Regional Preservation Field Service Program

Recipient: Turner, Colin D (Minneapolis, MN 55404 USA) in affiliation with Midwest Art Conservation Center

Goal: Funding supports the continuation and expansion of a regional preservation field service program with activities focused on training, mentoring, disaster assistance, and information and outreach services for museums, historical organizations, libraries, and archives in the Upper Midwest.

Description: The Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) requests continued funding to expand and improve its Regional Preservation Field Service Program. The primary goal of this program is to strengthen preservation practices and collections care at cultural repositories in the Midwest, resulting in increased public access to the treasures in this region. During the proposed NEH grant period (2010-2011), MACC???s Preservation Services program will improve preservation practices by: increasing training opportunities; conducting mentoring and preservation surveys; increasing the provision of technical information and services; expanding grant writing assistance to small organizations; working with other regional and national preservation, museum, library and archival organizations to increase and coordinate preservation education and services; and measuring direct outcomes at regional institutions.

Grant: 200047 / PE-50041-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Education and Training,   Year Awarded: 2010

Purchase of Storage Furniture and Preservation Supplies

Recipient: Welles, Anne (Chicago, IL 60659 USA) in affiliation with Chicago Film Archives

Goal: Funding supports the purchase of shelving and supplies to house 7,800 films in 40 collections that date from 1903 to 1990. The corpus includes documentaries, home movies, amateur films, and a variety of other genres, including educational, industrial, commercial, avant-garde, and travel films that especially document the Chicago region and the Midwest.

Description: Based on the recommendation of a 2007 collections and facility assessment supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance grant, CFA seeks funding for additional archival horizontal shelving and small gauge archival film cans/reels.

Grant: 199469 / PG-50725-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Improvement of Museum Shelving and Environmental Equipment

Recipient: Loguda-Summers, Debra (Kirksville, MO 63501-1497 USA) in affiliation with A.T. Still University of Health Sciences (Kirksville, MO 63501 USA)

Goal: The purchase of storage furniture and environmental monitoring equipment for a museum collection consisting of more than 30,000 objects, photographs, periodicals, and bound volumes dating from the early 19th century to the present related to the establishment of the university in 1892 and the history of osteopathic medicine.

Description: The Still National Osteopathic Museum-International Center for Osteopathic History, the primary repository for materials documenting the origins, growth, and practice of osteopathic medicine (1874-present), is seeking assistance to improve the preservation of its unique humanities collection. Grant funding will facilitate the purchase of high-grade artifact storage shelving units and a hygrothermograph needed for 3,000 square feet of newly acquired/renovated space that will significantly improve collection consolidation and storage, processing, and patron services.

Grant: 199535 / PG-50791-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Musical Instruments Preservation Project

Recipient: Leininger, Matt (Cincinnati, OH 45202-1557 USA) in affiliation with Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, OH 45202 USA)

Goal: Hiring a consultant to assess the museum's musical instrument collection and to recommend appropriate preservation treatment and storage. The musical instruments are used in research, education, and public programming to demonstrate the variety of musical traditions around the world.

Description: Without a curator or expert of musical instruments on staff at the Cincinnati Art Museum, a large majority of the 800+ instruments in the collection have never been thoroughly researched and have remained in storage. Some individual instruments have been identified as being of rare and exceptional quality, including a Japanese Samisen labeled with the name of an Imperial lute master and an Italian Serpent Horn identified by scholar Herbert Heyde. However, most of the musical instrument collection has been stored in less than ideal conditions and, as a result, is inaccessible and suffering from deterioration. To address this situation, we plan to implement a three-phase Musical Instruments Preservation Project starting in January 2010: Phase 1 - Curatorial Assessment; Phase 2 - Conservation Assessment; Phase 3 - Re-housing.

Grant: 199537 / PG-50793-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

CAP Recommended Lighting Study

Recipient: Madden, Jennifer Yunginger (Sandwich, MA 02563-2147 USA) in affiliation with Heritage Museums and Gardens

Goal: The hiring of a consultant to assess the impact of lighting conditions on the museum's collection of approximately 13,000 historic objects, including a carousel, antique automobiles, military miniatures, early firearms and tools, and various types of American art, such as bird carvings, ceramics, glass, baskets, lithographs, and paintings. The grant will also support the purchase of supplies to help control damage to the collection caused by both natural and artificial light.

Description: This Preservation Assistance Grant would support the preservation of Heritage Museums & Gardens' collections through a study of the museum's lighting conditions as recommended in the museum's recent Conservation Assessment Program report. Our assessor recommended that a lighting study be the museum's number one priority. This study will further the museum's efforts to care for its collections in the best manner possible.

Grant: 199547 / PG-50803-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Improving Shelving to House Glass and Ceramics Collections

Recipient: Routhier, Jessica Skwire (Saco, ME 04072 USA) in affiliation with Dyer Library Association

Goal: Funding supports the purchase of storage furniture to rehouse collections of 17th- to 20th-century glass and ceramics. The objects are from Europe and China as well as locally made and are used in scholarly research and educational and public programming on Maine folk art.

Description: Following recommendations made in the Saco Museum Conservation Assessment Reports (completed June 2008), the Saco Museum will replace unstable and deteriorating shelving in its room dedicated to glass and ceramics storage. The new shelving, designed and manufactured by Systematics, Inc., will be made of powder-coated metal and will be of a durability and quality appropriate for museum collections. Shelf height will be easily adjustable, allowing the museum to accommodate a variety of objects, and space within the room will be maximized in order to leave room for the movement and addition of collections. Reintegrating the collections objects into storage will allow museum staff to move forward with the ongoing goal of fully documenting the collection as a whole.

Grant: 199557 / PG-50813-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Disaster Preparedness and Recovery

Recipient: Choma, Julie M (Collegeville, PA 19426 USA) in affiliation with Ursinus College

Goal: Hiring a preservation consultant to conduct an assessment of collections and develop a disaster preparedness plan. The museum's art collections include 19th- and 20th-century American landscapes, portraits, genre paintings, and watercolors; works on paper; Pennsylvania German fraktur; and outdoor sculpture. They are used in public programming and in art and art history classes.

Description: Emergency Preparedness is a vital tool for all cultural institutions with permanent collection holdings. Disasters may occur at any time regardless of an institution's physical surroundings, and preparation is essential to recovering the cultural and historical collections such institutions are entrusted to protect. The Berman Museum of Art continues to maintain the permanent collection's integrity and longevity through preparation, preservation and stewardship. Scheduled to open in Fall, 2010, the Museum's new expansion will move an estimated 30% of the permanent collection from its current non-public storage area, to new public spaces and galleries. Museum staff will be faced with a substantially expanded facility, including several new permanent collection rooms, public areas and storage spaces. With a new and expanded facility, comes the additional need for a renewed vulnerability assessment and sequentially new Disaster Preparedness Plan.

Grant: 199565 / PG-50821-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Tudor Place Historic House and Garden's Ceramics Collection Conservation Assessment

Recipient: Buhler, Leslie (Washington, DC 20007 USA) in affiliation with Tudor Place Foundation, Inc.

Goal: Hiring two conservators to conduct a conservation assessment of the museum's ceramics collection of 1,372 individual objects. The collection dates from the early 18th century and includes objects from Europe and China, as well as the United States. The collections are displayed in the historic house museum and used in educational and public programming on the George Washington family, the American Revolution, and the history of Washington, D.C.

Description: Tudor Place Historic House and Garden seeks support for a conservation assessment of porcelain objects on view in the museum and in museum storage. An object-by-object survey of the objects in ceramic and porcelain will identify treatment priorities and make suggestions for the rehousing of objects. Conservator Catharine Valentour with conservator Jane Norman will complete the survey under the supervision of Collections Manager Fay Winkle. The survey will include object registration information provided by Tudor House; photography of each object; condition assessment of object; priority for conservation treatment; proposals for treatment; estimated treatment hours; storage recommendations; and environmental requirements.

Grant: 199602 / PG-50858-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Support and Training for Preservation of the German Texan Heritage Society Collections

Recipient: Taborsky, Pamela Sue (Austin, TX 787684171 USA) in affiliation with German Texan Heritage Society (Austin, TX 78701 USA)

Goal: A preservation assessment of a collection of more than 1,400 books and journals, as well as maps, newspapers, photographs, and historical objects related to the history of German immigration in Texas, along with preservation training for the staff of the historical society.

Description: The GTHS is asking the NEH to support a site survey/preservation management consultation by Amigos Library Services, Austin, Texas. The preservation site survey will address building evaluation and disaster planning needs; review the overall collections; evaluate procedures and policies that apply to preservation; and provide recommendations for improving storage and handling practices. The survey will result in a report that identifies short- and long-term priorities for preservation and will address training of GTHS personnel in preservation of collections of books and other materials.

Grant: 199619 / PG-50875-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Detailed Conservation Survey of Indian Miniature Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the La Salle University Art Museum

Recipient: Vendelin, Carmen (Philadelphia, PA 19141 USA) in affiliation with La Salle University

Goal: A conservation assessment of 133 Indian miniature paintings on paper dating from the 15th through 19th centuries. The assessment is the first step in preparing these paintings for exhibition and further study by scholars of Indian art, history, religion, calligraphy, and literature. In addition, they are of interest to music scholars, because the miniatures often reflect the musical modes or ragas of classical Indian music.

Description: La Salle University Art Museum seeks grant assistance to hire a professional art conservator to conduct a detailed conservation survey of our Indian miniature paintings as the next step before arranging conservation treatment for our most seriously compromised and threatened artworks. A July 2007 ReCAP provided a general survey of the Museum's environmental controls, exhibitions spaces, art work storage, and housing. As most of the recommendations made by the Conservator in the ReCAP report have been accomplished, this detailed assessment is the next step in the conservation process. One hundred thirty-three artworks have been identified as in need of evaluation and possible conservation treatment. This survey will specify the condition concerns and any proposed treatment for the artworks and will give the Museum Advisory Board and staff the information they need to prioritize the collection's conservation needs.

Grant: 199627 / PG-50883-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum Conservation Assessment of Drawings

Recipient: Wheaton, Marilyn Louise (University Center, MI 48710-0001 USA) in affiliation with Saginaw Valley State University

Goal: A conservation assessment of select drawings of Marshall M. Fredericks, one of the most prolific American sculptors of the 20th century. Fredericks accepted more than 500 commissions in a 70-year career, and his sculpture can be seen in outdoor settings across the country and abroad. The museum has identified 132 life-figure drawings that record Fredericks's creative and design process, of which 20 high-priority works will be examined in detail.

Description: This grant would support a conservation assessment of select drawings housed at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, providing detailed condition surveys and detailed treatment proposals to identify specific conservation needs and to achieve funding for conservation activities that will lead to eventual display of these artistically and historically important documents.

Grant: 199636 / PG-50892-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Purchase of Storage and Matting Supplies for Works on Paper

Recipient: Jones, Kathleen (Champaign, IL 61820 USA) in affiliation with University of Illinois, Urbana (Urbana, IL 61801 USA)

Goal: Funding supports the purchase of rehousing supplies to store approximately 500 works of art on paper. The collection includes drawings, prints, and photographs from around the world; they are regularly used in exhibits, educational programs, and research publications.

Description: Krannert Art Museum (KAM) is seeking assistance to support purchase of 25 solander boxes and 425 sheets of Rising board to further the progress of the project to properly house the collection of works on paper and optimize use of storage. A significant portion of the collection has been matted and stored properly in solander boxes. The remaining unmatted works on paper, roughly 500 items, are stored with interleaving sheets or paper folders in solander boxes and the drawers of the oversize flat file. There are not enough containers to optimally house the entire collection. This project will assist to preserve important collections for the future by maintaining the best environment for their safekeeping. It will reduce the risk of physical damage to the collection of works on paper due to crowded storage and lack of mats and appropriate housing. By adding 25 solander boxes and archival mounting for the remaining unmatted works on paper, KAM will improve its capacity to properly house this collection.

Grant: 199642 / PG-50898-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

National World War I Disaster Preparedness and Response.

Recipient: Raymond, Patrick (Kansas City, MO 64108 USA) in affiliation with Liberty Memorial Association

Goal: Funding supports the development of a disaster and emergency response plan for a museum whose holdings include a wide range of materials dealing with the First World War: more than 6,000 books and periodicals, 600 maps, 1,100 posters, 12,000 photographs, 6,000 feet of film footage, and more than 17,000 historical objects ranging from medals, insignia, and uniforms to a motorcycle and a tank.

Description: The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial is requesting a grant to help develop and implement an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for the site. The plan would recognize the potential for forseeable manmade and natural emergencies, outline ways to avoid or mitigate the impact of a disaster, as well as provide a strategy to deal with the aftermath. The plan will address issues relating to the collections, as well as for visitors and staff. The Museum began collecting artifacts since the early 1920s and has been preserving them ever since. The age of the historic structure, geographical location, national stature and patriotic symbolism of the National World War I Museum make the site vulnerable to many forseeable emergencies, both natural and manmade. The Museum has taken many precautions in the way it has preserved and protected the collections and an approved Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan is recognized as the logical next step.

Grant: 199668 / PG-50924-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Mexic-Arte Museum Preservation Project

Recipient: Herrera, Toni Nelson (Austin, TX 78701 USA) in affiliation with Mexic-Arte Museum

Goal: Funding supports the museum's first preservation assessment, which will include a site visit, report, and one day of staff training. Two flat files will also be purchased to accommodate the museum's growing print collection. Approximately 90 percent of the permanent collection consists of works on paper of 20th-century Mexican and Mexican-American art.

Description: Currently, plans are being developed by Mexic-Arte Museum for a new facility for the museum supported by a City of Austin $5 million Bond Program. However, important incremental plans must be made to immediately care for the museum's Permanent Collection, as well as preparation to relocate and preserve it during the renovation/construction phase of the new facility. Items in the Permanent Collection can be classified into six main categories: works on paper, paintings, textiles, photographs, popular art masks, and sculptures. The grant will provide funds for consultant fees for the Preservation Needs Assessment and Planning Report, and a One Day On-Site Consultancy with Senior Staff and a key volunteer on current preservation and care of the Permanent Collection. Additionally, the consultant will advise on how to handle the Permanent Collection going forward as the Museum plans for its transition to a new facility.

Grant: 199682 / PG-50938-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Implementing the Greater Southwest Historical Museum Disaster/Emergency Preparedness Plan

Recipient: Mravinec, Kristin (Ardmore, OK 73401 USA) in affiliation with Greater Southwest Historical Museum

Goal: A workshop on disaster training for museum staff who manage a collection of more than 15,000 historical artifacts and archival records pertaining to the history of south-central Oklahoma. Highlights of the collection include furniture, clothing, and other materials that belonged to a family of ranchers in the 1890s; more than 2,000 historic photographs; and artifacts related to the Great Fire of 1895 in Ardmore.

Description: The Greater Southwest Historical Museum proposes to hire a consultant for a two-day workshop on Disaster Training. For Day 1, the agenda would be an overview of the emergency planning and response process. For Day 2, GSHM will partner with the Oklahoma Museums Association for a hands-on workshop. The proposed program would concentrate on the salvage of damaged collections to minimize loss. Staff would then purchase disaster supplies to be used in the event of an emergency. The proposed project would take place from January 2010 to September 2010. The disaster workshop would provide Board and staff members with up-to-date information and skills for proper procedures in handling a disaster or emergency, as past disaster workshop in Oklahoma have been limited. It would allow them to adequately identify and assess risks appropriate to our region. Staff, volunteers, and other museum professionals more importantly would have the knowledge and experience to perform salvage operations.

Grant: 199707 / PG-50963-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Rehousing the Elkhart County Historical Society's Archives

Recipient: Hoffman, Nicholas James (Bristol, IN 46507 USA) in affiliation with Elkhart County Historical Society, Inc.

Goal: Funding supports the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment and storage cabinets for oversized collections as well as consultant expenses to ensure proper equipment use. The society's collections include sources of wide interest for local history, along with a unique collection of photographs of the Nuremberg Trials originally taken by an Elkhart County resident.

Description: The Elkhart County Historical Society, Inc. requests a 2010 NEH Preservation Assistance Grant for Small Museums to improve the preservation and storage of its archives. The request includes the purchase of a flat file storage cabinet, archival material for oversized paper-based items, environmental monitoring equipment, and a museum vacuum. This grant also requests consultation by Senior Director of Conservation at the Indiana Historical Society Ramona Duncan Huse to install the dataloggers, provide training on the vacuum, and teach construction of storage mounts. In June 2008, the organization broke ground on a 5,800 square foot building annex devoted to the storage and preservation of its collection. Simultaneously, the museum has revised its collection policies and training curriculum to ensure professional conservation principles are enacted. With support from the NEH, the ECHS will re-house its archives and provide a new era in the preservation of local history!

Grant: 199733 / PG-50989-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Equipment Upgrade Proposal

Recipient: Williams, Stephen (Dearborn, MI 48126-3519 USA) in affiliation with Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (Dearborn, MI 48120 USA)

Goal: The purchase of environmental monitoring equipment to help preserve a collection comprising approximately 5,000 items, including books, newspapers, archival materials, objects, and photographs related to Arab and Middle Eastern culture and civilization. The collection includes several cuneiform cylinder seals and a 15th-century astrolabe. However, most of the items date from 1880 to the present and document the history of Arab immigration to the United States.

Description: The Arab American National Museum (AANM), a project of ACCESS, kindly requests a Preservation Assistance grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant would support the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment, including 18 dataloggers and a flood alarm, to upgrade the monitoring system already in place and expand it to include collections storage areas, temporary galleries and library spaces not currently monitored. The grant would also support the purchase of a HEPA-filtered vacuum unit dedicated to collections care.

Grant: 199734 / PG-50990-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Blount County Preservation Assessment

Recipient: Glenn, Jackie (Maryville, TN 37803 USA) in affiliation with Blount County Government

Goal: A preservation assessment of the county's paper-based archival records, along with the purchase of preservation supplies and participation by the project director in online preservation workshops. The county archives, dating to the 18th century, include documentation on the encounter of Tennessee frontier settlers with American Indians as well as the involvement of area Quaker communities in the Underground Railroad.

Description: Blount County Archives preservation assistance grant will be used to provide a general preservation assessment and to evaluate current policies and procedures. The conservator from Lyrasis will assess possible risks to collections from building and environment-related problems, including emergency preparedness. The conservator will also review existing collections maintenance program and provide recommendations for improving storage and handling practices. Grant Administrator will review recommendations from Conservator and use the assessment as a planning guide for short-, medium-, and long-term preservation priorities in the context of our institution. Archivist will make changes as funds are available. Conservation supplies and equipment will be purchased upon recommendation from conservator. Archivist plans to use balance of grant for tuition for on-line preservation classes available from Lyrasis or other Conservation web-sites.

Grant: 199759 / PG-51015-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Preventive Conservation Measures for Historic Stained Glass Windows Collection

Recipient: Galbraith, Catherine (Portland, OR 97214 USA) in affiliation with Bosco-Milligan Foundation

Goal: Hiring a preservation consultant to design and construct shelving to house 236 historic stained glass windows. Materials for constructing the shelving will also be purchased. The windows were salvaged from 19th-century Portland area buildings that were demolished and are used in educational and public programming to demonstrate and study traditional building crafts, the art of local practitioners, and the architectural styles in Portland.

Description: This project will provide proactive preventive conservation measures for one of the most fragile and vulnerable areas of the organization's collections--the relocation and rehousing of 236 historic stained glass windows. This is one of the highest priority recommendations in our 2008 CAP (Conservation Assessment Program.) The project will conserve the windows from structural damage including bowing, and exposure to present off-site storage conditions of inadequate security, temperature variations, and unstable racking, and rehouse them at the environmentally safe and secure Architectural Heritage Center.

Grant: 199815 / PG-51071-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010

Preserving the Franktown and Kenton Caves Organic Archaeological Collections at the Museum of Anthropology

Recipient: Rohde, Brooke (Denver, CO 80208-0910 USA) in affiliation with University of Denver (Denver, CO 80208-0001 USA)

Goal: Hiring a preservation consultant to conduct a training workshop and to assist staff at the Museum of Anthropology in rehousing 670 rare and fragile organic archaeological objects from two cave sites in Colorado, dating 6000 BCE-CE 1000. Funding also supports the purchase of museum quality cabinetry to house these artifacts.

Description: The University of Denver Museum of Anthropology wishes to secure funding to rehouse 640 objects from the Franktown Cave and Kenton Caves organic archaeological collections by: 1) hiring an objects conservator to conduct a mount making workshop for graduate level Museum Studies students and supervise collections rehousing; 2) updating the objects' current storage system with a new metal museum quality cabinet; and 3) purchasing supplies for customized storage mounts.

Grant: 199623 / PG-50879-10,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation Assistance Grants,   Year Awarded: 2010