NEH Awards Hampshire Library Preservation Assistance Grant

It turns out that there was another reason to be thankful last week! The Harold F. Johnson Library received a preservation assistance grant to help the Library and Archives assess the environments within which several notable and irreplaceable collections are held. The following blurb about the grant can be found on the National Endowment for the Humanities’ website here.

“Project Title: General Preservation Assessment of the Hampshire College Library Archives
Project Description: A preservation assessment and the purchase of datalogging equipmentfor archival storage areas of the Hampshire College library. The college, founded in 1970, was an early leader in experimental interdisciplinary liberal arts education. Collections include 795 linear feet of archival papers, photographs, video- and audiotapes, 250 rare books, local and regional history books, artists’ books, a 500-print photograph collection, and various audiovisual and art materials. Notable items include the college’s founding documents, and the papers of past and present faculty members such as poet Andrew Salkey, photographer Elaine Mayes, activist and scholar Eqbal Ahmed, dancer Barbara Mettler, and filmmaker Abraham Ravett. Library holdings also include photographs and works on paper by Leonard Baskin, Man Ray, George Grosz, and Jerome Liebling, as well as a collection produced in part by documentarian Ken Burns, who graduated from Hampshire College in 1975.”

This grant funding will provide invaluable assistance in assessing and improving the storage conditions for these – and other – important parts of Hampshire College’s legacy.