U.S. treasures get funds for upkeep

A federal partnership including the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services has earmarked $14.5 million to preserve “irreplaceable and endangered buildings and collections” through the Save America’s Treasures program.

The grants, announced Monday, were made to 35 properties and sites and 25 collections of artifacts, documents and artworks.

Included on this year’s list are funds to repair the deck and stem rust damage to the World War II battleship Massachusetts, and to repair structural defects at Connecticut’s 1752 Joseph Webb House, where George Washington planned his campaign to defeat the British at Yorktown.

Other funding will go to preserve fragile artifacts from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at two New York museums and to ensure the preservation of recordings of the work of major dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, the Martha Graham Dance Company and other troupes.

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Diane Haithman