U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Will Build $40 Million Archives & Conservation Center in Suburban DC

From The Gazette:

Bowie [Maryland, pronounced Boo-ee] will soon be the home of the largest collection of Holocaust archives in the world, according to representatives from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Andrew Hollinger, a spokesman for the museum, said that because of recent efforts to search out and collect evidence of the Holocaust, the museum expects its collection to double in size over the next decade. Museum officials found a location in the Bowie area that was large enough to meet their needs and plan to complete construction on a new $40 million archive center there by the end of 2016, Hollinger said. The center will be named the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections and Conservation Center after a Los Angeles couple who survived the Holocaust and donated $15 million to the project, he said.
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While the archive center will not be open to the general public, Hollinger said the materials will be available to researchers and that museum staff will be available to conduct research for families looking for information about their relatives.
The facility will include highly specialized laboratories, equipment and climate-controlled rooms to help preserve the artifacts, he said.

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Fast Fact: The Smithsonian Institution’s off-site storage facility (aka Museum Support Center (MSC)) is located in Camp Springs, MD, about 15 miles (as the crow flies) from Bowie. Both locations are in Prince George’s County, MD. The MSC provides more than 435,00 sq. feet of storage space.

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, News, Preservation