pueblo, colorado library and archive to get long-desired facility upgrade

A library whose archival holdings include more than 10,000 historic photos relating to the history of southern Colorado, as well as rock art and archaeology collections, is in line for a major upgrade.

Located on the third floor of the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library at 100 East Abriendo Avenue in Pueblo, the archive has received a $500,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a facility space renovation.

As planned, the upgrading inside the 15 year-old building will include enlarging the archive’s storage vault and installing new climate control and fire suppression systems.

A workspace set aside for staff members is also expected to be expanded, with more workspace to be built for researchers.

Altogether, the upgrading will cost around $2 million, with additional funding coming from other sources, including the Pueblo City-County Library District.

In a statement, Amy Nelson, special collections and museum services manager with the district, said the upgrade project will include improving storage space in a manner that will provide “new pathways for our community to explore its roots and heritage.”

Besides its historic photos and rock art collections, the Rawlings Public Library also includes such historically random items as a pen used by President John F. Kennedy in August of 1962 to sign the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project transbasin water diversion enabling legislation, and the final will of famous explorer and fur trapper Kit Carson, who died in 1868.
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Altogether, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded just under $31 million in grants for a variety of humanities facility projects across the country.

By Garry Boulard

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