American Numismatic Society Library Rare Book Preservation Assessment
FAIN: PG-51842-13
American Numismatic Society (New York, NY 10013-1917)
Elizabeth Hahn (Project Director: May 2012 to May 2014)
A preservation assessment of rare books on coins, currency, and medals dating from the 16th century and the purchase of supplies to rehouse books, manuscripts, periodicals, auction catalogs, photographs, and scrapbooks in the Society's collections. All of these materials support research in a range of fields beyond numismatics, including archaeology, history, art history, and economic history. Many of the auction catalogs, which date from the 18th century, contain plates and handwritten annotations that make the preservation of the physical item important. As the most significant research collection of its kind in the United States, it is used by researchers, collectors, students, and the public and supports graduate-level research in the Society's own Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics.
The American Numismatic Society Library houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections of numismatic literature and supports the general mission of the Society, which is dedicated to the study of coins, currency, medals, tokens and related objects from all cultures, past and present. The American Numismatic Society Library is seeking a Preservation Assistance grant in the amount of $6,000 to execute more short-term recommendations that resulted from a preservation assessment conducted in February 2009. The grant will support the purchase of preservation supplies to re-house a number of paper items in the permanent collection including replacing the acidic pamphlet boxes with buffered, acid free materials. The grant will also support a general assessment of the conditions and conservation needs of the items in the rare book room with particular attention to bindings.