Pennsylvania offers grants to help preserve, inventory historical records

As an Export councilwoman and a member of the borough’s historical society, Melanie Litz has access to a treasure trove of the town’s history.

She has handwritten letters of interest for council seats when the borough’s independent government was being formed in 1911. She has council’s original handwritten book of meeting minutes.

“That book was actually still being used to record attendance as late as 2012,” Litz said.

A state grant could help the Export Historical Society preserve some of those records.

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission and the state’s Historical Records Advisory Board are accepting applications for the Historical & Archival Records grant program. Webinars will be hosted at 10 a.m. Wednesday and again July 29 to give an overview of eligibility and how to submit a proposal.

Funding is available to historical records repositories, including historical societies, libraries, universities, local governments and school districts. The idea is to help those groups survey, inventory, preserve, arrange and describe historical records significant to the state.

Andy Masich, a PHMC commissioner and president/CEO at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, said even the smallest grant can make a big difference for a local historical society.

“You can get a lot of bang for your buck when you have a lot of dedicated volunteers,” Masich said.

The Heinz History Center has 120 affiliated museums and historical societies in Western Pennsylvania, Masich said.

“We know not only how much history they’re sitting on, but how they can leverage even a $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 grant,” he said.

Even the simple act of preserving a historical document is more difficult than it may seem.

“It means acid-free folders, envelopes and boxes,” Masich said. “A grant can even help them work on their environmental controls. Something as simple as heating and cooling can help maintain a good environment for historical materials.”

In Export, some of Litz’s favorites include original bids submitted to the borough around 1913 for iron jail cages, along with the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. shipping invoice when they arrived from Michigan.

“There’s also a large, bound record from the burgess (similar to council president) … from the 1930s which reads like a dime-store novel,” Litz said. “The antics of folks back in those days were incredible.”

In New Kensington, Allegheny-Kiski Valley Historical Society President Jim Thomas plans to sit in on Wednesday’s webinar to gauge his group’s chances of landing a grant.

“We have a lot of audio tapes from an oral history project done 25 years ago,” Thomas said. “It’s local people talking about their history. We were going to start working with a Pittsburgh group to have those digitized.”

The society also has an extensive collection of glass negatives, photos shot by local photographer George Burtner between 1905-10 depicting life in the Alle-Kiski Valley.

“It’s something I got hooked on,” Thomas said of local history. “It’s very interesting for me to discover, and to try and preserve it so it doesn’t disappear.”

Grants will be awarded based on a competitive review, and groups must use the web-based eGrant to submit applications. Grants are available up to $15,000, with a 50/50 cash or in-kind match. Smaller grants up to $5,000 are available with no match required.

“These museums, combined with the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, really are the collective memory of our region and people,” Masich said. “So this is no small thing.”

For more, see PHMC.pa.gov or eGrants.pa.gov.