Textile Rehousing Project of the Burma Art Collection

FAIN: PG-280851-21

Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL 60115-2828)
Catherine Raymond (Project Director: January 2021 to July 2024)
Carmin Berchiolly (Co Project Director: October 2022 to July 2024)

Improved collection care, practices, and rehousing of the textiles in the Burma Art Collection (BAC). The Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University curates and cares for the BAC. This collection, which comprises more than 3,000 exceptional and rare Burmese artifacts and more than 13,000 bibliographic items, is the only comprehensive Burmese Art collection in the United States. It focuses on objects collected by American families, diplomats, advisors, missionaries, and scholars who lived and worked in Burma (now Myanmar) beginning in the early twentieth century. This grant would provide funds for supply purchases and four visits from a textile preservation expert to provide guidance to the center’s staff.

This grant supports the purchase of archival materials to improve the current storage conditions of all the textiles from to the Burma Art Collection at Northern Illinois University. This unique collection is a repository that cares for the tangible legacy of American families, diplomats, advisors, missionaries, and scholars who lived and worked in Burma (now Myanmar) as early as a century ago. Our donors collected textiles primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries, and some represent cultures that have disappeared or are in the process of disappearing due to globalization. This grant provides the materials and training for staff and students to successfully complete the goal of properly storing and preserving the collection for future research, educational use, and exhibition within the humanities on the local campus and beyond.