1910s. Ranging from Japanese woodcuts to Art Nouveau lithographs, etchings, and watercolor prints, the works will be cleaned, treated for tears and stains, removed from their backings, and placed in archival storage boxes. The treatment and stabilization will allow museum staff and scholars to do much needed research on the works for future exhibits, both at the museum and digitally on the museum’s Web site.
Gulf Coast Heritage Association - Osprey, FL
Award Amount: $2,996; Matching Amount: $1,141
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Hope Kocian
Curator
941-966-5214 ext. 290; hope@historicspanishpoint.org
Project Title: "Conservation of 18th Century violin, bow, and case held in the permanent collections of Gulf Coast Heritage"
The Gulf Coast Heritage Association of Osprey, FL will use grant funds to conserve the violin, bow, and case once owned by Frank Guptill and his wife, Lizzie, pioneers in the settlement of Spanish Point. The conservation work will include repair and stabilization of the musical instrument and the creation of a specially designed exhibit case. This case will allow the violin to be reinstalled in the parlor as an integral part of the tours of this historic house museum, providing insight into daily life in this remote village in the early 20th century.
County of Seminole - Sanford, FL
Award Amount: $2,850; Matching Amount: $0
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Susan Nelson
Museum Coordinator
407-665-2489; snelson02@seminolecountyfl.gov
Project Title: "Conservation of the "Orange County Florida Map of 1890""
The Museum of Seminole County History in Sanford, FL will use grant funds to clean, repair, treat, and re-house a map of Orange County, Florida (the former name of Seminole County) created in 1890. This is the only original copy of this map known to exist; because the 1890 US Census was destroyed by fire, this is the only primary document that gives insight into the shape of the land and settlements of this area. Once this significant piece of local history has been treated, it will again be on display to allow visitors a glimpse of the agricultural way of life and rural families of central Florida.
Loyola University of Chicago - Chicago, IL
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $4,418
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Mr. Jonathan Canning
Martin D'Arcy Curator of Art
312-915-7600; jcanni3@luc.edu
Project Title: "Restoration and Conservation of Two 19th Century Russian Icons"
The Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago, IL will use grant funds to restore and conserve two 19th century Russian icons – Holy Trinity with Saints and Angels and Deesis with Saints Michael and George – that have fragile and unstable paint surfaces. These wood panels are painted with egg tempera and gold leaf and are examples of the Western Catholic influence on traditional Byzantine Orthodox imagery introduced in the court of Peter the Great. Once conserved, these works will be presented with panels describing the conservation process. Working with the large Russian immigrant community in Chicago, the museum will also host a series of public programs and web-based exhibits.
Elgin Area Historical Society - Elgin, IL
Award Amount: $2,930; Matching Amount: $4,100
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Elizabeth Marston
Director
847-742-4248; elginhistory@foxvalley.net
Project Title: "Image Collection Re-housing at the Elgin Historical Museum"
The Elgin Area Historical Society in Elgin, IL will complete the re-housing project for its entire image collection. This collection includes 130,000 photo negatives from the Elgin Courier News taken between 1935 and 1985, as well as 4,500 images from the Gylleck Collection (photos and negatives from the Adams Family Studio, a local photography business operating for two generations in the19th century). This repository of local history will be put into acid-free boxes and folders for long-term preservation, and the index will be made available for research on the museum’s Web site.
Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation and Trust - Oak Park, IL
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $325
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Tiffany Charles
Collections Manager/Registrar
708-725-3833; tcharles@GoWright.org
Project Title: "Conservation Treatment of 1908 Louis Sullivan-designed Capital and Post from Demolished Babson Residence"
The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust in Oak Park, IL will conserve two architectural fragments – a capital and its supporting post – from the Henry Babson Residence. The Babson House was a masterpiece designed by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s mentor. The fragments were salvaged from the ruins of the house when it was demolished in 1960. Once restored, these objects will be used in educational programming at the Frederick C. Robie house, a Wright-designed house museum in Chicago, to encourage the discussion of issues of long-term preservation of buildings and collections.
Studebaker National Museum - South Bend, IN
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $0
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Mr. Andrew Beckman
Archivist
574-235-9714 ext. 226; abeckman@studebakermuseum.org
Project Title: "Clement Studebaker portrait"
The Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, IN will use grant funds to repair and restore an oil portrait of Clement Studebaker, one of the founders and guiding forces behind the Studebaker Corporation, acting as president for over 35 years. Painted by John Wycliffe Lowes Forrester, a renowned early 20th century portrait and landscape artist, it illustrates Clement Studebaker’s standing in the company as well as the community. After the conservation has been completed, the painting will serve as a focal point of the permanent exhibit, which introduces visitors to the people and ideas that shaped their community.
Cedar County Historical Society - Tipton, IA
Award Amount: $2,750; Matching Amount: $0
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Sandra Harmel
Museum Coordinator
563-886-2899; cchsmus@iowatelecom.net
Project Title: "Cedar County Historical Society Glass Slide Negatives Preservation"
The Cedar County Historical Society in Tipton, IA will clean and conserve 492 glass slide negatives that date from 1885 to 1910. Images include pictures from the Spanish-American War and members of the county who served, as well as locally significant sites such as the Yule Barn, a stop on the Underground Railroad, and the South Bethel Church, one of the earliest churches built in the county. Once treated, the slides will be clean enough to make good quality digital images and be searchable on the museum Web site. Providing access to images of landmarks long since destroyed will give the community a glimpse at the people and places of their shared past.
Kansas State Historical Society - Topeka, KS
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $1,384
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Nikaela Zimmerman
Conservation Technician
785-272-8681 ext. 408; nzimmerman@kshs.org
Project Title: "Preserving Ball Gown Worn to Lincoln Inaugural"
The Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka, KS will use grant funds to conserve a rare silk gown worn to President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural ball. The dress was owned by Mrs. John Usher, the wife of President Lincoln’s Secretary of the Interior, who returned to Kansas after Lincoln’s assassination. The gown is a three-piece dress, consisting of a day bodice, jacket-style evening bodice, and skirt. The delicate fabric of the skirt has begun to split, and textile conservators will clean, repair, and stabilize each section of the dress allowing it to be exhibited to the community and in traveling exhibits as a whole garment, a tangible link to a great leader and to the troubled times of the Civil War.
Loyola University New Orleans - New Orleans, LA
Award Amount: $2,753; Matching Amount: $0
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Patricia Nugent
Special Collections Librarian Archivist
504-864-7092; panugent@loyno.edu
Project Title: "Monitoring and Improving the Environment in Special Collections and Archives"
Loyola University’s J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library will purchase six temperature and humidity monitors and associated software to help maintain a stable, preservation environment for its special collections and archives. This equipment will help protect the library’s significant holdings of Jesuit materials, which include the Archives of the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus. The library also has significant holdings related to environmental activism, public affairs, literature, and the arts, among them, the papers of author Robert Giroux, letters written by journalist H. L. Mencken, and a fine collection of fore-edged painted books.
City of Methuen - Methuen, MA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $245
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Ms. Alene Reich
Historic Planner
978-983-8564; areich@ci.methuen.ma.us
Project Title: "Frost Register Conservation"
The Methuen Historical Commission of Massachusetts will clean, stabilize, and rebind the 1893 "Methuen School Register," better known locally as the "Frost Register." This unique literary artifact is a 312-page volume filled with loose-leaf sheets used to keep attendance by Robert Frost’s mother, and it documents the famous poet’s own substitute teaching. Apparently, Frost left Dartmouth College after his first semester to help in his mother’s unruly classroom. As a result, this register is an important record of Frost’s early life. Digital copies of the volume will also be created and made available to the public.
City of New Bedford - New Bedford, MA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $2,928
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Ms. Janice Hodson
Curator of Art
508-979-1787; jhodson@sailsinc.org
Project Title: "Conservation Treatment of Audubon Birds of America Engravings"
The New Bedford Free Public Library will use grant funds to provide conservation treatment to 23 hand-colored engravings from an original edition of John James Audubon’s double-elephant folio The Birds of America, a seminal work in both American art history and scientific illustration. New Bedford Free Public Library received its copy, only one of 143 complete, original sets of Audubon illustrations still in existence, in 1866. It was the institution’s first significant gift. The treatment will help prepare materials for a collaborative library and museum exhibition of Audubon prints, which will open in summer 2010.
City of Somerville - Somerville, MA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $1,854
Grant Category: AHPG-Library
Contact: Ms. Nancy Milnor
Library Director
617-623-5000 ext. 2910; nmilnor@minlib.net
Project Title: "Preserving a Spanish-American War Diary"
The Somerville Public Library in Massachusetts will provide conservation treatment to the leather-bound pocket diary kept by Lieutenant Frederick Watson Pierce, a Somerville soldier who served during the Spanish-American War. Pierce’s diary covers the months leading up to the war, his military service stateside during the war, and his experiences in Cuba as part of the postwar occupation force. The diary is especially valuable as it records the day-to-day activities of a young officer surrounded by historic events.
Gore Place Society - Waltham, MA
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $800
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. Lana Lewis
781-894-2798; lanalewis@goreplace.org
Project Title: "Improving the Collections Environment in the Gore Place Library"
The Gore Place Society of Waltham, MA will use grant funds to install removable interior storm windows with UV filtering glass in the library of the 1806 mansion, which is furnished with furniture and artworks dating from 1660-1830. Collections include a miniature by John Trumbull and 179 rare books from the early 18th and 19th centuries. These windows will provide long-term conservation of the library collection by controlling the humidity changes and limiting the damaging effects of the sun’s rays on the fragile books and artworks in the room. These improvements will be shared with community members on tours, education programs, and concerts held in the museum.
Kingman Museum - Battle Creek, MI
Award Amount: $2,603; Matching Amount: $29,668
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Ms. M. Nelson
Collections Manager
269-965-5117; knelson@kingmanmuseum.org
Project Title: "Archives project"
The Kingman Museum in Battle Creek, MI will re-house 75 linear feet of archival material dating from the late 1800s to the present day in acid-free folders and boxes. The collections include documents on the founding of the museum, as the Battle Creek Public School Museum, in the early 1930s, as well as papers from two of the early leaders of the community, Edward M. Brigham and Edward M. Brigham, Jr. These papers contain memoirs and photographs documenting numerous expeditions around the world, which resulted in collections for the museum, and journals discussing their many scientific discoveries, such as the hoatzin, the four-footed bird of the Amazon basin. Once re-housed, the collections will be available for researchers and for exhibitions about this community treasure.
St. Joseph Museums - Saint Joseph, MO
Award Amount: $3,000; Matching Amount: $13,788
Grant Category: AHPG-Museum
Contact: Mrs. Nancy Hampton
Assistant Curator of Collections
815-232-8471; jacki