Grant to help museum relocate full artifacts collection to Toledo
The National Museum of the Great Lakes is beginning will begin the process of moving their vast collection from Vermilion and other various locations to Toledo.
The effort was made possible thanks to an $18,000 competitive grant awarded through the Ohio History Fund—The Ohio History Connection’s matching grant program for history.
“Although the Great Lakes Historical Society and its National Museum of the Great Lakes relocated from Vermilion to Toledo in 2014, it lacked the means to move its entire collection of 2,000+ artifacts and to conclusively determine the full scope of its collection,” said Chris Gillcrist, the organization’s executive director. “This grant and the resulting project will remedy this and enable us to finally establish firm ‘intellectual control’ over its holdings and be better stewards of the regional history entrusted to it.”
Since the opening of the National Museum of the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Historical Society has been actively managing its collection across multiple storage sites. The grant makes it possible for the organization to take the last step of fully relocating to Toledo by bringing their collection all under one roof and within their museum’s hometown. The organization has secured a lease for local storage space and has spent a considerable amount of time and effort over the past few years preparing for this move. Both human and technological resources have enabled the continued cataloging and organizing efforts of their collection covering both the U.S. and Canadian history of all five Great Lakes.
Representatives from the museum were informed in mid-February of the award and recently finalized their new storage space lease. The Ohio History Connection publicly announced all grant recipients at an annual Statehood Day advocacy event on March 2 at the Statehouse in Columbus.
The Ohio History Connection awarded $185,624 in grants this year and, since the Ohio History Fund program started in 2012, has made a total of 122 grants to history and cultural organizations across the state, totaling $1.2 million. The fund is made possible by Ohio taxpayers who select “Ohio History Fund'' as a donation fund on their state tax returns.
For additional information on the Ohio History Fund Grant and other 2023 recipients visit ohiohistory.org.