Rehousing the Small Objects in the General Museum Collection at the Virginia Historical Society

FAIN: PG-233658-16

Virginia Museum of History & Culture (Richmond, VA 23220-3307)
Rebecca Rose (Project Director: May 2015 to June 2017)

The rehousing of over 2,000 small objects such as arrows, pipes, beads, buttons, fabric, jewelry, medical tools, political pins, and commemorative medals that represent a broad cross-section of the history of the peoples of Virginia including Native American cultures, the colonial period, the two World Wars, and 9/11.

This grant will specifically support the preservation of more than 2,000 small objects in the general museum collection at the Virginia Historical Society which span the late 1700s to the early 2000s. A grant will enable us to rehouse, update record descriptions, and selectively digitize our small object collection. Our rehousing project will be carried out in one year (January 1 – December 31, 2016), and we will use archival storage materials and separate small objects that are stored currently in acidic housings with other, often dissimilar objects. The materials targeted form a small but significant part of the VHS's more than 8.5 million collections pieces that consist of items relating to every region, time period, and socio-economic group in Virginia history many also having significant importance to the nation's history. This project focuses on more than 2,000 small objects in the general museum collection, which includes a diverse and interdisciplinary assortment of objects.