observations11

Grant-in-aid financial assistance for historic preservation-related activity is no longer common, so it was nice to see a new resource appear several years ago.The Conservation Assessment Program, funded by the Institute for Museum Services and coordinated by Heritage Preservation (formerly the National Instutite for Conservation), provides "first-come, first-served" funding for small museums to obtain independent professional assessments of their collections and historic structures.

CAP grants are particularly valuable for small museums that otherwise would lack the financial resources to engage professional consultants. Assessors are knowledgeable, and are sympathetic to the problems of small (often volunteer-staffed) institutions, and frequently are able to suggest economical and low-key approaches to meeting conservation needs.

I have participated in the program as an historic-building assessor from its inception, visiting one or two institutions a year, and have been as impressed by the dedication and concern of the people who run them as I have been distressed by the enormous unmet needs of their buildings. I particularly enjoy the challenge of understanding a museum's situation and needs in a limited time, and putting that understanding into a form that will be of ongoing use to the institution.

CAP assessment reports typically outline both where the museum is in good shape and where it is not, and include priorities and recommendations for action. Although they are necessarily brief, they lay out the framework of actions needed to conserve the museum's collections and historic buildings, and can serve as the foundation for an ongoing program to improve the institution's stewardship of its holdings and render it more professional. Applications for each annual grant cycle typically are sent in October to museums that request them in advance.

A sample conservation assessment report (edited to preserve confidentiality) can be found on this website as Observations 21.

FUNDAMENTAL READING

As I visit house museums, often to conduct conservation assessments, I am continually amazed by what their dedicated and mostly unpaid staffs are able to accomplish with the most slender resources. At the same time, many of these institutions are hampered by their lack of knowledge of what is truly involved in operating a museum responsibly and professionally.

This situation is common everywhere: Most American house museums operate entirely with volunteer staff. Access to proper museum techniques to enable these museums to care responsibly for the buildings and objects entrusted to their care is often an unaffordably expensive luxury.

Historic House Museums, a practical handbook for their care, preservation & management, by Sherry Butcher-Younghans, approaches this problem by presenting in one concise volume a summary guide for the responsible management, operation, and care of a house museum.

Accurately subtitled "A practical handbook for their care, preservation & management," this book will not make experts out of novices, but its pages contain a gratifyingly comprehensive outline of the myriad concerns needing attention.

Seemingly everything is covered--trustee policy, how to handle and store textiles, restoration and reconstruction, protection against vermin, housekeeping, volunteer programs, food and drink, and so on and on!

Since Historic House Museums is relatively short (269 pages), this breadth results in less space being devoted to most topics than they deserve (but this book is a summary introduction, after all). Ms. Butcher-Younghans addresses the need for more comprehensive information by including an extensive bibliography, pointing the reader to further information without compromising the book's basic (and laudable) brevity and readability.

For museums that want to start making their operations more professional, Historic House Museums is a useful and relatively inexpensive introduction to its subject. Thanks to the rich, extensive bibliography and other references, it is also a good one-volume guide for museums that have already begun the process. It is neither the most detailed nor the most scholarly book of its type, but the combination of price, compactness, unintimidating style, and sound content makes it a "must have" for small house museums. The contents of Historic House Museums can help dedicated but untrained house-museum staffs bring increased insight and professionalism to their labor of love.

I had scarcely written my review of Historic House Museums when one of my readers called my attention to another publication on the same subject:

Guidelines for Museums, by Beatrice S. Utley and Charlene Perkins Cutler, is a compact (152 pages) and readable book, written as a summary of museum procedures and techniques for use by the National Society of Colonial Dames and its state chapters in managing their extensive nationwide collection of museum properties. Like most American house museums, the Society's properties depend overwhelmingly on volunteers for their operation.

Since it was written as an NSCDA handbook for internal use, the content of Guidelines for Museums relates specifically to the Society and its properties, but it contains so much generally useful material that it deserves circulation in the wider small-museum community.

Like the Butcher-Younghans book, it is organized by general topics--Governance & Accreditation, Museum Administration, Collections Management, Interpretation & Education, and The New Millennium. References for further reading and other resources follow each chapter. Included is a broad selection of sample documents--ranging from policy statements, to accessions and loan forms, to promotional material--gathered from the Society's museums around the country.

It would not be fair to compare the two books; they were written for two different (if overlapping) audiences and purposes. In the best of all possible worlds, a museum should have both-- Historic House Museums for its greater breadth and comprehensiveness, and Guidelines for Museums for its down-to-earth day-to-day practicality.

Historic House Museums, a practical handbook for their care, preservation & management, by Sherry Butcher-Younghans. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Guidelines for Museums, by Beatrice S. Utley and Charlene Perkins Cutler. Washington: The National Society of Colonial Dames of America 1994. The book is not available commercially, but copies may be obtainable through the National Museum Properties Committee, NSCDA, 2715 Que Street NW, Washington, DC 20007.

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