Cleaner Collections; MCHS holds open house for new Collections Building
Published 9:07 am Monday, August 13, 2018
- Mower County Historical Society board member Barb Lewis and executive director Randy Forster unveil the new sign for the collections building Friday afternoon. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The Mower County Historical Society allowed the general public to take a look at its new Collection Building on Friday evening,
“We thought it would be more appropriate to have an open house during the (Mower County) Fair so more people could see what is in there,” said MCHS Director Randy Forster.
Shelving units were added to a building that already existed on the grounds. The new shelving includes two rows of wide-span stationary shelving, five carriages of movable shelves standing floor-to-ceiling, each double sided for a total of 10 rows, and a large unit of bins for framed objects.
Mower County Historical Society curator gives a tour in the newly opened collections building Friday night. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
MCHS Curator Jaimie Timm estimated at least 10,000 collection items could be stored in the space.
The installation of the shelves occurred in two phases and only took five days total.
According to Forster, the Minnesota Historical Society grant was for $47,500. The Hormel Foundation donated $2,300 and the Austin Area Foundation gave $700. Prior to that, the Mower County Historical Society received a significantly large donation from the late Ruth Wunderlich that completed phase one of the building.
Members of the MCHS Board were allowed a sneak peek of the building before it was opened to the public.
“It’s going to help us with properly preserving our history and allow us to share things better because we’ll know what we have,” Forster said. “For so many years we had things stored in boxes and didn’t know what we had. Now, with the collections building complete, we can properly store things.”
