| PG-266734-19 | Preservation and Access: Preservation Assistance Grants | Chester County Historical Society | Expansion and Improvement of Works of Art on Paper Storage | 9/1/2019 - 3/31/2021 | $8,615.00 | Ellen | | Endslow | | | | Chester County Historical Society | West Chester | PA | 19380-2658 | USA | 2019 | U.S. History | Preservation Assistance Grants | Preservation and Access | 8615 | 0 | 8615 | 0 | The purchase of storage furniture for artworks
held by the Chester County Historical Society
(CCHS). Materials range from high-style decorative arts to items of
everyday life and include 8,000 paper toys and dolls, 1,100 drawings, 650
prints, 315 silhouettes, and 281 watercolor paintings spanning the eighteenth to
twentieth centuries. These collections document life in one of the nation’s
earliest areas of settlement. They are used by scholars, local historians,
genealogists, attorneys, property researchers, reporters, local officials, and
students from the Cooperstown Museum Studies program, who regularly visit CCHS
for an introduction to collections care and museum work. Curatorial research
supports collections documentation and provides material for interpretive
exhibits, magazine and journal articles, and lectures.
Chester County Historical Society (CCHS) requests a Preservation Assistance Grant from NEH to purchase new storage furniture for framed works of art and works of art on paper in order to expand and improve their storage conditions, an institutional strategic priority. These additional shelves, flat file, and vertical storage units will improve storage conditions for over 10,000 artifacts that reflect local people and their lifestyles, belief systems, and communities. Both primitive and fine art document the changes over two hundred years in the ways that childhood, education, and recreation are perceived and enacted locally and within national trends. Local artists’ renderings of the natural and built landscapes of Chester County add a significant visual layer to interpreting not only modes of expression but the ideas of what was and is important in the community. The project will make these objects more accessible and identify areas lacking in representation for future collecting. |