Improving the Environmental Conditions of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation's Historic Collections

FAIN: PG-51861-13

Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, Inc. (Winter Garden, FL 34787)
Kay Cappleman (Project Director: May 2012 to March 2014)

The purchase of environmental equipment and storage supplies and training for museum staff to help preserve a collection of 7,100 photographs, 890 archaeological artifacts, and 203 audiovisual recordings documenting the history of West Orange County, Florida. The largest part of the collection consists of books and paper items: business directories, newspapers, scrapbooks, maps, posters, and architectural drawings, in addition to city records. Highlights include materials on the history of the citrus industry in Florida.

This grant will assist the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation in preserving its large collection of photographs, objects, audio and visual recordings, and print materials documenting the late 19th and 20th century history of West Orange County, Florida. WGHF operates the only museums and history research library in West Orange, an area with a population of over 500,000 that has changed significantly in the last 50 years. The collections are used in multiple ways to promote an understanding of the social, cultural, economic, and environmental transformations that have shaped the area once known as the world's largest citrus shipping point, and now a theme park mecca. The project activities will include (1) staff training in collections management and care; and (2) the purchase of environmental monitoring and collections cleaning equipment, archival storage containers and exhibit support materials.