The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum has received a $60,000 planning grant for museum reinstallation from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
This grant will allow for the WWPL to plan for the re-installation of permanent museum galleries that will offer a more holistic view of the times in which Woodrow Wilson lived and its relevance today.
“This grant will allow us to plan for updated exhibits that will provide a more balanced assessment of Woodrow Wilson, offer more details about his time period of 1856-1924, and encourage deeper conversation about the social, economic and political issues of today,” said Robin von Seldeneck, CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum.
This planning period, which ends June 30, 2020, allows the staff to work with a team of scholars to create a well-defined plan for new museum exhibits that provide relevance, nurture questioning and critical thinking, and facilitate greater knowledge about this time period that is central to understanding the world today.
Scholars working on the project include Dr. Sahr Conway-Lanz, scholar in residence at Widener University and former modern historian with the Library of Congress and archivist with the Richard Nixon Presidential Library; Dr. John Milton Cooper, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin and author of several books including the Pulitzer prize finalist Woodrow Wilson, A Biography; Dr. Thomas Knock, professor of history at Southern Methodist University who focuses on 20th Century American and U.S. Foreign Relation and is the author of To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order s; Dr. Bryan Le Beau, former Provost and Vice-President of Academic Affairs at the University of Saint Mary, and author of several books on various topics in American History; Patricia O’Toole, Professor Emerita at Columbia University and author of five books including The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made which was released in 2018; and Dr. Eric Yellin, Associate Professor of History at the University of Richmond, and author of the book, Racism in the Nation’s Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson’s America.
The WWPL is encouraging community members to assist with this project by serving on focus groups about potential new content. For more information, please contact Andrew Phillips, Curator and project director at [email protected].
The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum is located at 20 N. Coalter Street in Staunton and includes Wilson’s birthplace, a museum, the library and archives. The Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday – Saturday, and 12 – 5 p.m. on Sundays. For additional information, call 540-885-0897 or visit www.woodrowwilson.org.
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Chris Graham
