Collections Inventory
To provide better organization of the museum collections, allowing for greater public access to the community?s historic resources.
$4,500,000 the first year and $6,500,000 the second year are for history programs and projects operated or conducted by or through local, county, regional, or other historical or cultural organizations or for activities to preserve significant historic and cultural resources. Funds are to be distributed through a competitive grant process. The Minnesota Historical Society must administer these funds using established grant mechanisms, with assistance from the advisory committee created under Laws 2009, chapter 172, article 4, section 2, subdivision 4, paragraph (b), item (ii).
Available upon request. grants@mnhs.org
The short term measurable impact of this was project was that PHS would complete an inventory of the estimated 1600 objects housed in the Plymouth History Museum. Progress would be indicated by the completion of a digital catalog of approximately 1600 objects using the database software, Collective Access. Each record would include the following information: accession or FIC number; object name using the database?s preset nomenclature; dimensions (height, width, and depth); location; condition rating (excellent, good, fair, unstable, poor) and notes; examiners and date of examination; and photographs.
Technically these targets were exceeded. PHS completed an inventory of 1979 objects and was able to record a description for each object. Over 275 accession records were created and 519 objects were linked to a donor and corresponding accession information. An attempt was made to scan photographs and documents to create an archival digital record of each versus a snapshot. This resulted in a much deeper digital catalog than was originally proposed.
However, it could be said that PHS missed its targets. The discovery of hundreds of previously unaccounted for garments, accessories, textiles, photographs, books, and documents (e.g., letters, assessor cards, maps, newspaper clippings) meant that the inventory of the Plymouth History Museum cannot be considered complete.
Available upon request, grants@mnhs.org