Press Release Press Contacts:
(202) 606-8339
May 19, 1999
Mamie Bittner
Eileen Maxwell
SAVE AMERICA'S TREASURES
Washington, D.C. - This Institute of Museum and Library Services
(IMLS) is pleased the First Lady announced today the winners of the first
annual Federal Save America's Treasures Award. At a White House ceremony
Mrs. Clinton thanked IMLS for helping non-federal entities apply for Save
America's Treasures.
IMLS Acting Director Beverly Sheppard said: "Preserving America's treasures
is a wonderful way to recognize the coming millennium. Save America's
Treasures sparks critical public/private partnerships that will help to tell
America's story to future generations."
Save America's Treasures is designed to celebrate American creativity,
innovation, and discovery. This millennium program recognizes and supports
projects that will convey our Nation's rich heritage to future generations
of Americans. These grants provide opportunities to learn about our shared
history, preserve our tangible heritage, and give permanent gifts to the
future.
Grants were awarded to 12 Federal agencies for 62 projects in 24 states, the
District of Columbia and the Midway Islands. IMLS received a grant to
support the following projects.
* "Paddling into the Millennium," The Alaska Native Heritage Center,
Anchorage, Alaska. Many Native Alaskan intellectual and cultural traditions
pass from one generation to the next only by word of mouth, making their
preservation very difficult in the modern world. For this reason, the
process of making traditional boats, their uses and the histories and
legends associated with boat-making are in jeopardy of being lost forever.
"Paddling into the Millennium" will bring together Elders from each Alaska
Native culture who will share their skills directly with younger members of
the culture and provide hands-on training as well as oral tradition. Funds
will be used to record the Master Boat Builders and apprentices in the
process of actually building a boat, which will preserve these traditions
for future generations. Award amount: $730, 980
* Custis Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond,
Virginia. This collection chronicles the early days of the Republic through
the mid-19th century and features the correspondence of George Washington,
Robert E. Lee, William Byrd II and a host of other political and social
luminaries. The papers are seriously deteriorated, and unless action is
taken soon the collection will be lost. Funds will support a comprehensive
conservation program for the over 900 items in the collection. Award
amount: $63,586
* Lewis and Clark Herbarium, Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Herbarium is a priceless collection of
plant specimens collected by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their
1803-1806 expedition across the western territories of the United States.
Insects, handling, and the environment currently threaten the collection,
which serves as a primary reference for botanists, historians, scientists
and scholars. Funds will be used to conserve the collection and to provide
proper temperature and humidity controls in its storage facility. Award
Amount: $148,779
* The 1905 Wright Flyer III, Dayton, Ohio. The Wright Flyer III is
the world's first practical airplane: the plane in which the Wright
brothers solved the remaining problems of control, the first plane to fly
for extended periods and the first to carry a passenger. The metal
structural elements of the plane are rusting, the unbleached muslin covering
the frame is torn and spotted by condensation and mold and several wooden
struts are broken. Funds will provide conservation treatments to restore
this damage in preparation for the centennial of the plane in 2003. Award
Amount: $328,500
About the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) - IMLS was created
by the Museum and Library Services Act of 1996, P.L. 104-208. IMLS is an
independent Federal grantmaking agency serving the public by strengthening
museums and libraries. For more information, including grant guidelines,
contact: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 1100 Pennsylvania
Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20506, (202)606-8536, or http://www.imls.gov
Editor's Note: The following is the White House Press Release
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Announces 1999 Historic Preservation Fund
Grants
To Save America's Treasures
Kicks Off "Save America's Treasures" Southwest Tour
May 19, 1999
The White House
Today First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the recipients of the 1999
Historic Preservation Fund Grants to "Save America's Treasures." Secretary
of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and National Park Service Director Robert
Stanton joined Mrs. Clinton at the White House ceremony. The grants will
help to preserve the nation's heritage and culture for future generations
and build on the efforts of the White House Millennium Council to
commemorate the turn of the millennium by "Honoring the Past and Imagining
the Future." Mrs. Clinton announced the grants before embarking on a "Save
America's Treasures" tour of the Southwest region.
Saving America's Treasures:
* The Federal grants are one component of the Save America's Treasures
program. Too many of the historic buildings, sites, monuments, objects and
archival documents that tell America's story are deteriorating, yet they are
not being preserved because of lack of resources or organized interest in
the community. President Clinton proposed funding to Save America's
Treasures in his Fiscal Year 1999 budget and Congress approved $30 million
in Federal grants to address the most urgent preservation needs of the
nation's most significant historic sights and collections. The grants are
administered by the National Park Service, at the Department of the
Interior.
* Save America's Treasures is a public-private partnership between the
White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic
Preservation that is dedicated to the celebration and preservation of our
nation's historic and cultural legacy. The National Trust -- a national
nonprofit preservation organization -- has formed a Millennium Committee to
Save America's Treasures, made up of individuals, foundations, and
corporations. The First Lady serves as honorary chair of the Committee.
Honoring the Past and Imagining the Future:
* The Grants were awarded to twelve Federal agencies for 62 projects
in 24 states, the District of Columbia and the Midway Islands. The projects
range from the Thomas Jefferson papers at the Massachusetts Historical
Society to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin in Wisconsin; from the historic
Vail Ranch House in Arizona, to Ebenezer Baptist Church (Martin Luther King,
Jr. National Historic Site) in Georgia; from the National Film Preservation
Foundation's "Saving the Silents" project, to the ancient Cliff Dwellings of
Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. The sixty-two projects funded by the
grants reflect the diverse cultures and the many stories that comprise
America, which must not be lost as we end this century and enter a new
millennium.
- more -
* Agencies under the auspices of the Interior Appropriations bill were
eligible to submit urgent Federal projects, or apply on behalf of other
regional sites or collections that fit the criteria of the National Park
Service. A panel of five experts, representing preservation and conservation
disciplines, from non-competing Federal agencies reviewed the applications
and made recommendations for funding to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt,
who then consulted with the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations
and the White House Millennium Council. All of the projects met the
standards of importance, urgency, educational value, and ability to complete
the preservation work.
* By law, each award requires a dollar-for-dollar non-Federal match. A
large number of states, localities, corporations, foundations and others who
value our shared heritage have already pledged to support these important
projects through financial contributions, donations and in-kind services.
The "Save America's Treasures" Tour of the Southwest Region:
* As part of the ongoing effort to bring attention to America's
national treasures and ensure their survival into the next century, today
the First Lady will begin a four-day "Save America's Treasures" tour of
America's national treasures located in the Southwest region Stops along
the four day journey will include sites such as Grand Canyon National Park;
Lowell Observatory where Pluto was discovered; the Acoma Pueblo, one of the
oldest continuously inhabited villages in the United States; the
Southwestern Pieta, an important sculpture representing Mexican-American
heritage in one of Albuquerque's oldest neighborhoods; and Mesa Verde
National Park.
The following attachment is the full list of grants for Save America's
Treasures
Attachment is in Microsoft Word <<Save America's Treasures.doc>>
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