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>>