The Monmouth County Historical Association has received a Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the amount of $5,850. According to a press release, the grant provides the resources to engage a professional painting conservator to conduct a study of the association’s 175 oil paintings on canvas to evaluate the condition of the collection, make conservation treatment recommendations and assign conservation priorities to the works of art.
The painting collection ranges from academic works of national significance such as Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington at the Battle of Monmouth” (1857) which will be on loan to George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate during 2009, and Dennis Malone Carter’s “Molly Pitcher Presented to GeneralWashington” (1856), to folk art expressions of local landscapes or county residents, such as a self-portrait (circa 1770) of Daniel Hendrickson, whose masterwork, a portrait of his daughter Catherine, hangs at the National Gallery of Art, and six paintings by 20th Century Monmouth County artist Henry Gulick.
The many portraits in the collection show identified Monmouth County sitters and represent the work of significant artists like George Henry Durrie, John Wollaston and Ammi Phillips as well as local or unidentified artists.
Marine paintings represented in the collection depict vessels that plied Monmouth County waters; “The Steamboat Thomas Hunt” (1851) and “The Steamboat Keyport” (1853) by James Bard and “The County of Edinburg on the Beach” (1902) by Antonio Jacobsen.
According to the press release, the NEH grant application process is a highly competitive one, with requests being submitted from across the country. The process includes peer review and specialist review along with deliberations by the National Council on the Humanities and the Office of the Chairman. In addition to awarding the grant, the project was designated by the NEH as a “We the People” project, an initiative to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture.
The Monmouth County Historical Association is a private not-for-profit organization founded in 1898 to “discover, procure, preserve and perpetuate whatever relates to the history of Monmouth County.” In addition to the association’s collection of more than 30,000 pieces of art and artifacts, five historic sites, and main museum, its library holds the largest collection of Monmouth County published and unpublished materials in the state, including more than 7,000 books, nearly 1,600 linear feet of manuscripts, archival items, ephemera, and newspapers and newspaper clippings. The association’s education department provides programs to schools and other groups throughout the county and beyond. Annually, more than 6,000 school children benefit from the association’s “trunk programs.”