By Leah Milowe
The Vicksburg Historical Society is thrilled to announce it is a recipient of a $2,200 Michigan History Alliance grant for improved storage in the Commercial Express office building in the Historic Village.
The alliance grant program is supported by the Historical Society of Michigan and is intended to provide funding to small and medium sized organizational members. In 2023 and 2024, the grant program provided a total of $25,000 in funding. This year, the Consumers Energy Foundation granted $25,000, doubling the dollar amount of grants.
The historical society requested funds to build a new storage unit to properly store and care for our framed artifacts. The majority of those artifacts are Vicksburg Community Schools graduating class composites but also include individual and family photographs, documents, and other village images.
Currently, most framed items are stored on the second floor of the Express office, where conditions are not favorable for preservation of photographs. With the new storage unit, the artifacts will be more accessible for care and exhibit use.
More information about the alliance grant program and the 2025 winners may be found on the HSM website at https://www.hsmichigan.org/announcing-recipients-2025-michigan-history-alliance-grant-program.
This is the second opportunity the Historical Society has received recently to improve storage for artifacts. In December, a Storage Tube Drive was held to raise funds to purchase archival tubes for rolled artifacts such as maps, blueprints relating to the Historic Village and Lee Paper Company, family documents, and more.
Through the Storage Tube Drive, we received over $1,100 in donations, nearly reaching the $1,200 goal. We are grateful to all our donors.
Learn about railroad and local history and visit our latest exhibit, “Women in Vicksburg”, at the Vicksburg Depot Museum, open every Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
