Museum Works with FEMA and Others to Assess Damage

The Museum has been contacted by the American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Recovery Team/Institute of Museum and Library Services, and FEMA to determine the scope of damage to the Museum's historic building and irreplaceable collection. The elevated moisture levels present on the Museum's first floor and in the basement has impacted exhibition and storage spaces, harming artifact stability, and the layer of particulate debris and glass that now blankets the interior space and exhibitions is causing damage to the artifacts. To ensure safety, the exhibition has been sealed off to prevent glass and debris from coming further into public spaces. Additionally, the water that seeped into the basement archival storage area has spiked the moisture level of many books and documents. An historic buildings structural engineer has assessed the stability of the landmark building, as it is critical to determine that the integrity of the nationally historic Barnum building has not been compromised after the significant wind impact.

Please help us with our recovery efforts. All contributions are truly welcome and we continue to recover from last weeks tornado.

Most sincerely,
Kathleen Maher
Executive Director/Curator
The Barnum Museum

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