El Paso Museum of History Collection Preservation

FAIN: PG-266748-19

City of El Paso (El Paso, TX 79901-1402)
Alicia Rascon (Project Director: January 2019 to September 2019)
Vladimir Von Tsurikov (Project Director: September 2019 to April 2025)

The purchase of environmental monitoring equipment recommended in a previous museum assessment, to include data loggers, a light meter, and hydrothermographs to assist in maintaining a stable environment for artifacts. The El Paso Museum of History focuses on the local region from the Spanish Colonial period, to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to contemporary borderlands culture. Highlights include Spanish Colonial objects, such as a trunk, a mission door, and an ox cart used on the Camino Real, as well as mid-century Route 66 ephemera.  The museum’s 16,000 artifacts reflect the history and culture of El Paso County, over 80 percent of which is composed of persons with Hispanic ethnicity. The museum has more than 65,000 visitors annually, including school groups, who experience an opportunity to broaden their understanding of the region’s long history as a crossroads in the largest continuous border metroplex in North America.

The NEH Preservation Assistance Grant will support the El Paso Museum of History's improvement in environmental monitoring system. The Museum's collection includes more than 16,000 artifacts and archival materials reflective of the local history and region of El Paso, Texas. The collection are an integral part of the mission of the Museum and play a critical role in the exhibitions and program development. Drawing upon recommendations from a MAP assessment, the Museum intends to improve its environmental monitoring program to gather proper temperature and relative humidity date for collections and exhibition areas. Currently the collection needs consist of updating our environmental controls and monitoring. With support from NEH, the Museum plans to implement technology needed to ensure climate control critical in maintaining stable environments for artifacts by acquiring dataloggers, a light meter as well as hygrothermographs.