Naper Settlement

Naper Settlement will engage the services of professional conservators to clean, stabilize, and conserve a circa-1912 threshing machine once used by area farmers. Due to its deteriorated condition, treatment is required to ensure the thresher's long-term preservation. The thresher will be the centerpiece of an exhibition about the region's agricultural past in the area's new Agricultural Interpretive Center which is currently in development. Additionally, Naper Settlement will hold a two-day field-study workshop for emerging museum professionals in collections care and conservation of macro-artifacts. Besides resulting in a well-conserved threshing machine, the project will increase awareness of the regions agricultural history through print and digital communication and will explore new ways to use the thresher as an educational tool.