Collections Conservation Assessment at Luther College Library

FAIN: PG-50822-10

Luther College (Decorah, IA 52101-1041)
Chad William Landsman (Project Director: May 2009 to December 2011)

A preservation assessment of one archival and four artifact collections housed in the college's Preus Library. They include 3,900 linear feet of archival materials (documents, photographs, and recorded sound); a fine and folk arts collection of 1,500 objects, including Norwegian-American art; and more than one million Native American ethnographic and archaeological artifacts.

The NEH Preservation Assistance Grant will support a comprehensive, conservation assessment survey of the Fine Arts, Archives, Ethnographic and Archaeological Collections stored in the basement of Preus Library on the campus of Luther College. This grant would allow us to bring a conservator from Midwest Art Conservation Center to assess the current state of our collections and their storage environment with the intent of providing us with a list of recommendations for stabilizing and preserving our collections. This assessment will then be used to develop a plan for addressing the most pressing needs of the collections and identifying resources for the purchase equipment or other future preservation activities.