Improving Environmental Conditions to Preserve New Hampshire Collections

FAIN: PF-50434-14

New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord, NH 03301-6316)
William H. Dunlap (Project Director: December 2013 to December 2016)

Improvements to the headquarters of the New Hampshire Historical Society to protect a significant collection documenting New Hampshire history from damaging environmental conditions, while reducing heat loss and energy consumption. Upgrades would include insulating the roof and skylights, protecting the collections from ultraviolet light, and replacing heating and mechanical systems.

The New Hampshire Historical Society proposes a rehabilitation of its National Registered-listed headquarters in Concord, the state capital. The Society's headquarters houses the single most comprehensive collection of the materials of New Hampshire history. Guided by the Secretary of the Interior's standards for Rehabilitation, the project will protect these nationally significant holdings against damaging internal environmental conditions and hazards; reduce heat loss, energy consumption, and the Society's carbon "footprint;" and protect the architectural character of the 1911 building. To accomplish these goals, the project will address current heat loss and gain through the building's roof and skylights, eliminate damaging ultraviolet radiation from natural light, and replace century-old heating and mechanical systems in order to safeguard collections, conserve energy, and maintain levels of temperature and relative humidity appropriate to an archive and museum.