Just in time for one last summer trip. . . .

Maybe you’ve already taken a big vacation for the summer, perhaps to an exotic place or maybe to the ever popular Outer Banks. But this summer you can’t miss out on voting for and visiting one or two places named on the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM) nomination list for the Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts.

VAM has created a program called Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts in order to raise public awareness about the care of collections throughout Virginia, Washington, D.C., and beyond. Virginia’s Top 10 is not a grant-giving program. It is designed to offer museums, libraries, and archives an opportunity to raise media and public awareness about the ongoing and expensive care of collections. Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts’ nominees have the opportunity to promote their nomination during the public voting portion of this project. Public voting began on August 1st and will continue until August 29th. Please take a look and vote for the twenty-one nominated artifacts here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/vatop10.

As I sit at my computer, glued to the voting ballot day after day, I start to realize two things: 1. It is amazing how widespread these nominees are throughout Virginia, and 2. Any one of these nominated organizations would make an awesome end of the summer trip. I was born in Virginia, and my father dragged my family to every museum and battlefield he could on our family vacations, but more than 50% of the nominated organizations are unknown to me.

This image shows a map of Virginia and the distribution of the 21 organizations who have been nominated for the “Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts” program. Please note: some organizations are located in the same city.

So if you’ve not been to Richmond and the Virginia Historical Society to see the Charles Hoffbauer Memorial Military Murals, first, vote for them, and then come visit them. Vote for all the nominated endangered artifacts and then make some time to visit one of the organizations. Get involved with your history. Also, you can vote multiple times, so maybe vote for the Hoffbauer murals once or twice more.

Conservators working on the “Summer” mural at the Virginia Historical Society.

Hope to see you at the VHS!

Elaine

Elaine Hagy is the Senior Grants Officer for the Virginia Historical Society. She loves history and makes sure to visit a new museum every summer.