The Great American Treasures museum alliance is a consortium of sixty-four sites with deep connections to our parent organization: The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA). Part of the NSCDA’s mission is rooted in historic preservation: the protection of cultural heritage, people, and places. The NSCDA Great American Treasures Museum Alliance is the truest expression of that commitment to our nation’s history.

Each of these historic properties, museums, and memorials have joined this free program that unites their passion, resources, and reach. As a member, the NSCDA provides these sites with unified branding, free marketing, annual membership to the American Alliance of Museums, scholarships to the Attingham Summer School, staff roundtables and professional development programs, and eligibility for the NSCDA Great American Treasures Museum Alliance Grant.

The NSCDA Museum Alliance Grant was created through the NSCDA Comprehensive Campaign which concluded in 2020. The one-million-dollar endowment supports an annual draw of $20,000, which will be awarded in four $5,000 competitive grants.

After nearly a decade of dreaming, planning, and fundraising, the NSCDA has completed its first Museum Alliance Grant cycle. Nineteen of our remarkable Great American Treasures applied to win funding. Each project aims to advance the ​preservation or awareness of the historical trusts ​(buildings, collections, landscapes, gardens, or communities) of the NSCDA.

Our Awardees

The Centre for French Colonial Life, St. Genevieve, Missouri

Linden/Hands-on House Fencing Replacement  
The Centre for French Colonial Life, St. Genevieve, Missouri
Funding supplies to be used by volunteers to build a new, historically accurate fence to replace the fence erected at the Beauvais Linden House in the 1970s.

 

Joel Lane Museum House, Raleigh, North Carolina

Joel Lane Museum House Interior Paint Analysis 
Joel Lane Museum House, Raleigh, North Carolina
The means to hire Dr. Susan Buck, conservator and paint analyst, to gather samples of interior paint and ​wall/trim treatments and analyze them to determine accurate colors and finishes for the 1769 Lane House.

 

McAllister House Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Sustainability Based Horticulture Initiative  
McAllister House Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The purchase and installation of an irrigation system, rain sensors, a rain barrel catchment system, drip line, mulch, ​and rock and flagstone to ethically support the restored landscape.

 

Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut

Mobilizing Educational Programs: George Washington Really Did Sleep Here! 
Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut
A fifth-grade curriculum, mobile program that interprets General Washington’s life, his role, and service to the U.S. ​The primary and secondary evidence will be gathered in five traveling trunks delivered by members of the NSCDA-CT.​

 

Only four site projects received national funds, yet we strive to support all of our Great American Treasures. As you plan your annual giving, please consider supporting a Great American Treasure. Each project is one way you can see your contribution be immediately put to work, providing real benefits to tens of thousands of schoolchildren and families who visit our sites every year.

Shop our projects to see what else you can support.

Historic Preservation

Museum Interpretation

Collections

Landscapes

Treasure your Treasures

Want to help? Reach out to the staff at Great American Treasures by emailing samanthadorsey@nscda.org or by contacting the individual sites. Most donations are tax-deductible and crucial to the survival of our cultural heritage, which has been hard hit by the COVID crisis. Consider funding the past to save our future.

We’re thankful to serve you.