Improve Environmental Storage for Collections
FAIN: PG-263583-19
McLean County Historical Society (Bloomington, IL 61701-3912)
Emma Meyer (Project Director: May 2018 to present)
The purchase of environmental monitoring
equipment to ensure the preservation of more than 20,000 historical objects,
15,000 books and periodicals, and 1,700 linear feet of correspondence,
photographs, manuscripts and other archival records. Through an active set of public
and educational programs, the museum draws on this extensive collection of
materials to document the history of McLean County and central Illinois from the
time of its first inhabitants up to the present.
McLean County Museum of History
requests support for the purchase and installation of digital data loggers to
improve environmental controls in the Museum’s collection, archival, and
exhibit spaces. The Museum occupies over 40,000 square feet with 5 core
exhibits, 3 interchangeable exhibits, a hands-on discovery gallery, over 20,000
objects, more than 15,000 research volumes, and 1,700 linear feet of archival
materials. Visitors will discover mourning badges worn during Abraham Lincoln’s
funeral, the desk where Lincoln wrote his autobiography introducing himself to
the nation as a presidential candidate, David Davis’s law office, and Merlin
Kennedy’s Santa suit from the 1966 Christmas parade where the NAACP float was
halted by police in an attempt to ban him from portraying a black Santa.
Completion of the project will allow staff to quickly respond to fluctuations
in temperature and humidity and provide better stewardship and preservation of
the collections.