Great news from the Pennsylvania State Archives:
After seven years and approximately $1.2 million in funding, the Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project ended in June 2012. The project completed conservation work on over 2,500 mustering-out rolls for all regiments and emergency brigades raised in Pennsylvania during the Civil War. They are essential for the research of any given soldier, company, or regiment, for they list the status of each at the point of mustering-out of service. The rolls are among the most popular records housed at the Pennsylvania State Archives, and had become badly soiled and torn over the last 150 years. They were literally falling apart, and in the last century, well-intentioned staff used cellophane tape to repair them. In this condition they could not be easily shown to patrons, or even photographed.
In 2005, the State Archives was awarded a grant of $375,000 from the federal Save America’s Treasures Program that was joined by a $450,000 grant from the Pennsylvania General Assembly to clean, repair, deacidify and encapsulate the muster out rolls. Over the years, the Keystone Preservation and Conservation Fund also supplied funds. The conservation treatments were either performed by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia or at the State Archives.
To read the entire latest issue of Access Archives: The Newsletter of the Pennsylvania State Archives, click here.
To read a description of the Civil War Muster Rolls collection at the State Archives, click here.
After seven years and approximately $1.2 million in funding, the Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project ended in June 2012. The project completed conservation work on over 2,500 mustering-out rolls for all regiments and emergency brigades raised in Pennsylvania during the Civil War. They are essential for the research of any given soldier, company, or regiment, for they list the status of each at the point of mustering-out of service. The rolls are among the most popular records housed at the Pennsylvania State Archives, and had become badly soiled and torn over the last 150 years. They were literally falling apart, and in the last century, well-intentioned staff used cellophane tape to repair them. In this condition they could not be easily shown to patrons, or even photographed.
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State Archives staff encapsualte the final in-house muster roll - PA State Archives
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In 2005, the State Archives was awarded a grant of $375,000 from the federal Save America’s Treasures Program that was joined by a $450,000 grant from the Pennsylvania General Assembly to clean, repair, deacidify and encapsulate the muster out rolls. Over the years, the Keystone Preservation and Conservation Fund also supplied funds. The conservation treatments were either performed by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia or at the State Archives.
To read the entire latest issue of Access Archives: The Newsletter of the Pennsylvania State Archives, click here.
To read a description of the Civil War Muster Rolls collection at the State Archives, click here.
