Stillwater Public Library Preservation Supplies Project
FAIN: PG-258427-18
Stillwater, City of (Stillwater, OK 74074-4449)
Stacy DeLano (Project Director: May 2017 to March 2021)
The purchase of preservation supplies for a collection
of 1,800 books and 3,200 scrapbooks, photographs, vertical files, maps,
pamphlets, booklets, and documents related to the history of Stillwater,
Oklahoma. Stillwater was the first
settlement in the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma, the focus of white settlement
during the late 19th century “Boomer Movement,” and an important
part of the 1889 Land Run; it is now the home of Oklahoma State University, the
state’s only land grant university and its second largest. Items include agricultural census records; recently
discovered records of the United Spanish War Veterans and the Women’s Auxiliary
to the United Spanish War Veterans; city directories and high school annuals; photographs
and correspondence from one of Stillwater’s “First Families”; and archives of a
number of local clubs. The collection is
used by genealogists, historians, and educators researching African American
history, flooding, World War II veterans, local churches and organizations, historic
murders, local businesses, and local history.
Special collection materials have also been used to provide the Iowa
Tribe with never-before-seen photos of tribe members and documents from 1850 to
1930.
The Stillwater Public Library
owns a collection of directories, annuals, local organizations' archives,
Stillwater, Payne County, and Oklahoma history material and other archived
items that help detail the Stillwater area and the hundreds of thousands of
residents and students who have passed through our community. After receiving an NEH grant in 2017, along
with a grant from the Oklahoma Historical Records Advisory Board, library staff
created a secure storage and workspace for the collection. The present grant
request would provide supplies, so that staff may now continue the work of
preserving specific, prioritized items. The project also includes the
development of processing procedures for the collection's archive items, which
will be followed by Special Collections and Technical Services staff.