0.7 Chapter five: new initiatives and economic shocks, 1982-1987  (Page 13/18)

With all of the money that was being spent, what were the programmatic accomplishments of Bell's staff? In addition to the research assistance and services provided by the library staff, the Society offered a wide variety of exhibits and pro­grams, ranging from an exhibit on Niagara Falls cosponsored with the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution to a summer program in U.S. history for New York City high school teachers. It is impossible to summarize the full range of services and pro­grams offered, but three examples will illustrate the priorities of die staff during this period.

One initiative toward which the Society committed a great deal of resources was an effort to catalog its collections, a labor-intensive and extremely expensive undertaking. As has been noted repeatedly in this book, the Society displayed very little discipline in its acquisition policies over its 180-year history and had devel­oped a huge cataloging backlog. This backlog not only inhibited the Society's abil­ity to fulfill one of its most important goals (to make rare research resources available to scholars) but also prevented the Society from realizing any income from sales of duplicate or out-of-scope materials. It was not possible for the Society to sell what it did not know it had. Consequently, a bold and aggressive plan was mounted to catalog the Society's holdings.

On the library side, this plan relied heavily on grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A one-to-one challenge grant of $100,000 in 1983 brought in $200,000 that was used to catalog collections and make them accessible through the RLIN on-line database. A second grant, this time a two-to-one challenge grant of $350,000 awarded in 1986, helped the Society hire a total of eight full-time catalogers to continue the program. A final report on the two grants illustrates the costly nature of cataloging. After $1,013,919 had been spent, 22,006 tides had been cataloged, at an average cost of $46.08 per tide. A similar cataloging initia­tive was undertaken in the museum.

Another major initiative was the painting conservation program. Launched in 1985 with grants from Paul Newman and the Institute of Museum Services and later supported with grants from the Mellon Foundation, the program sought to restore the many works of art that were in need of attention. In a report to the board in May 1985, Holly Hotchner, the chief conservator, discussed the fact that very little conservation work had been done on the collection in recent years and that nearly all of the works in the collection were in need of professional atten­tion. She reported to the board that the task at hand would take many years and much money to complete. The board enthusiastically endorsed the furthering of the conservation work.

In October 1986, Hotchner appeared before the board to report on the pro­gram's progress. She outlined the many positive developments of the previous year, remarking on the expansion of the department to seven full- and part-time staff members, the awarding of several major grants to the department (from New­man, $165,000 over two years; from the Mellon Foundation, $ 135,000 over three years; from the Getty National Trust, $30,000; and from the National Endowment for the Humanities, $40,000), and the restoration and repair of 465 objects. The conservation staff also played an important role in the relocation of art works from the terrible conditions in the Paterson warehouse into safer surroundings in a ware­house in Manhattan. Hotchner pointed out that although much had been accomplished, much still remained to be done. According to her, several million objects on exhibition and in storage were in urgent need of conservation atten­tion. In addition, Hotchner appealed to the board for further support to complete installation of a varnish spray room and the establishment of a paper conserva­tion studio. The board was most impressed with Hotchner's presentation and con­gratulated her on her important work safeguarding the collections.