The venerable Elizabeth F. Reed house at 72 Oak Street, which marks its 150th anniversary this year, has been home to the Boothbay Region Historical Society since 1984. The Society operates the Reed House as an historical site, a museum of artifacts of the Boothbay Region, an archive of historical records, and a center for historical and genealogical research with a focus on our colonial and coastal heritage. But the old building presents the Society with a number of challenges in properly displaying and preserving its collections. Space is tight, and improvements could be made to the building to allow better access to the public and better care of the Society’s collections.

For this reason, the Society applied to, and this month was selected to, participate in the Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) program for 2023, one of only 44 institutions in the United States to receive this distinction. The CAP program, which is administered by the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation in Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, helps small- and medium-sized museums to improve the care of their collections by providing support for a general conservation assessment of the museum’s collections and building.

During the Board of Trustees’ discussion of the CAP program, several Trustees commented that the program could provide an important foundation for development of a strategic plan encompassing not just the building and its collections but a long-term vision for the Society. In this regard, the CAP report will provide an excellent tool for development and fund raising. One trustee, John Morris, remarked on how helpful the CAP program had been for the Arlington Historical Society in Massachusetts. “The CAP process was extremely useful in providing details for historical building maintenance and improvements which were able to be presented to donors as opportunities to fund specific projects,” said Morris.

Between now and the end of the year, the Society will work with a team of museum professionals who will survey the building and its collections to identify conservation priorities. The team will produce a final assessment report that will help the Society develop a strategic plan for bringing the care of its collections and building up to the highest standards, with the ultimate goal of enabling the museum-going public to engage more closely with our region’s history.