Long Live the King of Instruments! Preserving and Providing Access to the Library & Archives of the Organ Historical Society

FAIN: PW-234668-16

Organ Historical Society (Villanova, PA 19085-1737)
Roy B. Petty (Project Director: July 2015 to November 2017)

A planning project to enhance preservation of and access to a collection of 14,000 books and periodicals and 1,200 linear feet of organizational archives, photographs, sound recordings, moving images, and other sources pertaining to the history of the pipe organ and its uses, primarily in the United States.

To guide and support the formative stages of collaborative initiatives to preserve and provide enhanced access to its preeminent repository of materials related to the pipe organ, the Organ Historical Society Library and Archives (OHSLA) requests $40,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (with $12,395.60 in contributed cost share from OHSLA) to support planning, assessment, and pilot activities that will leverage the expertise of a range of professionals with academic, cultural, technical, and curatorial credentials. The Organ Historical Society (OHS) celebrates, preserves, and studies the pipe organ in America in all its historic styles, through research, education, advocacy, and music; the OHS Library and Archives is the world's largest collection of books, periodicals, manuscripts, and ephemera related to the pipe organ.