Preservation Assessment of the Lake County Discovery Museum's Collections

FAIN: PG-51574-12

Lake County Forest Preserves District (Libertyville, IL 60048-5367)
Christine A. Pyle (Project Director: May 2011 to October 2012)

Consultation with a conservator to plan for the move of the Lake County Discovery Museum's collections into a recently purchased building. The holdings document the social, cultural, and economic history of Lake County, Illinois, and include 25,000 items of furniture and clothing, fine and decorative arts, and tools and machinery as well as a large archival collection of photographs, diaries, manuscripts, and maps. The museum also preserves the Curt Teich Archive, which contains more than two million postcards with images representing everyday life in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The Lake County Discovery Museum will hire a museum conservation consultant to assist in preparing a plan for relocating collections to a new facility. The collection contains objects and archival materials representing the cultural and environmental history of Lake County, Illinois, dating from prehistoric times to the present day, the history and significance of postcards world-wide from the 1880s to the present, and postcard printing technology from 1898 through 1978. The need for improved storage facilities was cited in a Conservation Assessment Program grant survey completed in 2008. The conservation consultant will provide recommendations and plans for appropriate and space-efficient storage areas, and advise on sustainable environmental conditions for the different types of collections.