Missouri Botanical Garden Archives: Addressing Light Issues

FAIN: PG-271780-20

Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, MO 63110-3420)
Andrew Colligan (Project Director: January 2020 to December 2021)

The installation of ultraviolet light-filtering window film to protect over 3,000 linear feet of material in the botanical garden’s archives. This preservation measure was recommended in a 2014 assessment. Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest natural history institutions in the country. Its archives, which are consulted for internal and external exhibits and publications, document the history of the garden and also include related collections, such as the papers of Henry Shaw, a prominent local businessman who founded the botanical garden, and the papers of George Engelmann, which include correspondence with leading scientific thinkers of the nineteenth century and some of the earliest attempts to document the flora and fauna of the western frontier.

At MBG we are dedicated to preserving our archival materials and passing them on in good condition to future generations, and in furtherance of that goal we want to provide them with the best possible environmental conditions. Deficiencies in the current archives facility have begun to threaten the sustainability of the archive, in particular harmful UV sunlight that enters from unfiltered windows that make up one of the walls in the space. We seek funds to hire an outside vendor to treat these west facing windows of the archive with UV filter film to improve archival conditions and ensure the long term protection of the collections.