HCSCC awarded historical preservation grants

MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Minnesota Historical Society awarded the Historical and Cultural Society a $6,618 grant from the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Program. The grant was used to purchase microfilm records of 63 Lutheran churches located or formerly located in Clay County and in Minnesota townships immediately adjacent to Clay County, 1870-1971; indexes to reference cards for Works Projects Administration files covering Clay County WPA projects, 1935-1942 and Clay County published newspapers, including the Moorhead Daily News for the 1920s through the 1940s.

The grant was awarded in July and the project was just completed. Currently, the Historical Society has received only the WPA indexes, but the newspapers and church records are on order and should be available early next year. When they arrive, they will be available to the public for free in the archives. For more information, please contact HCSCC Archivist Mark Peihl at 218-299-5511 ext. 6734 or Mark. Peihl@ci.moorhead.mn.us .

Through the same grant program, HCSCC has just been awarded a $6,342 grant to hire the Midwest Art Conservation Center to conduct a General Preservation Assessment Survey of its collections at the Hjemkomst Center.

In addition, the Minnesota State Historical Records Advisory Board of the Minnesota Historical Society recently granted HCSCC $8,000 to oversee a project called “Forming the Infrastructure of Migrant Services in the Red River Valley of Minnesota,” which will entail collecting and preserving the oral histories of a number of people important to the development of services for migrants in the region under the leadership of Abner Arauza.

The HCSCC collects, preserves and presents the history and culture of Clay County and the region. The HCSCC also provides interpretation of the Hjemkomst Viking Ship and Hopperstad Stave Church Replica, and hosts traveling exhibits in 7,000 sq. feet of temporary exhibition space. The HCSCC serves an average of 40,000 visitors a year from all over the world.

The HCSCC is a fiscal year 2010 recipient of a Minnesota Festival Support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

For more information, visit the website at www. hcscconline.org. The Hjem-komst Center is located at 202 First Ave. N., Moorhead.

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