Chippewa Valley Museum Environmental Monitoring

FAIN: PG-50291-08

Chippewa Valley Museum, Inc. (Eau Claire, WI 54702-1204)
Susan M. McLeod (Project Director: May 2007 to December 2009)

The purchase of environmental monitoring equipment and ultraviolet light filters to protect a collection of documents, historic artifacts, agricultural tools and equipment, photographs, and ephemera documenting rural life in northwestern Wisconsin.

The Chippewa Valley Museum (CVM) is a regional history museum. We interpret a 9,200-square mile area in the northwestern corner of Wisconsin. CVM maintains 18,071 artifacts, 26,809 archival items and three historic structures. These collections lie at the heart of a lively humanities-based public program. We request $4,965 for equipment to monitor ultraviolet and visible light, temperature and humidity in three CVM structures. We would also purchase 45 glass filters to attach to gallery light fixtures that have been found to emit unacceptable levels of ultra-violet light. Our needs assessment is based on a general conservation survey and a recent review by Neil Cockerline, Midwest Art Conservation Center. The equipment will help us maintain the safest conditions possible now for CVM collections and provide data needed to plan further environmental improvements.