Preservation Assessment

FAIN: PG-253011-17

Muhlenberg County Public Libraries (Greenville, KY 42345-1539)
Amie Elizabeth Waltrip (Project Director: May 2016 to January 2018)

Hiring a team of consultants to complete a general preservation assessment of collections housed within Thistle Cottage, a historic home built in 1912 and operated by the Muhlenberg Public Library. The Cottage contains over 3,000 artifacts, including household furniture and décor, rare books, financial documents, and a large textile collection. These items document the local history of Greenville, Kentucky, with an emphasis on the coal mining industry and local music, and are used for interpretive school and community programs throughout the year. In addition to a general preservation assessment, the consultants will focus on the preservation needs of paper documents and textiles, which have been identified by staff as needing additional assessment.

Our historic 1912 home has been turned into a museum containing approximately 3,000 items. Amongother items, this collection includes large amounts of paper documents, books and textiles that we useto demonstrate our local and national heritage to visitors. These items, which date back to the 1840s,illustrate life in Muhlenberg County, Ky. and the surrounding area throughout the past 150 years. Manyof these items were victims of neglect before coming into our possession, but it is now our duty tomake sure they do not fall into further disrepair. To that end, with funding through the NationalEndowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant, we will be employing a pair ofconsultants to assess our property and the specific collection items mentioned above, which we havedeemed to be the most at risk. This assessment will enable us to better care for these vitally importantpieces of history.