Assessment and Planning to Improve Storage for the Willamette Heritage Center's Collections

FAIN: PG-51273-11

Willamette Heritage Center (Salem, OR 97301-6398)
Amy Vandegrift (Project Director: May 2010 to December 2012)

Work with a consultant to develop a plan for storage of the combined 31,000-item collection of two recently merged organizations, the Mission Mill Museum and the Marion County Historical Society. Archival and material culture collections document the history of Oregon's Willamette Valley from the Kalapuya, the valley's native inhabitants, to the Methodist missionaries and other early settlers and migrants, and its economic development, including the rise of textile and flouring mills as well as canning and timber industries.

The Willamette Heritage Center (WHC), formed on January 1, 2010 by the merger of Mission Mill Museum (MMM) and Marion County Historical Society (MCHS), seeks funding to hire a preservation consultant, Nicole Nathan of Claret Associates in Portland, Oregon, to develop a plan for reimagining and improving the storage of the Center's merged object collections. The consultant will assess our current object collection and storage spaces, help the staff plan the configuration of our four storage areas, and identify the exact number and types of shelving units, cabinets and supplies needed to rehouse the collection.