Improving the Storage Conditions for the Collections

FAIN: PG-271802-20

Whaling Museum Society, Inc. (Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724-1438)
Elizabeth Marriott (Project Director: January 2020 to November 2024)

The purchase of shelving, preservation supplies, and environmental monitoring equipment, recommended from a recent assessment, that would help to preserve a collection of 6,000 objects documenting the nineteenth-century whaling industry and history of Cold Spring Harbor’s growth as a maritime port, one of the three whaling ports on Long Island. The collections include whaling weapons and tools, photographs, correspondence, journals, ship logs, crew lists, and navigational aids, all of which help to tell the story of whaling to an audience that includes researchers, teachers, students, and the public.

The Whaling Museum & Education Center seeks an NEH Preservation Grant to support the purchase of necessary preservation supplies and storage furniture to rehouse at-risk and overcrowded artifacts and archives in the museum’s collection. The goals of this conservation project were derived from recommendations in a 2017 Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) and will improve the museum’s preservation efforts.

Associated Products

Updated Locations in Collections Database (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Updated Locations in Collections Database
Author: Elizabeth Marriott
Abstract: As part of this rehousing project, the location of over 80% of the museum's archives and approximately 50% of the object collection were updated in the museum's collections management system, PastPerfect, to reflect the changes in storage prompted by the storage furniture and enclosures purchased for the grant.
Year: 2021

Newly expanded Finding Guides for Archival Collections (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Newly expanded Finding Guides for Archival Collections
Author: Elizabeth Marriott
Abstract: Rehousing the archives in new storage furniture and enclosures helped Elizabeth Marriott develop a more extensive knowledge of the archival holdings. While rehousing, she expanded and modernized the museum's typewritten finding guides for all 34 archival collections, adding updated locations, context, related collections, and converting the existing record-level inventory into computer-readable text. These finding guides will ultimately be available on the Whaling Museum's website and OCLC's ArchviesGrid.
Year: 2021

Storage cabinets for archives (Equipment)
Name: Storage cabinets for archives
Description: 6 powder-coated steel cabinets to house the Whaling Museum's 34 archival collections, and collection of logbooks, ledgers, and rare books.
Location: The Whaling Museum & Education Center
Year: 2021

Shelving units (Equipment)
Name: Shelving units
Description: 2 powder-coated steel shelving units to make space for the Whaling Museum's collection of small and medium sized nautical tools.
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Cubby Units (Equipment)
Name: Cubby Units
Description: 2 powder-coated steel cubby units for oversized and medium frames. The museum's existing moving racks were at capacity, and these frames were previously stored resting on the floor of collections storage. These frames are now housed safely on the cubbies with blue board interleaving.
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Data Loggers (Equipment)
Name: Data Loggers
Description: 2 new data loggers for collection storage. The existing units were 10 years old and were becoming unreliable.
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Rehousing for loose archival material (Equipment)
Name: Rehousing for loose archival material
Description: Preservation Supplies to rehouse loose archival material including: folders, interleaving sheets, boxes, blueboard, and eraser crumbs
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Rehousing Bound Objects (Equipment)
Name: Rehousing Bound Objects
Description: Rehousing supplies for bound objects: Blueboard, book trays, clamshell boxes, acid-free tissue paper, ethafoam blocks, and foam sheets (Created custom inserts for fragile books inside pre-made boxes)
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Rehousing Textiles (Equipment)
Name: Rehousing Textiles
Description: Rehousing Textiles: Tyvek cloth, unbleached muslin, acid-free tissue paper, blueboard sheets, boxes, ethafoam, and foam sheets (rehoused 19th century textiles with adequate support to minimize creases and in material that will not react to the textiles during long-term storage)
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Rehousing Postcards and Photographs (Equipment)
Name: Rehousing Postcards and Photographs
Description: Rehousing Postcards and Photographs: Photo-marking pencil, book weights, plastic sleeves of various sizes that have passed the Photographic Activity Test (these sleeves were added to existing solander binder-boxes and will allow researchers to view the collections while also reducing handling)
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

Rehousing Small Nautical Tools (Equipment)
Name: Rehousing Small Nautical Tools
Description: Rehousing Small Nautical Tools: Tyvek cloth, clamshell boxes, blueboard sheets, blueboard trays, ethafoam, foam sheets, acid-free tissue, poly-propylene pellets, and stockinette tubing (creating custom supports for 50% of the collection of small and medium tools)
Location: The Whaling Museum
Year: 2021

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