Society News - Fall 2007

LITTLETON HISTORICAL SOCIETY AWARDED GRANT
FROM NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

The Littleton Historical Society has been awarded a 2007 grant of $5,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The funds will be used to further the work of preserving materials in the collection and improving access to documents for use in research.

Grant funds will enable the Society to:

• Purchase additional shelves to make more efficient use of the storage area.
• Buy archival supplies.
• Hire an archivist as consultant.
• Sponsor a workshop in October on Preserving Old Scrapbooks given by an expert from Northeast Document Conservation Center.

In order to install new shelves on the second floor, items in the storage area will be temporarily moved to the first floor. The Society will select high school students, as part of their community service, to participate in the brigade that will hand the many boxes down the stairs, and shift the boxes back up the stairs to their permanent locations after the shelves are installed.

The Historical Society cooperated on two previous grants in 2003 and 2004 with the Reuben Hoar Library to survey and conduct preservation work with their collections, as well as those in the Town Offices and local churches. The Historical Society had also received a grant from the Massachusetts Historical Records Advisory Board (MHRAB) in 2005. The NEH Grant will further the work already begun in these earlier grants.