July 2024 Awards in Preservation & Access
The Olga Iglesias Project received a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions award to conduct a preservation assessment of a collection documenting the life and career of soprano Olga Iglesias.
The Olga Iglesias Project received a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions award to conduct a preservation assessment of a collection documenting the life and career of soprano Olga Iglesias.
Congratulations to the seventy-eight institutions that received July 2024 NEH Preservation and Access awards! Ten awards were made for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections projects, two awards were made for Dynamic Language Infrastructure – Documenting Endangered Languages Senior Research Grants projects, nine awards were made for National Digital Newspaper Program projects, and fifty-seven awards were made for Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions projects.
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center will undertake the installation of environmentally friendly LED lighting in exhibition and collections storage spaces through a Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Implementation I award.
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center will undertake the installation of environmentally friendly LED lighting in exhibition and collections storage spaces through a Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Implementation I award.
SUSTAINING CULTURAL HERITAGE COLLECTIONS
Allen County Museum and Historical Society, Lima, OH – Award: $350,000
An Implementation II project to mitigate mold and moisture issues for a collection of 250,000 objects and archives documenting the northwest Ohio region from prehistory to the present by replacing and installing HVAC system components and establishing a comprehensive environmental-monitoring system.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH – Award: $350,000
The replacement of a 35-year-old HVAC system and associated ductwork and controls to improve the museum’s sustainable environment for its cultural anthropology, fine arts, and rare books collections.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI – Award: $349,534
The installation of new fire suppression and early warning detection systems in the museum’s galleries, department, and storage rooms of the prints, drawings, and photographs collection.
High Desert Museum, Bend, OR – Award: $49,885
A Planning project to develop a comprehensive sustainable preservation plan to address collections storage and climate control concerns using regenerative approaches as well as build resiliency against the threat of wildfires.
Huguenot Historical Society of New Paltz New York, Inc., New Paltz, NY – Award: $49,611
A feasibility study to convert a 1924 glass factory and former museum programming space into a dedicated collections and study storage center.
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM – Award: $99,283
An Implementation I project that would undertake the installation of enhanced, more environmentally friendly LED lighting in the exhibit gallery, collections storage, and preparatory spaces for a collection of 4,500 cultural items from southwest Tribes located in the New Mexico area.
New York Public Library, New York, NY –Award: $176,100
The development of a Research Libraries Collection Spaces Construction Design Standard to guide sustainable improvements to the research libraries of the New York Public Library.
San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego, CA – Award: $49,707
A Planning project to create a cultural resources housing and stewardship plan for a collection of ethnographic and cultural resources, archaeological field records, photographs, and archives.
University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA – Award: $350,000
The purchase and installation of storage shelving to rehouse collections for the University of the Pacific library’s Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives.
Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia, PA – Award: $350,000
An Implementation II project to install a new HVAC system with humidity control for the Library Wing of the Wagner Free Institute of Science, along with a direct digital control system for the site, altogether enhancing preservation of a collection of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century natural history, archival, and special collections.
DYNAMIC LANGUAGE INFRASTRUCTURE – DOCUMENTING ENDANGERED LANGUAGES SENIOR RESEARCH GRANTS
Trustees of Indiana University, Richmond, IN – Award: $449,877
The development of a community-based model for the documentation of Indigenous Ways of Communicating for Lakota and Navajo speakers.
Yale University, New Haven, CT – Award: $448,551
A project to catalog, curate, and provide online access to existing cultural and linguistic materials and to collect new recordings related to Umónhon (Omaha), a critically endangered language.
Front page of Dakota tawaxitku kin from May 1852, a Dakota-language newspaper published in Saint Paul, MN. The Minnesota Historical Society received a National Digital Newspaper Program award to digitize historical Minnesota newspapers with an emphasis on titles covering environmental issues and Indigenous and Latino communities.
NATIONAL DIGITAL NEWSPAPER PROGRAM
Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records, Phoenix, AZ – Award: $325,000
Digitization of 100,000 pages of Arizona newspapers published prior to 1963, with a focus on titles that ensures geographic coverage across the state’s 15 counties, while drawing attention to historical themes of environmental change, migration, and economic expansion.
Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE – Award: $304,870
Digitization of 100,000 pre-1963 pages of Nebraska newspapers with a focus on papers associated with the U.S. Indian Industrial School in Genoa, the Swedish immigrant community, and agriculture, as well as three African American newspapers.
Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA – Award: $235,692
Digitization of 100,000 pages of Virginia newspapers with a focus on African American and German-language newspapers, as well as a selection of nineteenth-century agricultural newspapers and weeklies published in Virginia’s Eastern Shore and southwest region.
Maine State Library, Augusta, ME – Award: $261,595
Digitization of 100,000 pages of historic Maine newspapers with a focus on environmental themes, labor, local industries, and French-language newspapers.
Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN – Award: $300,784
Digitization of 100,000 pages of historic Minnesota newspapers published between 1849 and 1963, with an emphasis on mid twentieth-century titles covering environmental issues and the state’s Indigenous and Latino communities.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI – Award: $324,494
Digitization of 100,000 pages of historic Wisconsin newspapers published between 1850 and 1963, with an emphasis on titles produced by and for immigrant and African American communities.
Trustees of Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH – Award: $324,997
Digitization of 100,000 pages of historic New Hampshire newspapers with a focus on early American newspapers, as well as newspapers produced in the White Mountains region of the state.
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL – Award: $324,887
Digitization of 100,000 pages of Alabama newspapers published between 1894 and 1963, with a focus on the state’s racial, geographic, and ideological diversity.
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC – Award: $320,863
Digitization of 100,000 pages of historic South Carolina newspapers with a focus on environmental history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the African American experience in South Carolina.
Images from the Women’s Studio Workshop Archives. A Preservation Assistance Grant was awarded to Women’s Studio Workshop for archives and special collections consultation, training, and preservation supplies.
Images from the Women’s Studio Workshop Archives. A Preservation Assistance Grant was awarded to Women’s Studio Workshop for archives and special collections consultation, training, and preservation supplies.
PRESERVATION ASSISTANCE GRANTS FOR SMALLER INSTITUTIONS
Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc., Anchorage, AK – Award: $10,000
Onsite, hands-on collections care and emergency planning training for Unax Tribal members stewarding the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association’s collections.
American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Central California Chapter, Fresno, CA – Award: $ 8,500
A preservation assessment and staff training, as well as the purchase of preservation supplies and environmental-monitoring equipment, for a collection documenting the history and culture of German emigrants from Russia and their descendants.
Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI – Award: $10,000
A preservation assessment to address temperature and relative humidity levels and mitigate mold outbreaks within original and reproduction Victorian-era koa wood cases in galleries exhibiting ethnology collections.
Bob Moog Foundation, Asheville, NC – Award: $9,948
The purchase of preservation supplies to rehouse a collection documenting the history of engineer and electronic music pioneer Bob Moog.
Charleston Library Society, Charleston, SC – Award: $10,000
A preservation assessment of the Charleston Library Society’s collections documenting the history of Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Chicago Film Archives, Chicago, IL – Award: $10,000
The development of a digital preservation plan to guide the stewardship of digitized and born-digital films, oral histories, interviews, and video art documenting the history of the Midwest and Midwest filmmaking.
Citizen's Motorcar Company, Dayton, OH – Award: $10,000
A preservation assessment, purchase of collections management software, staff training, and inventory of a collection documenting early automotive history.
City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL – Award: $10,000
The purchase of preservation supplies to store state and local history materials, which include books, periodicals, maps, atlases, historic records, and Spanish land grants.
Cobblestone Society, Albion, NY – Award: $10,000
A conservation assessment of 39 taxidermy bird display boxes created by David Bruce in 1883.
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO – Award: $9,935
The rehousing of 166 photographs recently gifted to the university’s Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, as well as a workshop on conservation-grade matting and mounting of photographs for the museum’s staff and student interns.
County of Franklin, Chambersburg, PA – Award: $5,858
A preservation assessment of approximately 630 cubic feet of historical court records dating from the 1830s to the early twentieth century.
CUNY Research Foundation, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY – Award: $10,000
The purchase of environmental-monitoring equipment and shelving, as well as the development of an environmental-monitoring program for the Haitian Studies Institute’s archives.
Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Dallas, TX – Award: $9,871
A preservation assessment of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum’s collections display and storage areas.
Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA – Award: $10,000
An on-site preservation assessment of rare book housing needs, as well as a half-day workshop on rare book housing best practices for staff at Elizabethtown College Library and other local cultural heritage organizations.
En Foco, Inc., Bronx, NY – Award: $10,000
A preservation assessment and staff training for a community arts archive documenting the history of migrant communities in New York City.
GLBT Historical Society, San Francisco, CA – Award: $10,000
The purchase and installation of preservation furniture for 1,500 rare or unique LGBTQ archival posters.
Good Will Home Association, Hinckley, ME – Award: $6,879
The purchase of furniture and rehousing supplies, consultation with a conservator, and staff training for collections documenting the history of childcare and the regional history of Maine.
Harriet U. Allyn Testamentary Trust, New London, CT – Award: $9,981
The purchase of storage furniture and preservation supplies to rehouse approximately 300 works of art on paper ranging from the sixteenth century to the present.
Henry Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, VT – Award: $10,000
The development of the museum’s collections management policies, procedures, and forms following recommendations from a 2023 collections assessment.
Heurich House Foundation, Washington, DC – Award: $10,000
A project to strengthen the museum’s disaster preparedness through policy revisions, staff emergency training, and the purchase of emergency supplies.
Horseless Carriage Foundation, Inc., La Mesa, CA – Award: $8,000
The purchase of storage shelving, emergency response and recovery supplies, and online training to improve the stewardship of materials related to automobile history.
Hula Preservation Society, Kaneohe, HI – Award: $9,993
The purchase of storage materials for the organizing, rehousing, and labeling of the Hula Preservation Society’s audio collections.
Kona Historical Society, Kealakekua, HI – Award: $10,000
The purchase of storage furniture and preservation supplies to rehouse collections documenting Hawaiian history.
La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA – Award: $10,000
The development of a preservation plan, staff training, and purchase of furniture and supplies to rehouse a collection of political posters from the United States and Latin America.
Lawrence University, Appleton, WI – Award: $6,362
The purchase of storage furniture and preservation supplies for the gallery’s historic Alice G. Teakwood Room.
Longwood University, Farmville, VA – Award: $10,000
A preservation assessment of a collection of 6,000 silent film orchestral music scores.
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA – Award: $10,000
A collection condition survey of archaeological objects, analysis of salt deposits on unbaked clay objects, and an environmental review of study galleries and storage areas.
Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS – Award: $9,697
A preservation assessment of the audiovisual materials in the Mississippi Political Collections unit documenting twentieth- and early twenty-first-century movements and political figures, as well as significant public works projects in the state.
Motown Historical Museum, Inc., Detroit, MI – Award: $10,000 outright
The development of a preservation environmental-monitoring program and purchase of preservation supplies for a collection documenting the history of Motown music.
Museum at Bethel Woods, Bethel, NY – Award: $9,847
The purchase of preservation supplies and rehousing a collection of 1960s and early '70s clothing and textiles.
Museum of Chinese in the Americas, New York, NY – Award: $10,000
The purchase of file cabinets to store oversized works on paper, including blueprints and calligraphy paintings from three of the museum’s collections.
National Comedy Center Operator, Inc., Jamestown, NY – Award: $10,000
The purchase of LED lighting and environmental-monitoring equipment, as well as related training to improve the storage conditions of the artifacts and archival materials of performers Lucille Ball (1911– 89) and Desi Arnaz (1917–86).
National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, Leadville, CO – Award: $9,997
The development of a collections care policy and environmental-monitoring program, as well as the purchase of environmental-monitoring equipment and supplies, for a collection documenting the mining industry in the United States.
New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Inc., New York, NY – Award: $9,568
A general preservation assessment of New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s collection of organizational documents, church records, transcribed records, genealogists’ research papers, and paintings dating from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century.
Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI – Award: $10,000 outright
The installation of 1,450 square feet of window tint film that would reduce light levels in the museum’s promenade wing and gallery spaces.
Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC – Award: $10,000
The purchase of storage furniture and supplies to rehouse and store fragile archival materials, as well as staff training in archival best practices.
Olga Iglesias Project, Inc., Weston, FL – Award: $7,000
A preservation assessment of a collection documenting the life and career of soprano Olga Iglesias (1929–2013).
Pearl S. Buck International, Inc., Perkasie, PA – Award: $8,840
A collections survey of selected books from Pearl S. Buck’s personal collection and archival scrapbooks from the Welcome House Adoption Agency to inform conservation needs and preservation priorities.
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA – Award: $9,333
A preservation assessment of the Matson Museum’s textile collection, followed by the packing and relocation of the collection to a new storage space.
Providence College, Providence, RI – Award: $9,968
A general preservation assessment of the Providence College Galleries’ collection of over 800 art objects, including works on paper, paintings, sculpture, decorative and industrial design, and new media, as well as training in disaster response planning.
Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary, Inc., Phoenix, AZ – Award: $8,785
The purchase of preservation supplies to rehouse a portion of the museum’s archaeological collection of 110,000 research specimens relating to the lower Salt River Valley.
Rhode Island Latino Arts, Providence, RI – Award: $10,000
A general preservation assessment, staff training, and purchase of preservation supplies for Nuestras Raíces (Our Roots), a collection of oral histories, documents, and artifacts at Rhode Island Latino Arts.
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI – Award: $8,794
A preservation assessment of a collection of time-based media art by artists such as Robert Smithson, Dara Birnbaum, and Patty Chang.
Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, Jamestown, NY – Award: $9,474
The purchase of archival canisters and identification tags for 487 rolls of film produced by conservationist Roger Tory Peterson during his global travels in the 1950s and ’60s.
Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, PA – Award: $9,739
The purchase of environmental-monitoring equipment and staff training for the Rosenbach Museum & Library’s extensive collection of rare books, manuscripts, and fine and decorative art.
Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA – Award: $10,000
A preservation assessment, purchase of environmental-monitoring equipment, and staff training for a global collection of 3,000 artworks.
Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, Darrington, WA – Award: $9,772
The purchase of storage furniture for housing Sauk-Suiattle Tribal records and collections materials.
Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT – Award: $10,000
The purchase of preservation supplies to rehouse 23 textiles and 99 works of three-dimensional art from the Southern Utah Museum of Art’s collection.
State Parks and Cultural Resources Wyoming, Cheyenne, WY – Award: $10,000
A conservation assessment and preventive cleaning and waxing of 27 outdoor sculptures in 13 locations across the state that are managed by the Wyoming State Museum.
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX – Award: $9,559
A preservation assessment of an archaeology collection housed in multiple repository spaces to address facility improvements, policies, and procedures.
Town of Norwich, Vermont, Norwich, VT – Award: $6,693
A preservation assessment, the purchase of environmental-monitoring equipment, and training for staff in preservation and collections care.
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM – Award: $10,000
The purchase of preservation supplies for approximately 925 baskets housed in the museum’s ethnology collection.
University of Texas, El Paso, TX – Award: $9,893
The purchase of environmental-monitoring equipment for the university’s Special Collections Department.
Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA – Award: $10,000
The purchase of equipment and hiring a consultant to expand the Valentine Museum’s environmental- monitoring program throughout the main museum building and two historic buildings.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN – Award: $9,688
A preservation assessment of the university’s Special Collections & University Archives physical collections.
William Paterson University of New Jersey, Wayne, NJ – Award: $9,998
The purchase of storage furniture to rehouse approximately 200 works on paper from the William Peterson University Galleries’ poster and print collection.
Women's Studio Workshop, Inc., Kingston, NY – Award: $10,000
Training, consultation, and the purchase of preservation supplies for the Women’s Studio Workshop archives and special collections.