Save America's Treasures Grant Awarded to NYAM Library

Save America’s Treasures, a program administered by the National Park Service in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, annually awards grants "to conserve significant U.S. cultural and historic treasures, which illustrate, interpret and are associated with the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to our nation’s history and culture." With more than 750,000 volumes, 400,000 pamphlets, 275,000 portraits and illustrations, a collection of about 35,000 rare books dating from ca. 1650 B.C. to 1820 A.D, and a wide variety of archival and manuscript collections that

The NYAM Library was awarded $500,000 to help improve the environmental conditions in which significant portions of the Library’s collection are housed.

document the practice of medicine from the 18th century to the present, the New York Academy of Medicine’s (NYAM) Library certainly fits this description. The NYAM Library was awarded $500,000 to help improve the environmental conditions in which significant portions of the Library’s collection are housed.

The NYAM Library was founded in 1847 with the gift of a three-volume set of Dr. Martyn Paine’s Medical and Physiological Commentaries. Originally conceived of as a resource for its own Fellows, the Library opened its doors to the general public in October of 1878, by which time the collection had grown to contain over 6,000 volumes and numerous journal titles. As the Library expanded, a combination of generous donations and thoughtful purchases, such as gift of 23,000 volumes from the Society of the New York Hospital in 1898 and the purchase of the Edward Clark Streeter Collection of medical high spots in 1926, contributed to the Library’s standing as one of the great collections on the history of medicine in the United States. Like many large libraries, however, the NYAM Library has had to confront issues of space and a lack of optimal environmental conditions for the storage and maintenance of these important materials.

In 2006, the Library contracted with the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts for a Preservation Needs Assessment funded by the NEH. The Library and the NYAM administration took the recommendations and priorities set forth in the 2006 Preservation Needs Assessment Report very seriously and plans were made to seek out the information and funding needed to implement them. The Save America’s Treasures grant is intended to help provide appropriate environmental conditions for the long-term preservation of the Library collections.

A total of $10.52 million in competitive Save America’s Treasures grants were awarded this year to 40 organizations across the country. Save America’s Treasures will mark its 10th anniversary in 2009, and has made more than 500 competitive grants to ensure our nation’s cultural and historic legacy.

To read the full Save America’s Treasures press release: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/treasures/SAT_Press_Release08.pdf

For a listing of awards by State: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/treasures/2008_SAT_Awards_List.pdf

Posted on December 23, 2008

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
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amartin@nyam.org

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