Treasure your Treasures: This #GivingTuesday, consider supporting a Great American Treasure

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Treasure your Treasures: This #GivingTuesday, consider supporting a Great American Treasure

Part of the NSCDA’s mission is rooted in historic preservation: the protection of cultural heritage, people, and places. The NSCDA Great American Treasures Museum Alliance is the truest expression of that commitment to our nation’s history.

Each of these historic properties, museums, and memorials have joined this free program that unites their passion, resources, and reach. As a member, the NSCDA provides these sites with unified branding, free marketing, annual membership to the American Alliance of Museums, scholarships to the Attingham Summer School, staff roundtables and professional development programs, and eligibility for the NSCDA Great American Treasures Museum Alliance Grant.

The NSCDA Museum Alliance Grant was created through the NSCDA Comprehensive Campaign which concluded in 2020. The one-million-dollar endowment supports an annual draw of $20,000, which will be awarded in four $5,000 competitive grants.

After nearly a decade of dreaming, planning, and fundraising, the NSCDA has completed its first Museum Alliance Grant cycle. Nineteen of our remarkable Great American Treasures applied to win funding. Each project aims to advance the preservation or awareness of the historical trusts (buildings, collections, landscapes, gardens, or communities) of the NSCDA.

Our Awardees

The Centre for French Colonial Life, St. Genevieve, Missouri

Linden/Hands-on House Fencing Replacement The Centre for French Colonial Life, St. Genevieve, Missouri Funding supplies to be used by volunteers to build a new, historically accurate fence to replace the fence erected at the Beauvais Linden House in the 1970s.

Joel Lane Museum House, Raleigh, North Carolina

Joel Lane Museum House Interior Paint Analysis Joel Lane Museum House, Raleigh, North Carolina The means to hire Dr. Susan Buck, conservator and paint analyst, to gather samples of interior paint and wall/trim treatments and analyze them to determine accurate colors and finishes for the 1769 Lane House.

McAllister House Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Sustainability Based Horticulture Initiative McAllister House Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado The purchase and installation of an irrigation system, rain sensors, a rain barrel catchment system, drip line, mulch, and rock and flagstone to ethically support the restored landscape.

Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut

Mobilizing Educational Programs: George Washington Really Did Sleep Here! Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut A fifth-grade curriculum, mobile program that interprets General Washington’s life, his role, and service to the U.S. The primary and secondary evidence will be gathered in five traveling trunks delivered by members of the NSCDA-CT.

Only four site projects received national funds, yet we strive to support all of our Great American Treasures. As you plan your annual giving, please consider supporting a Great American Treasure. Each project is one way you can see your contribution be immediately put to work, providing real benefits to tens of thousands of schoolchildren and families who visit our sites every year.

Shop our projects to see what else you can support.

Historic Preservation

Coach House Entryway Restoration Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden, Portsmouth, New Hampshire Contact Jeff Barraclough, Executive Director: director@moffattladd.org To address the much-needed maintenance to the entrance of the (c. 1832) Coach House. Specifically, broken panes on the semi-circle arched window will be replaced and rotting molding surrounding the door threshold will be replaced.
Welcome Support Sulgrave Manor & Garden, England Contact Alison Ray, Chief Executive Officer: alison.ray@sulgravemanor.org.uk To replace three failed stone pillar bases for the covered walkway at the Courtyard entrance to the new “George Washington Exhibition.”
Preservation of Tate House: Repair of windowsills and ell roof Tate House Museum, Portland, Maine Contact Holly Hurd, Executive Director: hkhurd@tatehouse.org To re-shingle the failing rear (southern) side of the roof with historically accurate white cedar shakes and responsibly rebuild three sills cellar windows on the front side of the house.
Structural Stabilization of the 1820s Smokehouse Travellers Rest Historic House Museum, Nashville, Tennessee Contact Katie O’Bryan, Executive Director: director@historictravellersrest.org Funds to support the restoration of the smokehouse, to include the installation of an interior and exterior drilled pier system to stabilize the structure and prevent future vertical settlement. In addition, funding will support masonry repair and tuckpointing of the bricks.

Museum Interpretation

Andrew Low House Museum Walkabout Guide Andrew Low House Museum, Savannah, Georgia Contact Rebecca G. Eddins, Director: reddins@andrewlowhouse.com A printed, self-guided tour pamphlet of the mansion to support visitor interests and safety in light of Covid-19.
Life at the Hill House: Understanding Antebellum Austin through the City’s only Extant Slave Quarters Neill-Cochran House Museum, Austin, Texas Contact Rowena Dasch, Executive Director: rhdasch@nchmuseum.org A weekend of robust public programming surrounding their interpretation of Austin’s only extant slave quarters, a spotlight on The Slave Dwelling project by Joe McGill, and supporting interpretation and demonstration by other craftspeople.
Collating and Augmenting Historical Research for The Powder Magazine Museum Powder Magazine, Charleston, South Carolina Contact Katherine S. Pemberton, Director: katherine@powdermag.org The services of Brittany Lavelle Tulla, owner of BVL Historic Preservation Research, to mine primary and secondary research necessary to expand the interpretation of The Powder Magazine from Charleston’s military history to a broader and more inclusive view of colonial Charleston.
Clarke House Museum Sharing History Clarke House Museum, Chicago, Illinois Contact Noren Ungaretti, NSCDA-IL Museum Alliance Chair: norenungaretti@yahoo.com A reinterpretation workshop for key stakeholders to gather, ask, and answer important questions about the future of the Clarke House and its role in telling Chicago’s history.
Providing a Pause: A Guided Meditation and Reflection Point for Visitors Learning About the History of Enslavement at Van Cortlandt House Van Cortlandt House Museum, New York, New York Contact Laura Carpenter Myers, Executive Director: Laura.carpenter@vchm.org To create a place within Van Cortlandt House for visitors to pause to reflect and share their feelings about the difficult history of enslavement being presented by the recently interpreted Enslaved Peoples’ Quarters. This will also include a site-specific guided meditation in a written and audio recorded format, presented by Adriane Rozier of Black Breath Sits.
I Lived Here as Well-Phase II Ximenez-Fatio House, St. Augustine, Florida Contact Elizabeth Towers, NSCDA-FL Museum Alliance Chair: betsy@floridatitlegroupinc.com A revision of their tour, “I Lived Here as Well” to be centered on the life experiences of African American women in St. Augustine, c. 1798-1889. Funding supports new research and writing and an actress to perform the work.

Collections

Establishment of Quality Collections Management and Care System Historic Rosedale Plantation, Charlotte, North Carolina Contact Kathryn Freeman, Development & Publicity: publicity@historicrosedale.org The supplies and staff training to establish a collections management program in preparation for AAM Accreditation.
Conservation of Wood Pail Hotel de Paris Museum, Georgetown, Colorado Contact Kevin Kuharic, Executive Director: kevin.kuharic@hoteldeparismuseum.org The conservation of an archaeologically recovered wood pail so that it might be responsibly displayed and used to tell the story of a John Touk, a Chinese gardener who worked and lived at the hotel.

Landscapes

Spanish Courtyard Renovation Condé Museum House, Mobile, Alabama Contact Mary Lee Montgomery, Director: condecharlottehouse@gmail.com To install a new irrigation system, and redesign and plant a lush, colorful and historically-inspired garden such as those found in coastal, c. 1780-1813 Spanish America when Spain reigned over Mobile, Alabama.
The Historic Landscape The Historic Indian Agency House, Portage, Wisconsin Contact Adam Novey, Executive Director and Curator: agencyhousecurator@gmail.com To complete three initiatives: the restoration of their surviving prairie landscape, the documentation, salvaging, and preservation of significant architectural components of a Fort Winnebago structure, and the cultural dedication ceremony for a significant new outdoor exhibit about the native Ho-Chunk people.
Octagon House Garden Project Octagon House, San Francisco, California Contact Julie Sarno, 4^th Vice President and Chair, San Diego County Committee: juliesarno2@roadrunner.com Funding to install hard and soft landscape improvements to bring The Octagon House into ADA compliance.