[SEO-Members] Fifteen institutions awarded LSTA Conservation and Preservation Grants

Tue Oct 29 14:15:17 EDT 2024

The State Library of Ohio, in partnership with the Ohio Preservation Council, is pleased to announce the State Library of Ohio has awarded $68,386 in LSTA funds<https://library.ohio.gov/libraries/grants/additional-resources/overview> to fifteen Ohio libraries in Conservation and Preservation Grants<https://library.ohio.gov/libraries/grants/conservation-and-preservation-grant/conservation-preservation-grant> to support the conservation of historical objects in the libraries’ collections. The goal of the Conservation/Preservation Grant is to enable libraries to conserve a single item or preserve a small discrete group of items within their collections. Eligible Institutions could request up to $4,999 and primarily use the funds to contract a professional conservator or conservation lab to preserve the materials and ensure best practices in conservation.

"Libraries across the state are often a treasure trove of distinctive collections and artifacts, as this year's grantees can confirm," expressed Evan T. Struble, Associate State Librarian for Library Development. "I appreciate the representatives from the Ohio Preservation Council who collaborated closely with State Library staff to provide essential training for grant applicants before the application process, as well as their guidance during the review. I eagerly anticipate witnessing the completed conservation efforts next year.”

The fifteen institutions awarded the grant are: Baldwin Wallace University, Bowling Green State University, Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library, Cincinnati Museum Association, Cleveland Public Library, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Germantown Public Library, Greenville Public Library, Hudson Library and Historical Society, Kingsville Public Library, Milton-Union Public Library, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wright Memorial Public Library and Wright State University.

Baldwin Wallace University 
Baldwin Wallace University Library will preserve a collection of large format, panoramic photographs depicting the Baldwin Wallace campus and surrounding community of Berea as they existed in the early 20th century. This includes depictions of religious conferences, country scenes, cityscapes, military groups and processions, class photographs, and May Day festivities.

Bowling Green State University
The Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University selected their copy of Opere di Galileo Galilei .. / In questa nuoua editione insieme raccolte, e di varij trattati dell' istesso autore non piu stampati accresciute to conserve. The work dates to 1655-1656 and is a 2-volume set comprised of 19 parts. It is the first collected edition of Galileo’s works to appear after his death; in addition to containing Galileo’s ground-breaking (as well as heretical) scientific observations, the two volumes also include publications and letters by his supporters and detractors.

Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library
Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library’s plans to restore the painting Cinderella and Her Sisters by Joseph-Henri-François (aka Josef) Van Lerius (1823-1878). Van Lerius was a major figure in the Antwerp School of European painting during the middle decades of the nineteenth century and his works were often reproduced as etchings and lithographs. The particular painting, striking in its own right, has a clear connection to the library’s history, as it was donated to the recently built Carnegie library by library supporter and trustee Angus Lewis Fullerton, Jr.

Cincinnati Museum Association 
The Cincinnati Museum Association will conserve a scrapbook from the Elizabeth Nourse Papers, a special collection held by the Mary R. Schiff Library and Archives at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Elizabeth Nourse (1859-1938) was a prominent Cincinnati-born artist, and the scrapbook is a meticulous record of the latter years of her career from 1911-1932. It was part of a major gift to the Cincinnati Art Museum from the Mercantile Library in 2014, which also included sixteen of Nourse’s sketchbooks and other archival materials.

Cleveland Public Library
Cleveland Public Library will conserve Black Family of Man, an artwork consisting of four separate wooden sculptures, hand-carved by the late Cleveland artist, Alan T. Pucell (1935-2008). Each sculpture is a carved head, meant to represent different members of a family (a man, woman, boy and girl.). This piece was one of two commissioned for Cleveland Public Library’s Glenville branch by architect Thomas T. K. Zung in 1979. The artwork is displayed prominently in a side lobby of the branch and will be re-installed once the current renovation/construction of the Glenville branch is completed.

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Columbus Metropolitan Library will utilize the awarded funds to support their efforts to conserve building, transportation and land use maps and floor plans that document the changing landscape of Columbus, Ohio in the 20th century. These items document parcel level zoning, blighted buildings, and parking during a time of growth and change in Columbus. Included too in the project are the floor plans of the historic (and controversially demolished) Union Station in downtown Columbus.

Germantown Public Library
Germantown Public Library will conserve the German language Bible, Der Bibel: Die Ganze Heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments. This title was translated into German by Martin Luther and is dated 1719. Of local interest, this a family Bible belonging to the Philip Gunckel family from Germantown, Ohio. Family history has been recorded in the front text of the Bible with handwritten subscriptions. Additionally, the item includes a pasted portrait of Colonel George Irbin Gunckel, the original patron who donated the item to the library.

Greenville Public Library
Greenville Public Library will conserve a Parian ware bust of Thomas Carlyle created by Robinson and Leadbeater. Robinson and Leadbeater was a prominent Royal Ivory Porcelain and Parian ware manufacturer in England between 1865 and 1924. The bust, an early gift to the library, is believed to have been donated by the local philanthropists Henry and Ella St. Clair and represents the kinds of civic, artistic, and cultural enrichment that many early 20th century communities endeavored to promote.

Hudson Library and Historical Society
Highlighting a rich history of abolitionist sentiment and activism, the Hudson Library and Historical Society will conserve a black and white drawing of William Dawes, a prominent abolitionist who lived in Hudson, Ohio. In 1840 Dawes was a delegate to the first World Anti-Slavery Convention in England and was depicted in a famous painting of the event, which today hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. This drawing was part of the preparatory work of British painter Benjamin Robert Hayden, who sketched Dawes in preparation for his final painting.

Kingsville Public Library
Kingsville Public Library will restore the Junius R. Sloan painting, At the Bend of Conneaut Creek. Through its local connections (Sloan was born in Kingsville) and geography, this work and its provenance provide a unique perspective on the rich history of northeastern Ohio, the Western Reserve, education in early Ohio, and the artistic trends of the time period.

Milton-Union Public Library
Grant funds will preserve a collection of 47 letters written by Jesse Burket, a Union Soldier from Miami County, Ohio, to his girlfriend Sallie Weddle, a resident of West Milton, Ohio. These letters and envelopes were mailed from various troop locations during the Civil War between October 5, 1862, and August 16, 1865. Two additional letters are dated July 13, 1871, and September 26, 1871. Each letter has its accompanying envelope with postage, postmarks and return addresses. Taken together, this collection offers a unique perspective on a time period of American history that remains of interest.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) will use their grant funding to stabilize and preserve the Oxford Oil Seismic Data Collection. This collection was donated to the ODNR’s Ohio Geological Survey (OGS) in November 2022 and represents a wealth of seismic reflection data originally compiled by Oxford Oil Company of Zanesville, Ohio, during a 30-year period beginning in 1983. Unique in its scope, this commercially produced data is a valuable addition to the OGS collection and represents information that would have been prohibitively expensive to procure and manage otherwise.

Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University will conserve three titles (in four bound volumes) from the OWU Historical Collection. The OWU Historical Collection's purpose is to facilitate research related to the university's history by acquiring, preserving, and providing access to historically significant materials related to OWU. The items selected for preservation help tell the story of OWU’s history and include a class record book from the OWU School of Oratory, a Perkins Hall scrapbook, and A History of Zeta Tau Alpha 1898-1948 by Shirley Kreason Strout.

Wright Memorial Public Library
Wright Memorial Public Library will conserve and apply appropriate preservation methods to a volume of eight issues of the Oakwood Village Record, Oakwood’s first newspaper. This was a monthly periodical that ran from June 1912 until October 1913. These publications help shed light on life in Oakwood (as well as the greater Dayton area) during a time of great technological innovation (NCR, Delco Electronics, the Wright Brothers, etc.) and natural disaster (The Great Flood of 1913).

Wright State University
Wright State University Libraries plans to conserve three notable items from their extensive Wright Brothers Collections. These historic items include the 1912 diary of the Wright brothers’ father, Bishop Milton Wright, the U.S. Army Signal Corps Articles of Agreement and Specifications constituting the famous first contract for purchase of a U.S. Military Airplane, signed and dated 1908, and a photo album inscribed to Wilbur Wright by Monsieur Calllizo containing forty-five gelatin silver photographs.

The contract period for each awarded project is November 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025.
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Marsha McDevitt-Stredney
Director, Marketing & Communications
State Library of Ohio
274 E. 1st Avenue
Columbus, OH 43201
Tel: 614.644.6875
marshams at library.ohio.gov<mailto:marshams at library.ohio.gov>
library.ohio.gov<https://library.ohio.gov/>

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