City of Canon City (Royal Gorge Regional Museum and Historical Center)

The Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center, Cañon City, CO will use grant funds for the cleaning and archival housing of 200 books donated to the museum by the Holy Cross Abbey. From the 1920s through 2007, the Abbey was a monastery, a boy’s school, and a center of the community for European immigrants working in the mines of Fremont County. The book collection is wide ranging, with volumes dating from 1766 to 1988, covering topics including religion, science, geography, history, and anthropology. Notable works include a copy of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, and The Works of Washington Irving. Once conserved, the collection will be the focus of exhibits and community programming based on the content of the collection, as well as the importance of conservation.