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Shenandoah National Park press release



     For Immediate Release               For additional information contact
                                         Reed Engle @ (540) 999-3495


     PUBLIC READING ROOM OPENS JUNE 5


     Shenandoah National Park, VA--Shenandoah National Park Superintendent
     Douglas K. Morris announced today that construction is nearing
     completion and the public reading room in the building that houses
     Park archives will open on June 5, 2001.

     According to Morris, "The completion of the reading room addition is a
     milestone in a six-year project to establish a professional museum
     management program at Shenandoah National Park."

     Prior to 1994 Park archival records and museum objects were housed in
     over seven different locations with no environmental controls or
     security. None of the collections were cataloged. Since 1995 the Park,
     using funds made available through the Recreation Fee Demonstration
     Program and special funding provided by the National Park Service's
     Museum Program Office, has spent over $500,000 to construct a
     state-of-the-art curatorial storage facility and to process and
     catalog over 350,000 records and museum objects, approximately 70% of
     the Park's collection. The Park has also obtained funding to hire a
     permanent archival staff: Harry Heiss, Archivist, and Alison Kelly,
     Archival Technician.

     The collections' primary focus is on the establishment and subsequent
     development of Shenandoah National Park. Its holdings include Park
     resource management records documenting the creation and development
     of the Park from 1931 to 1965 and duplicate copies of Commonwealth of
     Virginia land records relating to the survey, appraisal, and
     condemnation of privately owned property before establishment of the
     Park . The Park also has cataloged the personal papers of Ferdinand
     Zerkel and Darwin Lambert and various assembled collections
     specifically related to the Civilian Conservation Corps, Skyland
     Resort, and former President Herbert Hoover's Rapidan Camp (for many
     years referred to as Camp Hoover).  The collections contain no known
     family or public records dating prior to 1924 with the exception of
     Skyland Resort materials. Genealogical records are only those
     incidentally documented by the Commonwealth of Virginia in the 1927
     property appraisals and in a few cases by family letters to the Park
     dated after 1935 and included in Park resource management records.
     Within the next few weeks, copies of finding aids to cataloged Park
     archival collections will be available in local libraries.

     In order to continue making progress in cataloging the remaining
     collections, the reading room will be open to staff and the public by
     appointment only Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m - 12:00 noon and
     1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. Walk-in requests will not be honored until the
     collections are fully cataloged. Appointments may be made after May
     21, 2001, by telephone at (540) 999-3494, by FAX at (540) 999-3493 or
     by email at SHEN_Archives@nps.gov. Requests for information may
     continue to be made without a visit to the Park archives. Appointments
     and requests for information will be handled in the order in which
     they are received.


                           *     *     *     *     *

     Prepared 5/14/01

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