Preserving the Collections of the Celia Thaxter Museum on Star Island

FAIN: PG-233623-16

Star Island Corporation (Portsmouth, NH 03801-4305)
Kyle Belmont (Project Director: May 2015 to February 2018)

Purchase of environmental and light monitoring equipment, as well as installation of light-blocking, UV-filtering blinds and a vapor barrier to reduce humidity. The Celia Thaxter Museum on Star Island was founded in 1960 to preserve archival materials, paintings, and artifacts associated with the history of the Isles of Shoals, to educate visitors through exhibits and interpretive programs, and to support scholarly research. The collections document 400 years of island life and include approximately 600 Native American artifacts; 7,000 photographs and items of ephemera, 19th-century furniture from the island’s Grand Appledore Hotel, and objects owned by and relating to the life of island inhabitant and poet Celia Thaxter.

The Celia Thaxter Museum's collections chronicle more than 400 years of life on the Isles of Shoals, off the New Hampshire coast. The Shoals represent moments fundamental to understanding our American history. Some of the museum's artifacts have distinctive artistic value of more than regional importance; the collections are a national treasure in their representation of American cultural life. A 2014 CAP grant identified top priorities for improving the preservation and management of the collections. This proposed project addresses four of the highest priority recommendations of the CAP assessors: 1) installation of blinds to lessen light exposure in exhibit space; 2) purchase of a foot candle meter; 3) purchase of HOBO software for our HOBO monitors; 4) installation of a vapor barrier to reduce humidity in collections areas. These activities, which will be undertaken in consultation with a conservator, will result in a greatly improved preservation environment for the collections.