Early Accounts of Rural Life on Long Island: A Preservation Assessment Project

FAIN: PG-51203-11

John Jermain Memorial Library (Sag Harbor, NY 11963-3043)
Jessica Ann Frankel (Project Director: May 2010 to October 2012)

A preservation assessment of the Library's History Room, the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment, and staff attendance at training workshops on best practices for preservation of library and archival materials. The collections document the history of eastern Long Island and contain items dating to the late 17th century, including handwritten diaries, manuscript sermons, temperance society minute books, maritime journals, maps, photographs, and the research library of an authority on Algonquian history and culture.

The collection, established in 1910 in the John Jermain Memorial Library, Sag Harbor, NY, represents a unique look at a region from the 1700s to present. It includes books, maps, photographs, pamphlets, personal diaries, whaling logs, and letters and is not duplicated in any other collection that is available to the public. The collection has always been housed in a room without an appropriate environment; as a result, a large part of the collection is in disrepair and in danger of being lost permanently. This project is the first effort to evaluate the extent of the collection's damage, establish requirements for restoration and set parameters for appropriate restoration and preservation techniques to be observed. The work needed is important in preserving valuable and unique material, essential to historians, researchers and genealogists, and preparing it for a new space. Preservation efforts are not and will not be covered by annual budget funds.