Collections Storage Optimization Project
FAIN: PG-266611-19
Museum of African American History (Boston, MA 02108-3710)
Chandra S. Harrington (Project Director: January 2019 to June 2022)
The purchase of shelving to house framed prints
and paintings in the museum’s collection, including five paintings by Allan
Rohan Crite, who was among a small number of African Americans employed by the
Federal Arts Project in the 1930s. The museum stewards four historic sites in
Boston and on Nantucket and welcomes around 30,000 visitors annually. Its collection
represents 400 years of African American history through items such as photographs
of African American Civil War soldiers, fine art, issues of The Liberator newspaper, personal effects
of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, and rare books.
As the next step in the Museum of African American History's plan to improve the care of our important collections, we will rehouse improperly stored objects (specifically framed paintings/prints) to optimize their preservation. To do so, we propose to purchase specialized shelving and necessary storage supplies with a Preservation Assistance Grant of $7,186 from the National Endowment for the Humanities.