MESDA Field Research Endowment

 

Celebrate MESDA’s 60th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the MESDA Journal with us!

 

MESDA is widely recognized for its contributions to the study and understanding of southern history, decorative arts, and material culture. An important part of MESDA’s scholarly mission is the Field Research Program through which we document southern decorative arts in private and public collections. The files created enhance our understanding of the permanent collection and the breadth of southern material culture beyond what we can physically collect. The resulting field research files—both hard copies and digital—are “go to” resources used by collectors, scholars, and other researchers throughout the world who want to study southern material culture.

In 1975, MESDA began publishing the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts—also referred to as The MESDA Journal—as a vehicle to share the research gathered and assimilated through the Craftsman Database and the MESDA Field Research Program. Fifty years later, the MESDA Journal is a leading scholarly publication recognized for its dissemination of scholarship related to southern history and material culture.

Today, the MESDA Research staff try to take at least one field research trip each year, but funding for these trips is limited, and we are not always able to sustain a yearly research trip.

As a result, we are establishing an endowment for the MESDA Field Research Program. Our goal is to raise $200,000 dollars for this endowment in our anniversary year which will guarantee funding for one Field Research Trip each year in perpetuity.

Join us in celebrating our anniversary year and support MESDA Field Research through the link below!

 

When you click above, you will be directed to the Old Salem Museums & Gardens website to complete your transaction.