The Knoxville Jewish Archives Preservation Assessment Project

FAIN: PG-258343-18

Knoxville Jewish Alliance, Inc. (Knoxville, TN 37919-5943)
Nicki Russler (Project Director: May 2017 to March 2021)

A preservation assessment, including emergency preparedness guidance, for the Barbara Winick Bernstein Archives of the Jewish Community of East Tennessee, comprising 138 linear ft. of archives and manuscripts pertaining to the history and culture of Jewish immigration to the region. Established in the early 1980s, the archives includes organizational records, synagogue newsletters, photographs,  sound recordings, scrapbooks, and other materials, some dating to the Civil War era and the advent of Jewish settlement in eastern Tennessee, as well as western counties of Virginia and North Carolina. Among the sources are minute books for Knoxville-area synagogues and other Jewish institutions that no longer exist, along with documentation on the Jewish community in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a Manhattan Project site during World War II.  The assessment would be conducted by a preservation professional, joined by a graduate student in public history and historic preservation.

The Barbara Winick Bernstein Archives of the Jewish Community of East Tennessee requests support to engage a preservation specialist to develop a general preservation assessment. This assessment will provide critical first steps needed to define a strategic plan, to be developed outside of this grant, to enable our organization’s unique holdings to have the greatest long-term impact for increasing awareness of the immigration, historical significance, contributions, and cultural heritage of the southern Jews in our tri-state area which includes Kentucky and Virginia. We propose a four-month grant for the Northeast Document Conservation Center to fund a site visit and disaster preparedness assessment in addition to a preservation assessment of our holdings. Results of this grant will inform a viable strategic plan that ultimately will facilitate the sustainability as well as the increased use of the Archives’ rare, exceptional, and irreplaceable cultural heritage materials.

Associated Products

Report of a Preservation Needs Assessment (Report)
Title: Report of a Preservation Needs Assessment
Author: Danielle Spalenka, Preservation Specialist for the Northeast Document Conservation Center
Abstract: Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) provided a detailed preservation needs assessment for the Knoxville Jewish Archives, based on a site visit, outlining strengths and weaknesses in areas of a) collection management and preservation planning, b) building and environment, c) collections storage and handling, and d) conservation, reformatting, and exhibition of the Archives’ holdings. The report provided information on best practices in these areas, and recommended actions to be taken to preserve this cultural heritage, broken into short-, medium- and long-term priorities. Appendices included an implementation matrix, resources for additional information and contact information for vendors, and a sample five-year preservation plan.
Date: 10/10/2018
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