Twenty Years of Conservation
Improvements through CAP
Jack Hadley Black History Museum | CAP Year: 2008 |
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Interior of Jack Hadley Black History Museum |
In 1995, the Jack Hadley Black History Museum. was founded in Thomasville, Georgia, to house the extensive black history collections and archives of U.S. Air Force veteran James “Jack” Hadley. The collection included over 2,000 artifacts, including newspaper clippings, prints, pictures, paintings, posters, books and magazines of black Americans’ accomplishments. In 2008, two years after their grand opening in a newly acquired building, the museum participated in CAP. Collections assessor Alexandra Klingelhofer made valuable recommendations to the new museum about how to put museum best practices into operation. She recommended a collections policy, an emergency preparedness plan, and a long-range institutional plan be put in place. In addition, she recognized that a priority for the museum was the provision of research services to students and others interested in black history. To facilitate research at the Hadley Museum, she recommended that the entire collection be inventoried and cataloged, that all artifacts be digitally photographed, and that archival files for the museum be established.
In 2009, the Museum applied for and was awarded the Walmart Foundation Grant, which funded the purchase of PastPerfect software and a digital camera. Upon learning that stimulus funds were granted to the Georgia Department of Labor’s Southwest Georgia Workforce Investment Area to fund work for 60-70 college-age students, the Museum applied for three college-age students to inventory the museum’s entire collection, catalog the entire collection in Past Perfect, digitally photograph the entire collection of over 3,000 artifacts, and work on the set-up and organization of the archives. This project is helping the museum achieve its goal of creating a comprehensive image bank to assist visitors and students in their research. The project will also enable the museum staff to use their collection of digital images of the artifacts to create Power Point presentations for museum education programs at local schools whose budgets do not include funds for museum field trips.
When asked for his advice on having a successful assessment, Hadley said "Prepare an initial briefing on the museum’s priorities and areas of concern for your assessor. This will give the assessor an idea of the recommendations that you are seeking for the improvement of your museum."
Thanks to Jack Hadley for his help with this article.
Photo courtesy of the Jack Hadley Black History Museum
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