Collections Preservation and Space Management

FAIN: PG-252787-17

Oberlin Heritage Center (Oberlin, OH 44074-1523)
Maren Ann McKee (Project Director: May 2016 to June 2018)

The purchase of shelving units, construction materials to store hanging pictures, and preservation supplies for rehousing textiles and other artifacts stored and exhibited in four historic buildings—the Monroe House (1866), the Jewett House (1884), the Little Red Schoolhouse (1836), and a barn (c.1840).  Featured in tours for the public and school groups, the buildings and collections are used to tell the history of the town of Oberlin and the founding of the first co-educational college in the nation (1833), the first African American students who attended the college, global missionary work, and the Progressive Era.  Recommended in a preservation assessment, these supplies would improve the storage of collection items, such as quilts, historic costumes, paintings, and photographs, to ensure their continued use in public programs.

The Oberlin Heritage Center, a complex of historic buildings accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is seeking funds to purchase collections storage furniture and preservation supplies to outfit a storage room. A RECAP, conducted by Shelley Reisman Paine in 2012, recognized that OHC is running out of room to store collections materials. OHC has implemented several of her recommendations regarding collections care, including increasing the Collection Manager's time from 20 hours to 30 hours per week, improving environmental monitoring and implementing an Integrated Pest Management program.  We would now like to address critical space concerns by creating additional storage space in an underutilized room in the climate controlled Jewett House. This will relieve the pressure on current storage facilities, improve the storage conditions for our textile collection and stable framed art and photographs, and prepare for the future collecting activities of the organization.