Indiana State Archives, General Preservation Assessment of Collections

FAIN: PG-52165-14

Indiana Commission on Public Records (Indianapolis, IN 46204-2744)
Elizabeth Hague (Project Director: May 2013 to September 2015)

A preservation assessment and purchase of environmental monitoring equipment to help preserve the state's archival records, comprising 65,000 cubic feet of material. They include the papers of governors, legislative reports, land deeds, military and legal case files, naturalization records, photographs, and more, documenting a wide array of Indiana's history and culture from its territorial period in the late 18th century to the present. Among the subjects covered extensively are Indiana's involvement in the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II; construction and operation of the Wabash and Erie Canal; mining, agriculture, and transportation industries in Indiana; and the state's health, welfare, and criminal justice systems.

An NEH Preservation Assistance Grant would support two activities: The first will be an overall assessment by a professional preservation consultant of the collections housed within the Indiana State Archives as well as the environmental conditions within the space used to store the collections. Their assessment would be used to formulate both a short-term preservation plan for care of the collections while in the current, temporary building as well as a long-term preservation plan that addresses the housing and storage needs of the collection in a new building. The assessment would be conducted by Alix Bentrud of LYRASIS. The second activity that the grant will support is the purchase of environmental monitoring data-loggers to update and expand the environmental monitoring program.