Long-Term Storage Plan and Rehousing Project for Pacific Northwest Ship Plans
FAIN: PG-51370-11
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (Seattle, WA 98112)
Karen Marshall (Project Director: May 2010 to August 2014)
The hiring of a paper conservator to help staff create a long-term storage plan for a collection of 7,000 drawings illustrating the history of naval architecture and the maritime industry in the Pacific Northwest during the first half of the 20th century. Preservation supplies would be purchased, and the conservator would provide training to staff and volunteers involved in rehousing the collection, a major resource receiving hundreds of research requests annually.
7,000 ship plans owned by the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society represent the largest collection of plans of vessels designed and constructed in the Pacific Northwest. As the primary resource for the documentation of the boat building industry from 1900 to 1950, this collection of plans is used by researchers around the world. The storage conditions of the ship plans collection was identified in a 2008 Conservation Assessment Program Survey as one of the highest preservation priorities in need of much attention. The entire collection is housed in acidic cardboard boxes or acidic wood drawers in overcrowded conditions. Grant funds will be used to create a long-term storage plan with a paper conservator and the purchase of needed acid free supplies for the large task of rehousing the entire collection prior to relocating the collection in late 2011 or early 2012.