FAIRHOPE, Ala. - A project to preserve documents and artifacts of the Marietta Johnson Museum will continue with the help of a $6,000 grant administered by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

The project began two years ago to digitally archive the collection of documents, publications, scrapbooks, photographs, videotapes and artifacts of the museum established in honor of the woman who founded the School of Organic Education in 1907.

“The legacy of world-renowned progressive educator Marietta Johnson is documented by the museum’s archival collection which numbers 85,000 items,” said museum director Maggie Mosteller-Timbes. “The work of inventorying, cataloguing, preserving, rehousing and digitizing the collection is a mammoth undertaking which will require the ongoing efforts of the archival staff.”

The archive project’s staff includes Timbes and Lovelace Cook and Lauren Cook, who have undergone special archival training at the Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, she said.

The grant funds originated with the National Historical Publication and Records Commission and required a 100 percent match of $3,000 by the museum.

That money and an additional $1,000 were raised by the museum through a raffle from January through February this year, Timbes said.

Pre-kindergarten through second-grade students of Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education teacher Beth King visited the museum last week to learn about the progressive educator who founded their school.

The students also helped draw the winning tickets in the raffle sponsored by the museum that is housed in the historic Bell Building, which was the original school house for the Organic School, Timbes said.

“The students asked about the large bell in the building’s tower,” she said. “I told them that Marietta Johnson rang it to call the students to class each morning and again to signal their dismissal each afternoon.”

In 1987, the 10-acre site of the school was sold to the city of Fairhope, which leased the property to Faulkner State Community College. The Organic School then moved to its current location on Pecan Street, Timbes said.

The grand prize winners of the raffle, Phyllis and Ken Wallace, won a two-night stay at the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa.

Other raffle gift sponsors included: Quail Creek Golf Club, Big Daddy’s Restaurant, Panini Pete’s, Fairhope Spa and Salon, and the Battle House.

“Congratulations to the winners and a sincere thank you to the many generous prize sponsors as well as those who contributed to the museum’s fundraising efforts,” Timbes said. “A special thank you to Dee and Gary Lamb of Postmark Ink who provided the ticket printing and paper.”

For more information about the Marietta Johnson Museum, call 990-8601 or visit its website at www.mariettajohnson.org. The museum is open 2-4 p.m. weekdays.