Swarthmore College Special Collections Preservation Planning Project

FAIN: PF-50306-12

Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390)
Amy M. McColl (Project Director: December 2011 to October 2014)

A planning project to evaluate environmental conditions and climate control systems and to develop recommendations for sustainable preservation strategies for the college's special collections: the Friends Historical Library, the Peace Collection, and the McCabe Library Rare Book Room.

Swarthmore College requests an NEH planning grant of $32,000 to hire an outside consultant to assess the mechanical systems and recommend sustainable environmental practices for the long-term stewardship of its three most valuable, distinctive, and distinguished humanities collections: Friends Historical Library, the Peace Collection, and the McCabe Library Rare Book Room. The College will match the grant with an in-kind contribution in excess of $8,000. This grant would enable us to fully evaluate current environmental conditions by engaging an expert consultant with a proven track record in very similar projects, and gain recommendations on how we might best address the specific problems that are adversely affecting these unique and rare collections. The collections are used regularly by students and a wide variety of humanities scholars interested in Quakerism and the history of social reform movements in North America during the last two centuries.