The American Textile History Museum
(ATHM), Lowell, Mass., has embarked on Caring for Collections: The $1 Million Challenge, a special
fundraising effort to raise $1 million to increase its endowment and provide for the preservation
of its collections. The funds must be raised by Dec. 31, 2006, in order to receive a
dollar-for-dollar $1 million matching grant from the Maine Community Foundation.
“This is a short time frame and a sizable amount of money,” said Jim Coleman, ATHM’s
executive director. “Therefore, large and small gifts are needed to meet this goal. The collections
are at the core of our mission to tell America’s story through the art, science and history of our
textiles; and the museum needs everyone’s help in this grassroots effort to ensure that the
collections are sustained for present and future generations of textile enthusiasts.”
Founded in 1960 in North Andover, Mass., by handweaver and collector Caroline Stevens
Rogers, the museum relocated to Lowell in 1997, moving into a 150,000-square-foot factory built in
1860 by the Kitson Manufacturing Co. to produce textile machinery.
“The museum is home to the most significant textile history collection in North America,
with an extraordinary library and one of the world’s largest and most important publicly held
collections of tools, spinning wheels and hand looms,” Coleman said. “We have more than 5 million
pieces of textile prints, fabric samples, rolled textiles, coverlets and costumes; and the work of
acquisition, preservation and exhibition of the collections is a major expense for the museum. This
effort to increase our endowment is specifically targeted towards the long-term preservation of the
collections so that Americans and others throughout the world can understand the important
contributions textiles have made and continue to make to the fabric of American lives.”
Donations may be made by contacting Marisa Tescione in the museum’s development office (978)
441-0400, Ext. 246, or through the museum’s website,
www.athm.org.
June 6, 2006
