DeWitt County Museum director Joey Woolridge with Greg Meyer, executive director of Illinois Prairie Community Foundation.

Courtesy of DeWitt County Museum

CLINTON  – The DeWitt County Museum Association of Clinton has received a grant for $2,000 from Illinois Prairie Community Foundation.

The grant is funded through Illinois Prairie Community Foundation’s Arts & Culture grant category. The grant will help the DeWitt County Museum Association fund the C.H. Moore Homestead DeWitt County Museum’s Photograph Preservation Project.  The museum’s historical photograph collection will be scanned, cataloged, stabilized, and archived in archival-quality storage, thus preserving the images for generations to come and making the pictures more easily accessible to the public. 

“We are very grateful to the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation for this opportunity,” said Museum Director, Joey Woolridge.  “With the foundation’s generous financial contribution, these precious glimpses of DeWitt County’s past – images of rural school children, railroad scenes, early architecture, train wrecks, street sign painters, Chautauquas, railroad employees, agricultural scenes, Civil War veterans, vanished landmarks, and more - will be preserved for the future. 

We look forward to implementing the project this summer.”

 “By funding programs like the Photograph Preservation Project, Illinois Prairie Community Foundation ensures that quality programs enrich the communities in which we live,” said Greg Meyer, Executive Director of Illinois Prairie Community Foundation. “We are committed to helping build strong communities in Central Illinois.”

During the current grant cycle, Illinois Prairie Community Foundation awarded $150,200 in three categories of grants to 54 programs in McLean, DeWitt, Livingston and Logan Counties. Grants ranged from $600-$8,200. Funding came from the Jerome Mirza Foundation, donors to the Foundation’s annual campaign and endowments.

The DeWitt County Museum Association was established in 1967 to provide educational opportunities and to promote and preserve DeWitt County’s history and heritage.  The 501c-3 organization oversees the operation and maintenance of the C.H. Moore Homestead DeWitt County Museum and relies solely on memberships, fundraising events, donations, and grants for funding.    

About Illinois Prairie Community Fund Illinois Prairie Community Foundation, now in its 21st year, encourages and facilitates philanthropy in McLean, DeWitt, Livingston and Logan Counties by connecting donors who care with causes that matter to them. The foundation currently manages assets of $12.5 million in 145 funds including donor advised, agency, and scholarship funds and endowments.