Preservation Assessment and Purchase of Monitoring Equipment and Storage Materials to Preserve Archival Collections

FAIN: PG-51758-12

Office of the Secretary, Office of Public Records (Washington, DC 20004-3003)
Clarence Davis (Project Director: May 2011 to November 2013)

The hiring of a consultant for a preservation assessment, along with the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment and preservation supplies, for the archival repository of the District of Columbia. Amounting to more than 10,000 linear feet, the materials document a wide array of functions and services of the District's government from the late 18th century to the present. Included are land ownership records, bills of sale for property transactions (including enslaved persons), certificates of slavery and of emancipation, minutes of boards of commissioners, and records of individual government officials. An extensive series of wills and probate files contains information on the estates of numerous American presidents, including George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe, and Woodrow Wilson.

The goals and activities of this proposal are to assess the collections in the District of Columbia Archives, as well as to make recommendations for a preservation and conservation project to protect these invaluable collections. These records are critically significant to the humanities because they document national and local history.