NEH and Sustaining Cultural Collections

Dumbarton House, National Society of the Colonial Dames of
America, recipient of an NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Grant
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"Explore the Human Endeavor": the tagline reminds us that The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is about understanding ourselves and becoming our best selves individually and collectively.

And it does this work from the trenches all the way up to full public engagement. You might not realize the range of its achievements:

• Support teachers learning to teach more effectively and broadly
• Saving energy in museums and historic sites
• Caring for and sharing material culture
• Understanding past events and actions
• Engaging newcomers and old-timers and everyone in between.

What we've learned and done in the past teaches us so much about our capabilities, and our capacity for continuous improvement. That includes the study of how we do what we do in the museum field. The Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections  (SCHC) work is a featured topic in two parts (Part 1 and Part II) at the National Endowment for the Humanities. There is a summary from the SCHC session at the American Alliance of Museums' annual conference in 2016.

In helping us care for and share collections that illustrate our culture, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports us all -- whatever our backgrounds. 

Purple Gloves, or Green Ones?

As I was finishing a sustainability audit with the staff at Dumbarton House (DC) I asked "...so is there anything that just bugs you? Maybe it's a green opportunity." 

Jerry Foust, collections manager, grabbed purple nitrile gloves from his pocket and said "yes, these! We throw so many away; can we recycle them?"

Well it took over a year and the help of the Sustainable Museums team to sort through the options, but we uncovered ways to reduce the negative environmental impact of those gloves you use for collections care.

Green doesn't trump mission, so collections care is the priority, but there are ways to green your gloves. With permission we adapted the familiar chart prepared by Claire S. Barker. It now includes reduce/reuse/recycle options for the types of glove you may consider for collections care -- and it discusses going glove-free.

We hope you'll use the guide to review your choices, and to redirect any used gloves to avoid the landfill.  If you use Nitrile, Latex, or rubber gloves, you can collect and ship your gloves for just $87 - and they'll be upcycled.  For little historic sites, no worries, it takes less than a square foot of space for the collection box.

You can even collect used gloves for area museums...each museum can take turns hosting the recycling box. Each of you will take a step toward Zero Waste!

The Sustainable Museums Team: Sarah Sutton, Lia O'Donnell, Denise Mix, John Mayer, and Elizabeth Greeno

IPI's Guide to Sustainable Preservation Practices: What Every Museum Should Buy Itself for the Holidays

If you're thinking about changing - or learning more about - climate control and energy savings in your collections spaces, then please get yourself IPI's Guide to Sustainable Preservation Practices.

This is a practical what-is and how-to manual that will demystify the discussion on collections climate standards and HVAC systems for your staff, your HVAC vendor, your board, or an MEP engineer unfamiliar with museums. And it's the background you need for your next grant proposal on collections spaces and HVAC systems.

Diagrams explain about how general types of mechanical systems are designed to work in buildings; how air supply is managed, and about "return air"; how humidification works; what data loggers do and how to choose the right location for your environmental monitors; how to document your mechanical system so that you know what you've got - something we all must do and never get to; and how to recognize all sorts of actors on your energy and climate situation: windows, lights, people, air movement, and sunshine.

Understanding how your building works and how that affects your collection could not be made any easier. Here is the Table of Contents:

Section 1: What You Need to Know
1. Basic Elements of the Environment and Their Effect on Material Decay
2. The Factors that Shape the Storage Environment

Section 2: What You Need to Do
3. Document the Current Storage Environment
4. Document Each Storage Facility's Mechanical System
5. Understand the Role of Dew Point
6. Analyze Collected Data

Section 3: Institute Sustainable Preservation Practices
7. Create and Environmental Management Team
8. Specific Activities of the Environmental Management Team
9. Investigate Opportunities for Energy Savings

Section 4: Additional Information
(a bibliography, worksheets, NEH grant opportunities, and IPI products)

I'm using it in my role as sustainability advisor on an NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections planning grant team at Dumbarton House in Washington, DC. It will be a boon to our work there.

So if you want the science behind the move to change the 70/50 T/RH guidelines; you don't understand Dew Point or humidity, really; or you are ready to bring your "collections care and facilities staff together to manage the environment to reach both preservation and energy savings goals", this is a gift to you from IPI and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Surely you have $25 (add shipping) left in your budget to do yourself, your collections, and the long-term sustainability of your institution a huge, huge favor!