Today@Sam Article
Museum Receives Grant From Texas Historical Foundation
Oct. 24, 2024
SHSU Media Contact: Mikah Boyd
By Museum Staff
Earlier this fall, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library received a generous grant from the Texas Historical Foundation (THF).
Since 1954, the mission of the THF has been to preserve Texas history, which includes conserving artifacts, restoring buildings, archiving documents, gathering and sharing stories and safeguarding the Lone Star culture.
As part of the grant, the museum will photograph its collection of furnishing and textiles. Digitizing museum collections is not a new idea. For decades, best standards and practices for museums have endeavored to document furnishings, textiles, papers, art and other historical artifacts. This process serves as one of several factors in a preservation plan to monitor objects in its collection over time and capture intrinsic information.
The museum has been a collecting institution since the early 20th century, and a vast majority of the collection existed long before the digital age.
“What we run into now is that we have print photographs in our collection that are over 40 years old and are no longer sufficient to determine preservation needs,” said Mikey Sproat, curator of collections.
The THF grant allowed the museum to purchase new photography equipment with which museum staff can color-calibrate for every photo session, giving the museum updated, high-resolution digital photographs of its historical treasures for reference. This provides staff the information needed to make better judgments on exhibition mounts, display locations, storage needs, lighting environment and HVAC systems within a gallery space or within an exhibit in the historic houses.
The collections management policy for the museum requires a comprehensive inventory of objects every three years. Photographs will be taken during the inventory, and previous photos will be used for comparative analysis, leading to better condition reports and changes, if needed, to storage or exhibition environments. Staff will continue to improve the environmental conditions for textiles and furnishings beyond the project timeframe.
Another benefit of this project is that all digital files for the museum’s collection will be duplicated onto two external hard drives, stored in offsite locations. Should the museum server or individual file ever become at risk for corruption, or should a disaster happen at the museum, those backup files, and their underlying information, will remain safe.
“In addition to documentation, the overall goal for this project includes increasing access to the museum’s collection. After creating digital files of items, they will be uploaded to the museum’s online collections database and made available for the public to access,” Sproat said. “This project will improve the mission of the museum and align with the THF’s mission to preserve the museum’s collection, archive it through digital photography, safeguard the material culture of Sam Houston and, most importantly, make accessible to everyone the history of Houston and his experiences in 19th century Texas.”
Thanks to the support of the THF, this research material, potentially located hundreds of miles away from scholars, educators and students in Texas and beyond, will become accessible with a click of a button. Visit the following links to learn more about the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library’s collection database and digital archives.
The Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library is part of Sam Houston State University and is dedicated to preserving the memory of Sam Houston (1793-1863) and his times in a fifteen-acre complex located on the site of the property and home of Gen. Sam Houston.
For more information contact Michael C. “Mikey” Sproat, curator of collections at 936-294-4895 or email sproat@shsu.edu.
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