NEH Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions to Purchase Materials and Supplies for the Long-Term Care of Folklife Collections at McKissick Museum

FAIN: PG-280774-21

University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC 29208-0001)
Lana Ann Burgess (Project Director: January 2021 to October 2021)
Christian Cicimurri (Project Director: October 2021 to July 2023)
Lana Ann Burgess (Project Director: July 2023 to March 2024)

The purchase of materials and supplies for storing the McKissick Museum’s folklife collection, which includes objects such as an 1840s Whig Rose quilt, bed covers, household utensils, and furniture, as well as archival materials that describe the processes of creating them. As part of the project, a curator would receive training on how to clean and repair the 1840s Whig Rose quilt and other bed covers. In this project, artifacts, objects, and archives made from climate-sensitive or environmentally sensitive materials, such as grasses, pine needles, bark, wood, silk, and cotton, would be rehoused. The McKissick Museum has earned national recognition for its regional and material culture objects and archival materials that document folklife traditions from the Southeastern United States. The activities to be undertaken during this project period are based on the recommendations made in a 2020 Collections Assessment for Preservation assessment.

McKissick Museum is requesting funds to purchase materials and supplies to better steward what is referred to as the folklife collection, which is defined as objects of cultural production and supporting documentation of vernacular traditions. We are also requesting support to hire textile conservator Kathy Staples to train Curator of Collections Christian Cicimurri to clean and repair an 1840s Whig Rose quilt and other bed covers.