The San Benito County Historical Society will receive some professional input on how to better store the more than 10,000 artifacts and how to preserve the Wapple House, which houses the San Benito County Historical Museum.
The local museum was selected to participate in the 2012 Conservation Assessment Program, which provides funding to have professional conservation and preservation specialists visit the museum to help identify the needs of the collection and building.
“They are going to assess everything in one day and then provide us with a report afterwards that will list the types of things we need to take care of or address right away,” said Sharlene Van Rooy of the historical society. “They will have suggestions for handling this type of artifact or it needs to be stored this way, in this kind of box.”
The professionals will visit the museum on April 26 to survey the collection.
Van Rooy said that of the 10,000 artifacts, the society has many of them are fragile, including old special edition newspapers that need special boxes, photographs that need to be stored individually in sleeves and in acid free boxes, as well as historical clothing.
“We have textiles and clothing and none of those are stored in the right kind of boxes,” Van Rooy said.
The group heard about the grant from an architecture firm out of San Francisco that worked with the Hollister Downtown Association on a core historic structure report on the Granada Theatre. The firm sent out a note card about the 2012 CAP application.
Though the grant application was simple enough to complete, once they received notice that they had been accepted into CAP, Van Rooy said they had to complete a 29-page questionnaire that asked for more information about the collection.
Out of the grant process, she said she hopes the historical society will be able to build relationships with other agencies in the community, such as emergency services.
“They have no idea what we have in that building,” she said. “We need a plan of what to get out of the building.”
She said that in addition to the professional conservators, a building assessor will be visiting to check out the Wapple House.
“It is a building that could be on the National Registry (of historic buildings), so hopefully their report will get us headed in the right direction,” Van Rooy said.
The report will suggest policies for proper storage of artifacts, especially for dealing with humidity and temperature control.
“With the building itself, we know there are some termite issues in one area of it,” Van Rooy said. “The (assessor) will crawl through the basement and attic, and give an assessment of what we should be taking care of right away.”
Van Rooy said the Gilroy Historical Society went through the process with its museum a few years ago.
“When you go into their museum, it is much more professional,” Van Rooy said.
Since the Historical Society was formed in 1956, volunteers have been collecting the artifacts, storing them and serving visitors who want to see the collection on weekends and the second Monday of the month.
“They are doing the best they can without really any training or background so it definitely is going to be a step up for us,” Van Rooy said.
Once they have the report in hand that will outline immediate priorities, short-term priorities and long-term conservation and preservation needs, they will be able to apply for additional grants to purchase some of the necessary storage items.
“We need the shelves to put the boxes on and we need to find out where the next shelves can go,” Van Rooy said. “We need to get some of the (storage) furniture. And acid free boxes and tissue are so expensive.”
Heritage Preservation is the national nonprofit that runs the conservation assessment program. It is dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the United States, and assists museums, libraries, archives and other organizations that preserve historical items.
The Historical Society is located in the Wapple House, 498 Fifth St. It is open Saturday and Sunday, from 1 to 4 p.m., and the second Monday of the month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for visitors who would like to do research on the county’s history since 1874.
