The Kennebec Historical Society has received a $5,000 grant from the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust to catalog the society’s growing collection, buy archival supplies and replace an aging computer. The society will use the grant to pay two interns who will address the backlog of donated materials and to purchase the protective archival boxes and folders necessary to properly preserve documents, photographs, scrapbooks, maps, manuscripts, books, and ephemera.
The Portland-based Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust was established in 1988 by Joan Morton Kelly and her mother, Mildred Duncan Morton, to facilitate their philanthropic activities, which include educational programs, cultural projects, historic preservation projects and environmental initiatives. The trust considers grants for public programming, capital expenses, and, in some circumstances, operating support, according to its website.
“I’m very pleased and excited that this grant will help assist KHS in preserving, cataloging, and digitizing the society’s collection of Kennebec County history,” said Patsy Crockett, president of the Kennebec Historical Society. She added, “Researchers will be more inclined to find what they are looking for if more items are cataloged.”
Each year, KHS accessions about 200 donations or purchases. An accession can contain from one to thousands of items. Many collections contain hundreds of items that have not been fully cataloged beyond a brief description. The grant provides funds to pay interns who will reduce or eliminate the backlog of donated materials, create more searchable items in the database, and therefore provide better results for researchers. A new computer will be purchased to supplement the society’s goal of replacing computers on a five-year cycle. Indirectly, the grant will allow KHS to continue to offer its free monthly historical programs and continue the production of its bi-monthly newsletter for members.
For more information, please contact Scott Wood, the society’s administrative director, at 622-7718.
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The Kennebec Historical Society has received a $5,000 grant from the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust to catalog the society’s growing collection, buy archival supplies and replace an aging computer. The society will use the grant to pay two interns who will address the backlog of donated materials and to purchase the protective archival boxes and folders necessary to properly preserve documents, photographs, scrapbooks, maps, manuscripts, books, and ephemera.
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