Check with the Maryland Historical Trust. It has, for many years, funded archaeology through a non-capital grant program. I do not know if they use bond money, but I'm quite sure the subject came up. Start with their website (http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/) or contact me off list for an e-mail address of a representative.
--
Gibb Archaeological Consulting
James G. Gibb, Ph.D.
2554 Carrollton Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21403
(443) 482-9593
www.gibbarchaeology.org
-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Hank D. Lutton" <[log in to unmask]>
> Does anyone know of a city or county that has sold bonds in order to
> fund public archaeology or research on existing collections? Last week,
> Bloomberg.com carried an article by Joe Mysak that describes how the
> City of Springfield, Illinois sold $23 million in municipal bonds to
> finance the purchase of a major collection of Abraham Lincoln artifacts
> for the Lincoln Presidential Library. For those interested, I've
> included the article below. I am curious if anyone has attempted
> anything similiar for archaeological excavations or collections.
>
> Thanks,
> Hank
>
>
> Springfield Sells Bonds for Mary Lincoln's Bloomers
>
> Commentary by Joe Mysak
>
> Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Municipalities sell bonds to build roads and
> sewers, buy new ambulances and police cruisers, repair and maintain
> bridges. Sometimes they use them to buy stuff like Abraham Lincoln's
> hat and gloves, and Mary Lincoln's bloomers.
>
> The city of Springfield, Illinois, sold $23 million in community
> improvement revenue bonds back in September for the Abraham Lincoln
> Presidential Library Foundation Project. I didn't spot these bonds when
> they were first sold, but this seems an appropriate time, between
> Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12 and the Presidents Day holiday, to catch
> up.
>
> The Springfield bonds are just another example of why the municipal
> market is a wonder of the world.
>
> Springfield was Lincoln's home before he was elected the 16th president
> in 1860, and is the site of the Lincoln presidential library and museum.
>
> The ``Project'' is spelled out in a lengthy description on Page 3 of
> the offering documents to the bonds: ``The proceeds of the Bonds will
> be used to refinance the costs of a community improvement project
> consisting of acquiring a collection of approximately 1,500 items of
> personal property consisting in part of furniture, manuscripts,
> campaign ribbons, medal tokens, campaign posters, campaign tickets and
> ballots, and campaign torches, artifacts, prints, photographs,
> paintings, sculpture, books, pamphlets, broadsides, sheet music,
> newspapers, films, recordings, postal covers, stationery, coins,
> currency and stamps pertaining primarily to the life of Abraham
> Lincoln.''
>
> `Magic of Stuff'
>
> The bonds are being used to pay off a $23 million loan used last summer
> to acquire ``the Project,'' which is the collection of Louise Taper of
> Beverly Hills, California.
>
> Selling bonds to add to a museum's collection seems to be unusual; most
> museums sell bonds for capital improvements. Yet, this being the
> municipal market, I can't say the Lincoln offering is a first. There's
> always some odd little deal out there that might have been first in
> terms of building a collection.
>
> Maybe more museums will sell bonds to buy stuff in the future, as items
> come up for sale that they simply must have. Certainly, this was the
> case with the Taper collection of Lincolniana, long reputed to be one
> of the best in private hands.
>
> It featured prominently in my old friend Andrew Ferguson's book ``Land
> of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America,'' published last year by
> Atlantic Monthly Press.
>
> Ferguson wrote about Taper, a self-taught buff whose husband's fortune
> bankrolled her ``Lincoln fever,'' as she put it, in a chapter titled
> ``The Magic of Stuff.''
>
> Stovepipe Hat
>
> ``I always knew just what I wanted,'' Taper told Ferguson. ``I wanted
> the personal Lincoln, I wanted the unusual Lincoln, I wanted the family
> Lincoln. And I wanted every phase of his life.''
>
> The Taper collection includes Lincoln's beaver-skin stovepipe hat --
> one of three known -- a billfold, the gloves he wore on the night of
> his assassination and his wife's undergarments. There are lots of other
> items, some of which Taper donated as gifts to the museum.
>
> At one point in the chapter, Taper tells Ferguson, ``And that's the
> chamber pot he used in the White House.''
>
> The author observes: ``You own Abraham Lincoln's chamber pot.'' Taper
> has decided to keep that item.
>
> Well, there's not much more to say, is there? How could the museum not
> buy this treasure-trove?
>
> Presidential Library
>
> The bonds were sold in two parts, with $13 million carrying a 4.25
> percent coupon due in 2017, callable at par in 2010, and $10 million,
> also due in 2017, at an interest rate set weekly, most recently at 2.20
> percent. The bonds were underwritten by Harris Bank, which also
> provided a letter of credit.
>
> Normally, at this point, I would pull apart the bond documents and
> financial statements, detail museum attendance and fund raising, and
> pretty much try to discredit the whole thing. Tourist attractions don't
> have a good track record in the municipal market.
>
> Not this time.
>
> For one thing, we're talking about a presidential library and museum.
> For another, it's not just any leader, but Lincoln, who is generally
> considered by most historians to be in the first rank of U.S.
> presidents.
>
> I'm wagering that Lincoln, always a canny politician, can still bring
> home the bacon. And so does Rick Beard, executive director of the
> library and museum, who told the New York Times last week that he was
> looking for some special donors to help retire the bonds.
>
> (Joe Mysak is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
>
> To contact the writer of this column: Joe Mysak in New York at
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Last Updated: February 15, 2008 00:17 EST
|
