An Environmental Monitoring Program for the Lynnhaven House Collection

FAIN: PG-51245-11

City of Virginia Beach (Virginia Beach, VA 23456-9120)
Anne Miller (Project Director: May 2010 to August 2013)

The purchase of equipment for environmental monitoring in historic Lynnhaven House, a circa 1725 brick plantation house with a collection of decorative arts and furnishings dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries.

The City of Virginia Beach Department of Museums proposes a project to purchase environmental monitoring equipment and establish a monitoring program at the historic Lynnhaven House. A preservation specialist and a conservator will advise the project. The conservator will train museum staff to use the equipment and will format and archive the data each month. Museum staff will use the data to plan improvements to the preservation environment for the collection at the Lynnhaven House, for example a new HVAC system. The term of the proposed project allows for ordering, calibrating and setting up the equipment; training museum staff; and collecting and formatting data on a monthly basis for one year. Museum staff will continue to collect environmental data regularly as part of routine collections care following the end of the proposed project term. Future funding will be sought for specialized data analysis.