Tomaquag staff work to preserve a pair of mocassins from the museum’s collections. Photo courtesy of Tomaquag Museum.
Three NEH preservation grants helped the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum reorganize, relocate, and protect its collections from environmental threats. Improved collections management has made it possible for the rural museum to realize new opportunities—launching six new exhibitions in 2018 and building partnerships with the Providence Public Library, Rhode Island Humanities, and Rhode Island PBS. These successes have positioned Tomaquag to begin crafting a master plan for a new museum space informed by lessons in collections care learned through the grants.
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Tomaquag staff member works to inventory and rehouse items in the collections. Photo courtesy of Tomaquag Museum.
NEH grants enabled the Tomaquag Museum to bring in preservation experts who taught pest management, environmental monitoring skills, and best practices for preserving and storing fragile items to staff. When additional space opened up on the second floor of the historic building the museum occupies, the staff was able to move the collection to a superior environment upstairs and put their new knowledge into practice. They leveraged the detailed preservation plan created through the grant to secure additional funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Champlin Foundation, the Kimball Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development. These funds enabled Tomaquag to purchase recommended storage materials, install environmental monitoring equipment, and reorganize the entire collection. In the process, the museum uncovered valuable items that had fallen into obscurity. Now, storage boxes are labeled with photos that clearly illustrates their contents to maximize access.
Restoring a canoe from Tomaquag’s collections. Photo courtesy of Tomaquag Museum.
NEH grants paved the way for the museum’s recent successes and future plans: as Executive Director Lorén Spears explained, “We had no idea of the vastness of this particular collection. Collection management is important across the board—from education programs to research to exhibits to media projects.” A Rhode Island PBS Museum Treasures episode—which features Tomaquag staff explaining the importance of proper preservation as they carefully remove a traditional dress worn at a wedding before the Civil War—showcases the know-how acquired through the grants. And in response to all of this development, in 2016 Tomaquag was awarded the National Medal, the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ highest honor, in recognition of its exceptional contributions to the community.
