October 2011

McKissick Museum was recently awarded a $149,734 "Museums for America" Collections Stewardship grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. McKissick Museum was the only South Carolina recipient for this program this year. With the award, the museum will begin a two-year project to inventory and recatalog the minerals and fossils in its natural science collection. The museum's holdings contain significant local and regional geology collections, including minerals, rocks and fossils (invertebrate, vertebrate and paleobotanic specimens), as well as other significant specimens from around the world. The grant allowed McKissick Museum to hire Christian Cicimurri as the project manager, and Gabrielle Munn and Melanie Neil as curatorial assistants. They began working with the chief curator of collections and research, Jill Koverman, and the curator of natural science, Dr. Kajal Ghoshroy, on the inventory and cataloging of 400 drawers of specimens.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.

Photo: McKissick Museum IMLS Project team. Left to right: Christian Cicimurri, Gabrielle Munn, Melanie Neil, Jill Koverman (not pictured, Kajal Ghoshroy).