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Vol. 30:2 ISSN 0160-8460 June 2002
Preserving Missouri's Past: the Missouri Historical Records Grant Program
by Kevin W. Edwards
One of the first students at the Missouri School for the Blind is shown working at a process learned at the school. Photograph courtesy of the Missouri School for the Blind.
The documents and photographs that capture Missouri's rich history are housed throughout the state in nearly 400 historical societies, archival institutions, and museums that are as diverse as the collections they maintain. Ensuring the continued preservation of Missouri's historical records is a task undertaken by the Missouri Historical Records Grant Program (MHRGP), which was created through a $300,000 legislative appropriation from the State of Missouri and a $300,000 matching grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The grant program awards financial assistance to help preserve and make accessible Missouri's historical records and to promote archival education and cooperation among records keepers.
The MHRPG is administered by the Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, on behalf of the Missouri Historical Records Advisory Board (MHRAB). The goals of the grant program are set forth in the Board's 1999 Strategic Plan, Old Documents to a New Past: A Plan for the Preservation and Access of Missouri's Historical Records. They are to help foster development of a statewide cooperative records community through leadership provided by the MHRAB; to expand the educational base of local repositories through cooperative strategies among the state's major archival institutions and professional organizations; to determine priorities for records preservation projects and increase preservation and conservation efforts; and to promote access and encourage use through basic records access in local repositories, with the goal of microfilm and database sharing among institutions.
The MHRGP is a 2 1/2-year project containing two grant cycles. In cycle one, MHRAB members reviewed 60 applications and subsequently awarded 35 grants. In cycle two, the board received 57 applications and awarded 39 grants. Each of the projects funded represents a unique and diverse element of Missouri's history.
Through Missouri's participation in a previous NHPRC survey, useful conclusions were drawn about the overall needs of historical records repositories in the state. In the survey, respondents identified their number-one priority as "preservation of collections."
One MHRGP subgrantee that typified this need is the Missouri School for the Blind (MSB) in St. Louis. The MSB has played an important role in the evolution of education of the blind, as well as in the improvement of the lives of the blind and visually impaired, since its inception in 1851.
The MSB project began when the school's staff set out to collect historical materials that would figure in the celebration of the MSB's 150th anniversary. Hundreds of historic photographs and documents had been stored improperly in cardboard boxes in the school's basement. These items describe the history of the school, the role that it has played in the education of the blind, and Missouri's attitudes towards and programs for people with disabilities.
The MSB received a grant for a consultant to evaluate its records, to make recommendations for their preservation and maintenance, and to create a disaster preparedness plan. The MSB also received funding for the preservation supplies needed to act on the consultant's recommendations. This grant from the MHRGP has enabled the school to preserve and make accessible its 150 years of history.
Another major priority of the MHRPG is to expand access to records. The Jackson County Historical Society in Independence has been actively acquiring historical documents since 1909 to preserve the county's heritage and to promote the study, appreciation, and interpretation of local and regional history as it interrelates with United States history.
The society's documents tell the stories of the daily lives of people who witnessed Independence flourish as the chief outfitting point and trail head for three major trails: the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, and the California Trail. They also trace the lives of those who suffered through fierce Civil War battles, who benefited (or not) from Tom Pendergast's political machine, and who cheered their neighbor Harry Truman when he became the 33rd President of the United States.
A probate document referring to a raid conducted by John Brown in Missouri in 1858. Photograph courtesy of the Bushwhacker Musem.
The society needed to undertake a comprehensive assessment of its holdings and to develop a formal long-range strategic plan and priority hierarchy. Through the MHRGP, the society was able to evaluate its needs and to address access and preservation issues. The subgrant awarded to the Jackson County Historical Society has given it the means to raise preservation and access quality to a level commensurate with the value and scope of its collections.
The results of the subgrants to the Missouri School for the Blind and the Jackson County Historical Society are the types of benefits that the MHRAB expected when the program was created. What could not have been foreseen is the way the grants have served as a springboard for other projects and activities.
While the MHRAB knew that Missouri's smaller institutions would benefit tremendously from the archival training workshops offered by the grant program, one of the subgrantees, the Vernon County Historical Society's Bushwhacker Museum in Nevada, Missouri, has taken the archival training that members received and created its own educational outreach program.
Members shared the information they had gained in the MHRGP's archival training workshops, creating local 2-day workshops of their own that were offered during the Christmas and spring breaks to the students of the Advanced History Classes at Nevada High School. These local workshops provided an opportunity for students to earn extra credit for the class as well as a chance to gain new insights into life in Vernon County during the 1800s.
The students also gained respect for public documents as primary source material. One such item was the original handwritten sworn testimony for the trial of John Brown and several of his associates after their raid into Vernon County in 1858, in the course of which one Missouri farmer was killed and 11 slaves stolen. The students also now have a better understanding of how involved, time-consuming, and expensive preservation and archival work can be.
In addition to the two local workshops, the Vernon County Board of Education has approved a new summer-school program for high school students that will give 1/2 unit of social science credit (one semester). Students enrolled in this class will work in the museum in a variety of capacities. They will learn local history so that they will be able to function as docents, and will also learn the process of accessioning, marking documents, and archiving museum materials. Furthermore, students will choose and research a local-history topic using the museum archives as primary source material. This will be done under the direction of a classroom instructor and the museum coordinator.
The purpose of the class is to introduce students to their local heritage and to provide opportunities for them to learn research skills, to come in contact with a variety of occupations, and to render a community service. This new learning experience was not an expected outcome of the subgrant; however, it is an excellent example of how something as necessary and fundamentally satisfying as documenting local history and heritage can lead to enlightening educational opportunities for students.
The MHRGP has also allowed subgrantees to build a foundation that they can use to procure further outside sources of funding and to network with other historical organizations. When the Still National Osteopathic Museum (SNOM) was acknowledged in the local newspaper for receiving a MHRGP grant, several museum patrons came forward and donated an additional $4,000 in cash.
The subgrant has also provided an opportunity for recognition of the museum's staff's valuable work and, institutionally, the museum has gained more credibility and support. Furthermore, the grant has made it possible for the museum to start mutual projects with the State Capitol Museum, the Missouri Women's Council, the Kansas City Methodist Historical Society, and the Boone County Historical Society.
Many other subgrantees have seen their projects lead to increased membership and donations, and to the ability to do additional work. The MHRGP provided the best, and in many cases the only opportunity for funding for the organizations that received subgrants. Because many of the organizations eligible for the MHRGP had no prior grant-writing experience, a major effort was undertaken to help them submit competitive applications. The grant administrator conducted pre-application workshops to discuss with participants how applications would be reviewed for completeness, conformity to requirements, soundness of budget, and relevancy to the objectives of the program.
One successful applicant wrote, "I think it is necessary to express my appreciation for all of the help you have given me in preparing the grant application for the Historical Society. Organizations such as ours obviously do not have the funds to hire a professional grant writer, so a grant administrator who is willing to answer questions becomes a very important element for us to even be able to put a proposal together." The MHRGP offers Missouri's historical repositories the best opportunity to preserve Missouri's past.
The Missouri School for the Blind, Jackson County Historical Society, the Vernon County Historical Society's Bushwhacker Museum, and the Still National Osteopathic Museum are just 4 of the 74 successful projects supported by the NHPRC regrant to the MHRAB. Each of these 74 projects has had a tremendous impact in preserving and making accessible historical records in Missouri. The ultimate goal of the MHRGP is to create a permanent program that will continue to assist local historical repositories in their efforts to preserve Missouri's past and to guarantee that there will be a documentary heritage for future generations of Missourians.
Kevin W. Edwards is the grant administrator of the Missouri Historical Records Grant Program.
