Preservation Training and Storage Improvement for Historic Florida Film Collection

FAIN: PG-52219-14

Henry Morrison Flagler Museum (Palm Beach, FL 33480-0969)
Tracy Kamerer (Project Director: May 2013 to March 2015)

Training workshops for the museum's archivist, along with the purchase of basic archival supplies and equipment, to help preserve the film-based collection. Located at Whitehall, a National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, the museum chronicles the life and career of Henry Morrison Flagler, founding partner of Standard Oil and builder of the Florida East Coast Railway. The film collection contains over 4,000 16mm reels, video, negatives, and transparencies, which cover aspects of Florida's history beginning in the 1920s, such as railway expansion, the development of Palm Beach and Key West, and tourism and recreation. The collection also documents major Florida historical events, such as the 1928 hurricane (the worst in state history), the establishment (and burning) of Flagler's major hotels, and provides early footage of Whitehall and the Flagler family.

This grant would support training and storage improvement for the Flagler Museum's film-based archival material. These materials are highly significant both regionally and nationally as they cover some of the most important Gilded Age figures, events, and architecture. The collection has been used in exhibitions, documentary films, museum publications, and "Newspapers-in-Education Tabloids" for Florida's students. The goals are to create safe and appropriate storage and to provide training on collections care, thereby continuing the process of preserving the Museum's fragile film stock and making it more accessible. The Archivist would attend workshops at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies. Additionally, the Museum would purchase the collections care supplies and equipment recommended by the Photograph Conservator who conducted the Assessment of Film-Based Materials in March 2013, a project supported by the previous NEH Preservation Assistance Grant.

Media Coverage

NEH-Funded Projects Completed (Media Coverage)
Publication: Inside Whitehall, The Magazine for Flagler Museum Members
Date: 7/1/2015
Abstract: Description and photos of two completed projects that were funded by NEH Preservation Assistance Grants.
URL: http://issuu.com/flaglermuseum/docs/summer_magazine_2015_final_for_web/1?e=5547314/13958356