The Museum has received a grant of $1,500 from the General Fund of
Berkshire Taconic Foundation to support the first phase of its
electronic collection catalogue project. |
The announcement of this award
was made by Jennifer Dowley, President of Berkshire Taconic, whose Board
of Directors approved the grant. The Museum’s Board of Directors matched
this grant with a $2,700 pledge. The project, which will be completed over a two-year period, will
result in a com-prehensive digital catalogue that will include
photographs of every object, notes and drawings on specific objects that
were created by Messrs. Hargis and Brush, and art historical information
gathered by research interns. The major component of the first phase was
the purchase of hardware and the creation of a five-user network. |
Executive Director Brian O'Grady, cataloguing |
This infrastructure will allow
interns and staff to work simultaneously to update records and do
collection research. |
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Dining Room showing furniture &
Part of the china collection |
The Bidwell House Museum holds an exceptional
collection of 18th
and 19th century American decorative arts and furniture. Assembled over
a twenty-year period by the House restorers, Jack Hargis and David
Brush, the Collection is an important record of Early American material
culture. Included in the Museum’s collection is an extensive array of
furnishings, domestic tools, lighting devices, textiles, pewter,
porcelain, and pottery. Notable elements of the collection include 150
pieces of redware and slipware, rare 18th and 19th century
wool coverlets,
and hand-woven linens and needlework.
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For more than ten years
the Museum’s collection has been accessible only to those who visited
the Museum. The implementation of the electronic collection catalogue
will greatly expand access to the collection.
Brian O’Grady, executive
director, said “the creation of a digital collection catalogue, and
ultimately its link to the Museum’s Web-site, will provide opportunities
for direct study to students, scholars, and the general public and will
create far-reaching opportunities for programmatic growth and
collaboration with other cultural, educational, and historical
organ-izations.” |
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