Murray County Agriculture Equipment Inventory

In our application, the following timelines were proposed as goals for the project: January 1, 2019: begin project; April 1, 2019: First 250 items documented; July 1, 2019: First 500 items documented; October 1, 2019: First 750 items documented; December 31, 2019: Final product completed. The project did not begin until January 7. The first 250 items were documented by May 3. The first 500 items were documented by June 13. The first 750 items were documented by August 2. The final product was completed by November 13. The start date and first 250 items documented goal were not successfully met by our goal date due to the weather. The snow removal providers for the historical society tended to pile snow near the entrance of the Sierk building. At times, access to the building was impossible. The following goals were met and exceeded because the contractors felt the urgency and importance of the project?they made up for the setbacks of the first goals and got into a steady rhythm of inventorying which led to the successful completion of the work.

In terms of measurable outcomes, our short-term goal has been met by the completion of this project. From this project, we now have a complete understanding of what exactly we have in the Seirk Building and in the agricultural related collections of the Murray County Historical Society. This will aid us in performing better outreach programming and interpretation as well as incorporating more of these objects in temporary exhibits developed by the historical society. Future goals from this project will include inviting local school agricultural classes to tour and research the collection. We will also work to increase visitation to the building by 5% within three years. We plan to create a finding aid for the collection to help visitors to the Seirk Building who are looking to learn more about specific objects as well as aiding future staff/volunteers better find specific artifacts in the collection.