Naperville - The Naperville Heritage Society is the recipient of a $590,588 Preservation and Access grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. These funds will support the acquisition of a high density mobile storage system for the new museum storage facility being constructed as part of the City of Naperville's Multi-Purpose Public Works Service Center. The grant includes the cost of working with a conservator to prepare the Naperville Heritage Society's Museum Collections for relocation, as well as resources to cover costs, supplies and manpower for the actual move.

Peggy Frank, Executive Director of the Naperville Heritage Society and Naper Settlement, said, "We are very pleased to be the recipient of this major grant. This funding will help us to preserve the more than 31,000 objects in our collections for future generations." "I couldn't have been happier when I heard that Naper Settlement was awarded this preservation and access grant," Mayor A. George Pradel said. "The funds will help with relocating our treasured Naperville artifacts to their new home at the new Public Works Service Center. Naperville prides itself on preserving its past, and these dollars are vital to ensuring that we can continue to do that in a wonderful new museum storage facility."

The Heritage Society's mobile storage system was designated as a National Endowment for the Humanities "We the People" project and is being supported in part by funds the agency set aside for this special initiative. The goal of the "We the People" initiative is to encourage and strengthen the teaching, studying and understanding of American history and culture through the support of projects that explore significant events and themes in our nation's history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America.

Through this cycle of grant awards, NEH awarded a total of $17.8 million for 86 humanities project in 39 states providing support for humanities activities that explore significant themes and events in American history. The grants cover all of the Endowment's major program areas —Education (in cooperation with the Office of Digital Humanities), Preservation and Access, Public, Research and Challenge Grants. A highly competitive process, there were only four awards granted to Illinois agencies totaling $1,182,048. The other Illinois recipients were the University of Chicago ($200,000 for collaborative research), Northwestern University ($200,000 for scholarly editing), and $173,960 to support activities of the Illinois Humanities Council. The Heritage Society received the only stabilization grant.

Preservation and Access awards ensure that significant humanities collections in libraries, museums and archives are preserved and made available for research, education or public programming. Stabilization grants specifically help museums, libraries, archives and historical organizations preserve their humanities collections through support for improved housing and storage, environmental conditions, security, lighting and fire protection.

Chris Birck, President of the Naperville Heritage Society, said, "We couldn't be more delighted to have received this tremendous award and national endorsement of our work as we approach our organization's 40th anniversary in 2009."

In a national press release, NEH Chairman Bruce Cole said, "The Endowment offers diverse and competitive grant opportunities in order to promote excellence in the humanities. The recipients announced today represent scholarship and programming at its very best across a wide variety of disciplines and institutions."