Collections Preservation Workshop
This workshop will be held at the Marion Public Library in Marion, Ind., on June 17, from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., and is instructed by Ramona Duncan-Huse, senior director of Conservation at the Indiana Historical Society.

The cost is $105 per person, $200 for two from the same organization or $295 for three.

Register by June 10.

Learn how to preserve your historical collections and avoid harm in the collection environment. Discussion will focus on current issues in preservation such as storage and collection environmental issues, undertaking preservation efforts, and exploring conservation techniques. Registration fee covers cost of tools, which participants will keep.

• Understand essential issues in preserving historical collections
• Recognize different types of material and how their preservation varies
• Learn how to humidify, surface clean and provide housings for paper materials
• Obtain answers to the most perplexing problems about institutional collections provided from individualized pre-workshop survey

Ramona Duncan-Huse has specialized in managing the preservation and treatments to the library’s rare collection of manuscripts, printed and photographic collections for 20 years. She holds a Certificate of Conservation from a program sponsored by the University of London and the Courtauld Institute.

For more information or to register call (317) 233-3110 or visit http://www.indianahistory.org/lhs/workshops.html.


Collections Management and Practices
This workshop is offered by AASLH and will be held on June 19-20 at the Johnson County Museums in Shawnee, Kan.

The cost is $250 for members and $300 for non-members.

Learn about your institution's responsibility toward its collections, the necessary policies and procedures and best practices. You'll become familiar with current issues and trends while you explore other topics including the role of collections in exhibition and interpretation, the basic steps of collections management from acquisition to disposal, professional standards and ethics, conservation on a shoe-string budget, as well as learning about the multitude of resources available for collections preservation.

For more information contact Bethany Hawkins, Program Associate, at (615) 320-3203 or hawkins@aaslh.org, or visit http://www.aaslh.org/workshop.htm.

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Please confim events specifics with sponsoring organization, especially if traveling any distance.

Senior Cords Night at Close of Exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County
The Senior Cords exhibit will close on Fri., June 6, and to celebrate the popular exhibit, the museum is hosting a Senior Cords Night on that date from 5-8 p.m.

This event will be open to the public in conjunction with First Fridays downtown activities.

The Carnegie Museum thanks everyone who loaned their Senior Cords, high school sweaters and jackets and other school items to the Carnegie Museum. All former Montgomery county high schools are represented in some way. The groups of school children touring the museum have been amazed to know that Alamo, Darlington, Ladoga, Linden, New Market, New Ross, Waveland and Waynetown each had their own high school before consolidation. The Senior Cords exhibit has been wonderful and received many positive comments.

For questions contact the museum at (765) 362-4618.

The Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County is located at 222 S. Washington St. in Crawfordsville.

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Grants Available from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Preservation and Access Education and Training Grants
These grants will fund the creation and presentation of courses or programs related to the care and management of collections for staff in cultural organizations.

Awards range from $50,000-$250,000 per year with a match depending on available funding or at applicant’s request.

Contact:
Preservation and Access Education and Training Grants
Division of Preservation and Access
Room 411
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20506

Preservation and Access: Humanities Collections and Resources
These grants are provided to create better access to important humanities collections including cataloging, conservation treatment, preservation reformatting and digitization.

Awards range from $50,000-$350,000 for a period of two years. Possibility of a one-to-one match.

Contact:
Grants to Preserve and Create Access to Humanities Collections
Division of Preservation and Access
Room 411
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20506

For more information on these funding opportunities call (202) 606-8570, e-mail preservation@neh.gov or visit http://www.neh.gov/.

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"Yank" Rachell Tribute Concert and CD Release
This event will take place on Sun., June 8, from 3-7:30 p.m. on the Canal Plaza at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center.

The cost is $12 day of show, $10 in advance (open Plaza seating/no reserved seats). Tickets may be purchased in advance from the IHS Welcome Center in person or by calling (317) 232-1882. If still available, tickets will also be sold at the gate.

Yank Rachell is a nationally well-known blues artist from Indiana who passed away a number of years ago. This concert, featuring performances by many well-known local and regional blues artists, is a tribute to his life, a benefit for his ill widow and the release of a new CD featuring his music performed by regional and national musicians.

Scheduled to appear are Andra Faye of the Uppity Blues Women, Handy Award winner Rich DelGrosso, Jim Richter, Gordon Bonham, Governor Davis, Karen & the beast, Wes Beam, Jason Brolin, Steve Brown, Mike Brown, Mike Butler, David Clawson, Tim Duffy, Dan Holmes, Mario Joven, Jim Lynch, Tim Messersmith, Jerome,Mills, Steve Robbins, Alan Straytner, Cara Wahlers and more.

Seating at tables will be available on the plaza on a first-come, first-served basis. A cash bar will be available (guests may not bring their own alcoholic beverages onto the Plaza). Limited food will be available, and guests may bring their own food with them.

The concert will be in the style of Concerts on the Canal, but single tickets will be sold rather than table reservations.

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LHS Seeking Examples of Reproduction and Image Use Policies
Local History Services (LHS) is seeking example Reproduction and Image Use Policies, especially those covering digital images. How much do you charge for a CD with images? What documentation or preventative measures do you take to ensure the digital image won’t be reproduced? 

LHS will include these policies in the Resource Files of the Lending Resource Center for local history organizations to consult.

Please e-mail your policy to Stacy Klingler, assistant director of LHS at sklingler@indianahistory.org.


Collections Survey for the American Academy of the History of Dentistry
The American Academy of the History of Dentistry is conducting a survey of all museums, libraries, special collections, archives and other similar organizations to identify, locate and learn more about dental history collections. 

The data will help us create an on-line database and directory to be published in the Journal of the History of Dentistry and the AAHD website.

The purpose of the survey and subsequent directory is to provide a guide for scholars and interested individuals wishing to study the history of dentistry, and to generate interest in this field and stimulate new research

Whether you represent a broad subject organization with a small quantity of historical dental collections or an institution that specializes in dentistry, we hope you will complete the 2-page survey form. It should only take about 20 minutes. We encourage participation from all including international organizations. You need not be an AAHD member institution to participate.

To complete the survey, please visit http://www.historyofdentistry.org/survey/.

If you have any technical issues related to the form please contact Zoe Piel at zoe@histden.org.

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Piecing Together an Era: An Exhibit of 19th-Century Quilts
This exhibit will be on display from June 4 through Sep. 13 at the Morris-Butler House  in Indianapolis.

During the summer of 2008, the interior of the Morris-Butler House will be adorned with beautiful 19th-century quilts of a wide variety of patterns, including Crazy quilts, an Indiana political quilt, Delectable Mountains, Wholecloth, Economy Patch, Windmill, Flying Geese, Log Cabin, Texas Star, Princess Feather, Drunkard's Path, Whig Rose, Tree of Life, Pieced Basket, Burgoyne Surrounded, Album quilts, Jacob's Ladder and a Hexagon quilt!

The exhibit will also feature a quilt which includes the ribbons hung from the Statehouse when Lincoln's funeral train stopped in Indianapolis. View all three floors of this beautiful 1865 landmark to experience the architecture, history, culture and society of 19th-century Indianapolis. From the formal parlor to the private rooms upstairs, you’ll see how a well-to-do family and their servants lived, while viewing dozens of handmade quilts.

The cost is included with normal tour fees. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for children and students, and free to members of Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana.

The Morris-Butler House is located at 1204 N. Park Ave. in Indianapolis. The house is open Wed.-Sat. from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

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The Faces of Lincoln: Developing the Image at the Princeton Public Library in Princeton
The Faces of Lincoln traveling exhibit is comprised of three independent parts, Developing the Image, Creating the Image and Idealizing the Image, each an exhibit unto itself.

This section of the exhibit takes a look at the history of photography using some of the best and most well-known images of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln’s was the first photograph of a president seen by most Americans. Before the mid-19th century, images of our presidents were created in portraits, etchings and political cartoons; these formats continued to be popular in Lincoln’s time. But recent technological breakthroughs in photography also made it possible to create a “real” image on glass or paper and copy it in large numbers. Although other presidents had been photographed, most of those images were made on daguerreotypes that were not reproducible.

The common appearance of Lincoln’s homely face, with his moles, wrinkles and unmanageable hair, and new technology that could easily copy his photographs for distribution made his image a popular one with Americans. The devastating national events of the Civil War during Lincoln’s presidency were also photographed. And, in the end, Lincoln’s assassination imprinted his image on the national memory.

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Ball State Filming Educational Movie about New Harmony Utopian Community
Ball State University (BSU) is filming an educational movie about a 19th-century utopian community that was located in New Harmony.

The funding for this movie is through the Ohio River Teaching American History Project given by the U.S. Department of Education. The grant will be administered by BSU.

The movie’s target audience is elementary students and the movie will be incorporated into their study of Indiana history, which is part of the 4th grade curriculum. One thousand copies will be distributed this fall to schools and libraries across Indiana.

The movie will be filmed in New Harmony and in other locations throughout the state. Exterior and interior shots of various historical buildings dating from the era will be filmed in New Harmony.

In addition, BSU students and Posey County community members will be serving as re-enactors in both Harmonist and Owen scenes. Interviews will also be conducted with scholars and descendents of Owen community members.

Robert Owen, an industrialist and social reformer of Welsh descent, purchased New Harmony in 1825 to establish a model community where education and social equality would flourish. Although Owen’s experiment dissolved in 1827, his utopian dream brought significant contributions to American scientific and educational theory, study and practice.

For more information about the movie or to arrange an interview, please contact Dr. Ron Morris at RVMorris@BSU.edu or (765) 285-8720. Dr. Morris is a history professor at Ball State University and will oversee the filming of the movie.

For more information on Historic New Harmony, please visit http://www.newharmony.org/.

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Field Representative Position with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota
The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (“Alliance”) is seeking a historic preservation professional for the position of Field Representative.

The Field Representative will be responsible for providing service-driven, direct technical support across the state of Minnesota to our stakeholders. The goal of this position is to empower local citizens to preserve their communities, thereby strengthening our stakeholder network and fostering a greater preservation ethic across the state.

The Field Representative position is made possible through a National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) challenge grant, entitled Partners in the Field, intended to expand field services across the nation. The Alliance secured $110,000 in funding from its own donors to provide the necessary one-to-one challenge match. Monies raised through the challenge provide funding for the Field Representative position for a period of three years.

This is considered a three-year, temporary position with the possibility of creating a permanent position based on available funding. The Field Representative is an employee of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, but will collaborate with and recognize funding of their position by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Field Representative will report directly to the Alliance Executive Director.

The Field Representative will be based in the Alliance’s St. Paul office but will frequently travel throughout the state of Minnesota to provide on-site field services.  This position is a full-time, salaried position with the expectation that the Field Representative will work 40 hours per week at a salary level of $40,000 per year. All Alliance employees receive a benefits package of paid time off (PTO), a monthly health insurance stipend and transportation/parking reimbursements. The Field Representative also receives a monthly cell phone stipend, mileage reimbursements and pre-paid travel arrangements.

Responsibilities:

• Provide guidance on a variety of subjects including, but not limited to, preservation techniques and approaches, fundraising, organizational development, capacity building, community relations and politics, community development, conservation issues, public relations and the availability of preservation resources.
• Represent and promote the Alliance, NTHP and their respective programs to communities throughout Minnesota and provide mission-driven services in and out of the field.
• Expand and foster the network of preservation stakeholders across the state of Minnesota who are willing and able to assist one another with preservation knowledge and experience.  Serve as their link through individualized communication, electronic communication tools and programs such as workshops, conferences and events.
• Participate in regular Alliance meetings, including providing direct staff support to the Advocacy Committee. Participate in monthly conference calls with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the Midwest Office (MWO) of NTHP to facilitate a proactive information exchange. Attend periodic staff meetings of the MWO, as well as regional and national meetings. Coordinate with local, state and national organizations and agencies to address preservation needs in the state.
• Develop an organizational Intervention Policy and Inquiry Log.  Maintain the Inquiry Log to track preservation activity, identify needed tools and address existing and emerging policy issues. Respond to stakeholder inquiries using the Intervention Policy.
• Identify potential program participants or candidates, including training and scholarship recipients, 10 Most Endangered and 11 Most Endangered properties, and Minnesota Preservation Award and NTHP Honor Award candidates.  Assist with program development and evaluation and provide regular reports to the Executive Director and Alliance committees for use in communications, and program and policy development.
• Work actively to build constituent and financial support for the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota by maintaining records of contacts made, photographs of projects and identifying and soliciting member and donor prospects.
• Work with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota staff to maintain a respectful, cooperative environment to facilitate achievement in individual responsibility areas and ensure efficient organizational operations.

Minimum Qualifications

• The ideal candidate will demonstrate excellent leadership, organizational, written and verbal communications skills, the ability to develop and foster strong working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and the ability to prioritize a large number of tasks and responsibilities.
• In addition to knowledge of historic preservation process and procedures, experience in any of the following areas will strengthen a candidacy: urban and regional planning, community development, real estate development, governmental relations, advocacy and community organizing, preservation, environmental, or land use law, communications, information technology and/or fundraising.
• The successful candidate must have a willingness to travel for up to 10 days at a time (overnight), a valid Minnesota driver’s license, and proof of insurance. General computer skills including familiarity with Microsoft Office programs are required. Familiarity with PC systems and knowledge of HTML code and blog software are desirable. To apply, you must have a minimum of an undergraduate degree in a related field with a degree in historic preservation preferred. A master’s degree in historic preservation or a related field is desirable.

Application Procedures

Interested applicants are asked to submit three (3) copies of a cover letter, resume, a list of references and a position-related writing sample to:

Bonnie McDonald, Executive Director
Preservation Alliance of Minnesota
219 Landmark Center
75 W. 5th St.
St. Paul, MN 55102

For questions call (651) 293-9047.

Applications can be e-mailed to bmcdonald@mnpreservation.org or faxed to (651) 293-9047. Please call before faxing.

There is no application deadline. This position will remain open until filled.

For more information visit http://www.mnpreservation.org/.

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Do you know someone who might want to receive Communique Online? Anyone may join the mailing list by e-mailing col@indianahistory.org.

If your historical organizations, genealogical society or museum has changed its address or phone number in the past six months, please send the updated information to Coordinator, Local History Services, at the above e-mail, or Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN 46202.