Connecticut

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum has received a grant in the amount of $1,000 from The M&T Bank Charitable Foundation in support of the Museum's Great Gatsby Tea. Proceeds from the Tea will benefit the Museum's educational and cultural programs. The M&T Charitable Foundation strives to strengthen our communities by providing support for a diverse range of civic, cultural, health and human service organizations through grants, employee volunteerism and in-kind services.

The Eric Sloane Museum is currently undergoing extensive renovations of both its main building and a replica of the 1805 Noah Blake Cabin (as written about in one of Sloane's most celebrated books, Diary of an American Boy. Hundreds of hours have been dedicated to this project by volunteers, namely the Friends of Eric Sloane: James Mauch, Scott Sheldon and John Pennings. Once complete, the museum will host a grand reopening next summer to celebrate the 50th anniversary and all the great things to come.

The New Haven Museum (NHM) is pleased to announce that researchers, media and the public can now access the art, artifacts, graphics, documents and photographs that tell New Haven's story online with the museum's new Online Collection Catalog. The NHM collection consists of objects (art, artifacts, and graphics), photographic materials, manuscript collections and published works that document the people, places, and events that have shaped and continue to shape the Elm City. There are an estimated 12,000 objects, 100,000 photographic items, 400 manuscript collections, 30,000 published works in the NHM collection. Finding aids from the 300-plus manuscript collections of the Whitney Library are also available through the online catalog, accompanied by selected digitized images from individual manuscript collections.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art received a $30,000 grant from Lincoln Financial Foundation in support of school programs serving students in grades PreK-12, and professional development opportunities for teachers. A $41,500 grant awarded from Travelers will support programs that connect art and literacy through the Wadsworth's Museum on the Move offsite program for Hartford fourth graders, and an Art & Writing program for elementary students. Both Lincoln Financial Foundation and Travelers are foremost sponsors of the arts in Hartford, CT and long-time supporters of the Wadsworth whose education programs serve 12,000 students and teachers annually.

To better reflect its "evolution into nationally recognized museum and cultural institution," the Westport Historical Society is changing its name to the Westport Museum For History & Culture, effective Sept. 28. The name change comes on the heels of the museum receiving a national award from the American Association for State and Local History, and the new name will take effect at the launch of its 2019/20 exhibit "Becoming Westport."

The Prudence Crandall Museum will temporarily close for about a year starting October 20 as a $1.3 million renovation takes place at the historic, early 19th-century home. The museum is the home of Prudence Crandall, and features exhibits about the life of Crandall, a Quaker from Rhode Island who was a teacher at a Canterbury boarding school for girls. Crandall incurred the wrath of the community when she permitted a black student, Sarah Harris, to attend. The project includes addressing foundation stability and drainage issues, as well as a new coat of paint, a new roof, and electrical rewiring. The fence around the house will be repaired and replaced as well as having the ADA ramp and bathrooms redone. Everything inside the house will need to be taken down during the renovation, giving museum staff the opportunity to reconsider its interpretation and exhibition approach.

The Art Museum at University of Saint Joseph has received nearly $30,000 in grant funds for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The planning grant will allow the Art Museum to conduct an optimization study of its mechanical system to create a sustainable preservation climate for its collection. The NEH's Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grant will enable an optimization study conducted by Preservation Consultant Jeremy Linden and a team from USJ. It will determine the actual capability of existing equipment, including total dehumidification and humidification; identify optimal operating conditions to support both collection preservation and energy efficiency; and develop a strategic plan for potential capital investment and renovations. The NEH award follows the Art Museum's achievement of accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded the nation's museums.

Maine

Bowdoin College Museum of Art and Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum received a $239,000 federal grant. The award, one of 112 projects funded nationally, was announced by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). It triggers a similar amount in matching funds and will be shared between the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum to improve the storage of, as well as physical and digital access to, their collections. The funds are being distributed under the IMLS's Museums for America grant program, which is designed to support projects that strengthen the ability of an individual museum to serve its public. The Bowdoin project has been awarded $239,344, with matching funds of $240,925. According to the announcement, the project team, which will be led by collections staff from both museums, "will consolidate the museums' collections into a newly-renovated, climate-controlled storage facility."

Bowdoin College Museum of Art also secured a federal grant for using a pioneering wood product. In partnership with the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service awarded $1 million to ten institutions across the nation through its Mass Timber University Grant Program. Mass timber is an increasingly popular building product praised as a more sustainable alternative to concrete or steel. It's made using small pieces of laminated wood compressed into large panels used as structural components in buildings. The $100,000 award will unlock matching funds of the same amount, which will be provided by Bowdoin and Consigli Construction, the builder, for the planned construction of two new buildings-Barry Mills Hall and a Center for Arctic Studies. Construction is anticipated to begin in the summer of 2020, with expected completion at the end of the 2021 fall semester. Maine's US Senators, Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R), are strong advocates of mass timber, and they both signed onto a letter last December urging the federal government to set up the program.

The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine's 2018 exhibit "Everyday Maine" was featured in the September 2019 issue of Yankee Magazine.

The Rufus Porter Museum has purchased a corn sheller patented by Rufus Porter in 1838 from Laurent J. Torno Jr. and Betty Torno. Prototypes of Porter's patents are rare, and the Museum is very excited to add such a unique item to its collection. While the maker of this sheller is unknown, it was likely made by a shop that specialized in making patent models, a requirement for every patent application. A corn sheller removes individual corn kernels from the cob. Several shellers were patented in the mid to late-nineteenth-century, but Porter's appears to be the first. Now part of the Museum's permanent collection, the sheller will be on display during the Museum's 2020 season.

The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations (Trustees), governing board of Woodlawn Museum, Gardens, & Park, along with project team members recently celebrated the completion of the first phase in their facilities upgrade project on the 180-acre historic estate. Water, sewer, power, and communications have all been upgraded over the last few months. Improvements include a new water line, storm water mitigation, three-phase power, improved fire safety, and data and communications upgrades. E.L. Shea is the general contractor for the project with R.F. Jordan and King Electric as subcontractors. Design services are being provided by Oudens Ello Architecture and Hedefine Engineering & Design. The details of the Trustees' plans, including information about the fundraising effort The Campaign for Woodlawn, are available.

The Bates College Museum of Art announced Monday it received a $192,000 grant to construct a public catalog of all known artworks by Lewiston artist Marsden Hartley. The grant was awarded by the New York-based Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, and will be used to create "the first-ever comprehensive, publicly accessible guide" to all of Hartley's artwork. The project will be called the "Marsden Hartley Legacy Project: The Complete Paintings and Works on Paper."

After months of negotiations and years of speculation, the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine sold its longtime downtown building at 142 Free St. to the Portland Museum of Art for $2.1 million, clearing the way for its move to a new space at Thompson’s Point and giving the art museum flexibility for expansion. Chris Dougherty, president of the board of the children’s museum and theater, called the sale “an exciting and generational change for both organizations” and said it represents the next step in the museum’s strategic plan to increase its cultural impact in southern Maine with its move to a new building at Thompson’s Point. Proceeds from the sale will go toward construction of the new building and its exhibitions. Mark Bessire, director of the Portland Museum of Art, said the museum’s purchase of the building next door was “a perfect arrangement” because it enables the children’s museum to move and gives the PMA options as it considers its future. He said the PMA board has made no plans for the newly acquired building. Because the children’s museum can remain in its current location for up to 20 months, the PMA has time to incorporate the building into its long-term campus master plan, which was drawn up in 2014.

Massachusetts

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is pleased to announce its new access initiative, The Carle Community Fund, created to make The Carle more affordable and accessible to families, schools, and educators. Established by a generous donation from Mo and Cher Willems, The Carle Community Fund expands on a previous program established by Helen and Peter Bing over 10 years ago. The fund supports the Museum and the community through three initiatives: the EBT Card to Culture Program, The Carle's Access Pass Program, and Carle Community Fund scholarships for field trips and professional development workshops. "We are so thrilled to share The Carle Community Fund throughout the area," says Director of Education Courtney Waring. "As The Carle moves forward with a new strategic plan, one of our main goals is to make the Museum more accessible by meeting the needs and interests of audiences who may experience barriers to visiting us. The Carle Community Fund is a huge step in achieving this goal, as it deepens our impact within the community and makes The Carle more relevant to more people."

Plimoth Plantation officially launched Mayflower II, the acclaimed living history museum's historic tall ship, on Saturday, September 7, 2019 at Mystic Seaport Museum's Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The ceremony included performances, remarks, and the ship's christening with water from all fifty states as well as Plymouth, U.K. and Leiden, Netherlands, before Mayflower II is lowered into the Mystic River to float for the first time in three years. Following the launch, Mayflower II will spend the winter at Mystic Seaport Museum preparing for a May 2020 departure. The newly restored ship will make her debut in Boston from May 14 - 19, 2020 for Mayflower Sails 2020, a free maritime festival at the Charlestown Navy Yard, followed by her long-awaited homecoming to Plymouth, Massachusetts on May 21, 2020. Once she returns, the ship will be the centerpiece of the 400th commemoration of the Pilgrims' arrival to historic Patuxet, now known as Plymouth.

The Nahant Historical Society, established in 1975, finally acquired a gallery space for sharing some of its artifacts. The inaugural exhibition features paintings of Nahant. The newly refurbished gallery space gives NHS the opportunity to showcase its collections in fulfillment of our mission, "for the enjoyment, education, and enrichment of the public."

The Acton Historical Society recently received a Community Preservation Committee grant of $188k to clear and redesign its campus of three historic buildings, including the 1760 Jonathan Hosmer House. In addition, the Hosmer House museum was put on UniGuide, the audio guide smartphone App covering historic buildings, museums, and sites. In all, nine rooms and three buildings were included in the audio tour.

Old Sturbridge Village recently acquired a twelve panel chest of drawers made by Alden Spooner (1784-1877), who worked as a cabinetmaker and chairmaker in Athol, Massachusetts, during the early 1800s. This chest of drawers is an important piece of New England furniture, as it is branded "Spooner" on the rear edge of the top and "Spooner" and "Athol" on the back boards. To date, it is the only known twelve panel chest marked by Spooner himself and thus serves as the linchpin for documenting other similar pieces to the cabinetmaker. Additionally, the Village received a Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to enable ongoing collections storage improvement projects. Specifically, this grant will support a half-day site visit from a Northeast Document Conservation Center expert, and the funding of custom protective enclosures for the majority of the Research Library's collection of bound volumes. The bound volumes form part of the Village's collection of manuscripts and include account books, day books, diaries, journals, and friendship albums. The NEDCC expert will work with OSV Research Library staff and volunteers to prioritize which manuscript volumes are in need of immediate rehousing. With a collection of approximately 750 bound volumes, OSV estimates that at least 550 volumes (roughly 75%) will be rehoused as part of this project.

Strawbery Banke Museum received a $218,220 a three-year grant from IMLS to develop and implement a new living history interpretive program for the Captain Walsh House. President and CEO Lawrence J. Yerdon noted that, "IMLS received 449 applications and funded only 112. This success was the result of good teamwork and the development of an imaginative program proposal," and congratulated Martha Carlson-Bradley, Grant Writer; Bekki Coppola and Jon Brown from the Education Department; Erik Wochholz, Curator of Historic Landscapes; and consultants Maud Ayson and Maureen Hennessey. Thanks to research completed this year with a grant from the Roger R. and Theresa S. Thompson Foundation, the Walsh House project will now move towards implementing the interpretive plan.

The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is pleased to announce the release of A Thousand Leagues of Blue: The Whaling Voyages of Charles and Susan Veeder of Nantucket, a new publication by Betsy Tyler, in late November. This beautifully illustrated, 256-page hardcover publication is the true story of the trials and tribulations of a family enmeshed in the whaling industry and the ensuing drama and destruction wrought by this brutal pursuit. Susan Veeder's illustrated journal from her and Charles's 1848-53 voyage aboard the ship Nauticon is one of the jewels of the NHA's collection. A Thousand Leagues of Blue quotes extensively from this unique resource and reproduces many of Susan's delicate watercolor drawings. A NHA Research Fellow, Betsy Tyler was the inaugural Obed Macy Research Chair at the NHA from 2012 to 2016 and is the former editor of Historic Nantucket.

The International Museum of World War II in Natick closed after an individual acquired most of its collections. The Boston Globe reports that billionaire Ronald Lauder, an heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire, purchased the holdings for $25 million in March 2018. Among the thousands of artifacts acquired were a Sherman tank and Adolf Hitler's uniform.

The Amherst College Mead Art Museum expanded its holdings by more than 170 works of contemporary art, thanks to an anonymous donor. The gift includes works by established artists such as David Hockney, Thomas Ruff, and Cindy Sherman, as well as emerging and mid-career artists from across the United States and around the world. This fall, the Mead will also open an exhibition marking a decade of acquisitions made through the Trinkett Clark Memorial Student Acquisition Fund.

Historic Deerfield, Inc., announced it has launched a $10 million campaign to strengthen historic preservation, restoration, and visitor engagement at the museum. The campaign, entitled "America's Town, America's Story," aims to shape the museum's future by focusing on historic preservation and on new programming to share Deerfield's stories with a wider audience. The first major component of the campaign is to raise $1.1 million for the careful restoration of the Asa Stebbins House in Deerfield.

The Cambridge Historical Society has announced that the Serjeant Family Letters (1769-1840) have recently been professionally digitized and transcribed. This significant collection offers insight into the life of a Loyalist family in the years leading up to and following the Revolutionary War. The letters illuminate the connections between family and religion, and shed light on colonial New England’s involvement in slavery. This project was made possible through funding from the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. To view the letters, visit cambridgehistory.org or click here to view them on flickr. To access the transcription, please visit the society’s website.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Historical Society and Providence College's Phillips Memorial Library have released a new chapter for EnCompass, the free digital textbook of Rhode Island history. Before Rhode Island: Early Peoples and Archaeology, features essays about the early archaeology of the region. Topics include early technologies, foodways, and archaeological methodology with primary and secondary sources from collections at RIHS and partner organizations. EnCompass is geared mainly toward middle school and high school readers, but is easily adaptable by teachers of lower grades. All chapters are aligned with Rhode Island Grade Span Expectations for Social Studies. The EnCompass project, utilizing images of primary sources and artifacts, aims to provide teachers with free resources, content, and activities for their classrooms. EnCompass was launched in 2016 with the help of a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame received the Stewardship Rhody Award. Each year, Preserve Rhode Island partners with the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission to honor the people who make a difference by protecting Rhode Island's historic places. Friends and colleagues from around the state mingle at this annual preservation celebration where Rhody Award winners are recognized for their contributions. More than 300 of Rhode Island's community leaders, business people, and homeowners, come together with preservationists, industry professionals and craftspeople to celebrate. The International Tennis Hall of Fame has championed historic preservation at the Newport Casino (1880).

In mid-October, the Museum of Work and Culture launched Aira, a technology that will allow visitors with visual impairments to tour its exhibits with greater independence. The new service enables visitors to use their smartphone to connect with an agent, who will use the phone's camera to describe objects, read exhibit signage and offer navigational directions. Support for the initiative came from the Rhode Island Foundation through a grant from its Program for the Blind Fund.

The Preservation Society of Newport County has announced that they have been selected to receive a $500,000 Save America’s Treasures grant to help restore the roof of Marble House, one of its signature museum properties on Bellevue Avenue.  

Vermont

Shelburne Museum Director Thomas Denenberg announced the endowment of the director of education position made possible by a gift from the Stiller Family Foundation. The Stiller Family Foundation, the foundation of philanthropists Christine and Robert Stiller, gave a generous gift of $1.5 million to endow the Education Department chair. Christine Stiller is a trustee of Shelburne Museum. Robert Stiller founded Keurig Green Mountain. The two are longtime supporters of education initiatives, early childhood development and programs for Vermont school children. Director of Education Karen Petersen, a longtime staff member of the museum and recognized leader in museum education service, will serve as the first Stiller Family Foundation Director of Education. The endowment ensures that the museum will retain the best in the field of museum education services. Educational programming is essential to meeting the museum's mission to provide an enriching and engaging experience for adults, families and school children.

The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium announces a $362,898 grant from the Economic Development Administration and a $100,000 grant from Jane's Trust for its Renewable Energy Campus. The project will create a grid-tied renewable energy generation, storage and distribution system in the Museum's parking lot. The infrastructure and complimentary exhibits and programming are intended to demonstrate the role small institutions can play in addressing climate change. Construction is anticipated for spring 2020.

The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) has received a grant of $5,000 from the Thomas Thompson Trust in support of two art exhibits and a series of related events intended to heighten awareness and foster constructive dialogue about homelessness in the Brattleboro area. In planning the exhibits and events, BMAC is collaborating with Groundworks Collaborative, Youth Services, Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA), Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, and the Town of Brattleboro.

The Montshire Museum of Science opened the brand new special exhibition, Elements of Glass: From the Workshop of SIMON PEARCE, on September 21, 2019. This exhibition explores the transformative process of turning sand to glass, from design to finished product. For this collaboration, the Montshire partnered with Simon Pearce, a Vermont-based company specializing in handcrafted glass with a creative philosophy rooted in functional, sophisticated design. The result is a breathtaking display that features the elements of water, fire, and wood, interpreted in glass, by the artisans of Simon Pearce. This exhibition includes drawings, videos, and touchable samples representative of different techniques - all providing insight into the process behind designing and creating glass pieces. Elements of Glass awakens a deep appreciation of the beauty that comes from a wondrous process rooted in science. It will be open through March 29, 2020.