County museum gets support for photo grant

The Sweetwater County Museum received support for a grant application towards the purchase of the New Studio photo collection.

The letter, which was approved by the Sweetwater County Commissioners Tuesday, is one of two that will be sent with a $5,000 grant application to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

According to Ruth Laurizen, director of the Sweetwater County Museum, the museum has raised more than $34,000 of the needed $62,000 purchase price. While the museum has worked hard to raise the needed money before their April deadline, a few of the grants museum staff applied for haven’t panned out. The museum was rejected by foundations representing the Union Pacific Railroad, Haliburton and Simplot Phosphates.

Laurizen has had limited success by fundraising through social media, raising about $2,000 from county residents. The main portion of the funds comes from a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund.

The collection includes more than 75,000 photo negatives from 1915 to 1996 and includes furniture, backdrops and antique camera used at New Studio.

Once purchased, Lauritzen said the museum would need a space to store the photos, something she hopes the county would be able to help her with. The photo collection is in the New Studio basement, and have received some flood damage during its storage.

However, Lauritzen said the negatives have been protected by other damaging elements like light and mold.

The purchase would also be the first phase of a two-step process in cataloging and archiving the photos. An estimated $86,000 would be needed to hire a full-time photo archivist to complete the collection’s acquisition.

Lauritzen said she plans to submit a proposal to the Institute of Museum and Library Services to help provide a photo archivist.