Preservation Assessment and Stewardship Planning

FAIN: PG-280844-21

Ferris State University (Big Rapids, MI 49307-2295)
Cyndi L. Tiedt (Project Director: January 2021 to January 2023)

A general preservation assessment at the Jim Crow Museum (JCM) and assistance drafting a long-term plan that would include recommendations for the care and sustainability of the museum’s collections when it transitions to a new facility in the next two to three years. The JCM holdings are the world’s largest and most robust collections of material culture objects representing the history, consequences, and current iterations of Jim Crow-era racism. The collection consists of more than 14,000 artifacts documenting the Jim Crow period from the 1870s to the 1960s. Several objects pre-date that period, with origins as early as the 1830s. The museum also collects contemporary objects depicting anti-Black caricatures, some made as recently as 2020. The museum has a wide humanities audience and serves K-12 and college and university classes around the nation that use its online resources in their course syllabi.

The Jim Crow Museum will hire a conservator to conduct a general preservation assessment of the Museum’s expanding collections and help draft a long-range plan including recommendations for the care and sustainability of the Jim Crow Museum’s collections when the Museum transitions to a new facility in 2-3 years. This project would assist the Museum in prioritizing efforts to prepare the collection for significantly expanded use. The effort supports improved and expanded educational programming for K-16 institutions and the public, as well as research opportunities that will be associated with the nations 250th anniversary and the themes outlined in the, “A More Perfect Union” Initiative.