Purchase of Storage Furniture to Preserve Museum Collections

FAIN: PG-51650-12

Museum of Northern Arizona, Inc. (Flagstaff, AZ 86001-8348)
Kara Kelly (Project Director: May 2011 to October 2013)

The purchase of filing cabinets to rehouse archival records related to archaeology, ethnology, and fine art collections documenting native cultures of the Southwest over a period of 10,000 years. They include journals, letters, notebooks, sketchbooks, legal documents, cartographic records, photographic images in diverse formats, and audiovisual materials.

The purpose of this project is to rehouse the museum’s registration/object files by purchasing fire proof and impact resistant filing cabinets. The registration/object files contain photos and paper documentation such as donor correspondence, conservation reports, oral histories with donors or artists, newspaper articles, prize ribbons, artist profiles, board meeting minutes, staff memos and legal documentation of the museum’s collections, which include fine arts, ethnology, archaeology, botany, paleontology, entomology, and zoology. This documentation of an object’s history is communicated to the public through exhibits, publications, tours and can be utilized by researchers, often resulting in published articles. This is particularly significant with natural history and archaeology collections, where the registration/object files contains permits, field correspondence, and other documentation that is cited in published reports appearing in scholarly journals.