Storage Supplies for the Oral History Collection

FAIN: PG-51136-11

State Historical Society of Missouri (Columbia, MO 65201-7207)
Jeff Corrigan (Project Director: May 2010 to December 2012)

The purchase of archival storage equipment and environmental monitors to preserve the society's oral history audiovisual collections. These include 1,346 histories documenting politics, rural lifeways, and the environment and interviews with Americans who were prisoners during World War II.

This grant will complete implementation of the third and final phase of recommendations outlined in an assessment of audio/video collections held at The State Historical Society of Missouri and Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia. Specifically, grant funds will purchase archival storage units to re-house audio collections that remain stored in old wooden card catalogs; provide temperature and humidity data loggers and water detection alarms; and procure UV filter covers for the lights in the A/V storage area. These improvements were recommended by the Safe Sound Archive Company as part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant. Preservation of original audio/video material is important as it deteriorates and becomes obsolete more quickly than paper materials. The subjects interviewed in these oral histories are important first person historical accounts that contribute to the cultural record of Missouri's heritage.