Sam Davis Memorial Association Environmental Monitoring Program

FAIN: PG-51902-13

Sam Davis Memorial Association (Smyrna, TN 37167-2744)
Anita Marie Teague (Project Director: May 2012 to September 2013)
Christina Runkel (Project Director: September 2013 to October 2014)

The purchase of dataloggers and training of staff in monitoring and analyzing environmental conditions in the historic Sam Davis home, where 3,500 historical objects are on exhibition and in storage. The home was lived in from 1847 until 1927 by three generations of the Davis family. Many of the items in the collection are original to the family or date to the 1860s. With collections of furniture, textiles, photographs, paintings, weaponry, farming equipment and machinery, and musical instruments, the museum tells the story of the Confederate Civil War Scout, Sam Davis (1842-1863), and family and farm life in the South.

The Sam Davis Memorial Association (SDMA) respectfully requests a Preservation Assistance Grant to establish an environmental monitoring program for the Sam Davis Home. The site is important as it tells the story of family life in the south before, during, and after the Civil War. Grant funds would support the first comprehensive environmental monitoring program for the historic house, designed by museum preservation environment experts, through purchase of data loggers and equipment, staff training, and preliminary review of the collected environmental data in preparation for in-depth planning for comprehensive environmental improvements. Grant funds will allow SDMA to purchase dataloggers; program and deploy equipment, and train SDMA staff. The conservator will open the monitoring data, prepare it for analysis, and archive the data. Concurrent with this project, funding will be sought for analysis of the collected data and planning for environmental improvements.