We would like to congratulate the City of Savannah Research Library & Municipal Archives (RLMA), who, partnering with the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC), has just received a grant for $13, 111 to reformat at-risk, rare audio recordings (34 open -reel tapes; estimated 43 hours; dating 1955-1978, undated) from the W. W. Law Collection.
From the announcement at https://www.clir.org/recordings-at-risk/awards:
Westley Wallace “W. W.” Law (1923-2002) was a prominent civil rights leader, local historian, historic preservationist and community leader in Savannah, Georgia. As president of the Savannah Branch NAACP from 1950-1976, his collection includes a variety of material related to the civil rights movement, not only in Savannah but throughout the United States. The audio included in this project include speeches by NAACP leaders, civil rights events, recordings of regional musicians, and local history programs. They will be valuable to researchers from a broad array of disciplines, including local and national scholars of American, social or music history, local community members, biographers, and students, among others.
The Recordings at Risk grant program is a national regranting program administered by CLIR to support the preservation of rare and unique audio and audiovisual content of high scholarly value. Generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program will award a total of $2.3 million between January 2017 and September 2018.
