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Washington, D.C. - Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today announced a $250,000 federal grant to help Cornell University's Library preserve its recently acquired Native American Collection. The funds come from the "Save America's Treasures" grant program.
"I'm delighted that Cornell University has received this federal award, which will allow for the proper preservation of this incredibly fascinating collection of Native American documents and materials," Hinchey said. "Cornell University is well-suited to safeguard this collection and display it in a way that scholars and the public will find useful when examining Native American history."
Valued at $8.3 million, the Cornell's Native American Collection documents the history and ethnology of native people of the Americas from the colonial period to the present. Among its highlights are field notes by nineteenth-century ethnographers, records of archaeological expeditions, rare dictionaries of native languages, an album of original drawings by George Catlin, and a 1765 manuscript peace treaty between Britain’s superintendent of Indian affairs and the Delaware Nation. Many of the rare materials have suffered from inadequate storage conditions and are now in urgent need of conservation and archival rehousing.
Cornell University Librarian Sarah Thomas, who led the effort to bring the collection to Cornell, expressed her pride in the placement of the collection at Cornell saying, “This phenomenal collection deserves wider use, and we need to ensure that the public can consult and learn from these books and other documents for centuries to come. Cornell’s Preservation and Conservation Department has deep expertise that can preserve these records of our history, the touchstone of our past and the inspiration for our future.”
The Native American Collection of 40,000 books and extensive archival records, widely acknowledged as one of the most distinguished collections of its kind in the U.S., recently arrived at Cornell. Until last year, the Huntington Free Library in the Bronx, New York, owned this collection. Founded in the early years of the 20th century, the collection grew rapidly, bringing together rare and unique books and manuscripts from scholars, collectors, anthropologists, and others committed to the preservation of Native American history. By 1999, however, the Board of Trustees at the Huntington Free Library concluded that it could no longer afford to maintain the collection and sought help in finding a new home for it. A court-supervised process, relying on the testimony of expert reviewers, selected Cornell University, and the collection was formally transferred on June 15, 2004.
The collection's relocation to Cornell not only ensures preservation, but also promotes educational use of the materials. The faculty of Cornell’s American Indian Program played a major role in encouraging the placement of the collection at the university. Professor Jane Mt Pleasant, director of the program, commented, “This outstanding collection of materials will serve scholars in multiple areas of American Indian Studies, enhancing the academic work of faculty and students at Cornell and elsewhere for decades to come."
With the opening of the exhibition “Vanished Worlds, Enduring People: Cornell Library’s Native American Collection,” notable items from the collection will soon be on public display for the first time in decades. The formal opening of the exhibit will be on November 3, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Hirshland Gallery of the Carl A. Kroch Library. The nationally renowned First Nations women a cappella trio, Ulali, will be featured at the celebration.
Save America’s Treasures is the United States’ premier program devoted to preserving irreplaceable and endangered historic properties, sites, documents, artistic works and artifacts. The National Park Service, the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services jointly administer the program.
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