Preservation Assessment of the Explorers Club Research Collections

FAIN: PG-50025-07

Explorers Club, Inc. (New York, NY 10021-4988)
Clare Elise Flemming (Project Director: May 2006 to November 2008)
Dorthea Sartain (Project Director: November 2008 to December 2008)

A preservation assessment of the club's collections, which include manuscripts, film, photographs, books, and maps on exploration and travel in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the institution's records since 1904. Many of the archival materials relate to the history of Arctic exploration, including the Lady Franklyn Bay Expedition of 1881.

The Explorers Club Research Collections requests $5,000 from the NEH Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions to conduct a preservation assessment. The amount will be used to hire a consultant to evaluate the environmental conditions in the rooms where the collections are housed; develop a plan for stabilizing these conditions; guide the collection curators through the steps that will be necessary for improving the collections environment; and provide the Explorers Club directors with guidelines and projects for the allocation of funds within the Research Collections. The Explorers Club, an educational society dedicated to the history of past and celebration of current explorers, recognizes its critical obligation to preserve, conserve, and make available the important and unique records concerning the history of geographical exploration that comprise its research collections. With this goal clearly in sight, the PAG would be extremely beneficial to the Explorers Club.