County Museum accepted into special program

Left: a black and white photo of South Main Street, Rock Springs in 1950 with a variety of businesses with cars parked along every available part of the street. Labeled businesses include Montgomery Ward and the Stock Grower's Mercantile. Right: A group of individuals in a variety of well-dressed attire stand in front of bar, many holding drinks.

Photo #1 - Two of the more than 75,000 photographs and negatives from the New Studio Collection, now possessed by the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River. At left is South Main Street in Rock Springs in 1950; at right, the Oxford Club in Green River, 1937.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - October 20, 2022) The Sweetwater County Historical Museum has been accepted into the Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) program, Museum Executive Director David Mead announced today.

Mead credited the work of Curator Amanda Benson with the museum’s acceptance into the program, which will allocate a total of $7600 to hire a professional collections assessor and a building assessor in order to complete a general conservation assessment.

The CAP program, an arm of the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, a non-profit based in Washington DC, provides small and mid-sized museums with partial funding for general conservation assessments, which are studies of all the institution’s collections and buildings and procedures relating to care of collections.

Benson said “It’s exciting to be part of this program.” She went on to explain that the assessments will provide other important benefits. “With these assessments on record, we will be able to apply for competitive federal grants to tackle some of our larger projects, such as processing and digitizing the entirety of the New Studio photo collection.”

In 2015, through grant funding and donations the Museum obtained the New Studio Collection, a priceless compendium of over 75,000 photographs and negatives that provides images of Sweetwater County, its history, and its people extending back many generations.

The museum building was originally Green River’s U.S. Post Office, built in 1931. Mead said that proper structural assessments are key to conservation of any building over 90 years old; further that sound assessments are vital to preserving a museum’s collection. “We are grateful to the CAP program,” he said. “The allocation is most welcome and will be put to good use.”