A student-faculty project to preserve the legacy of a colorful Brown professor and the museum he established has won two awards from the American Association for State and Local History. <em>The Lost Museum</em>, a curated exhibition that ran for a year in Rhode Island Hall, closed after Commencement.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Lost Museum, a student-curated exhibition that was recently on display at Rhode Island Hall, has been presented with two awards by the American Association for State and Local History’s Leadership in History Awards Program: An Award of Merit and the History in Progress Award.

The exhibition, curated by a group of students and faculty who called themselves the Jenks Society of Lost Museums, was created to preserve the legacy of the former Museum of Natural History and Anthropology and its founder, former Brown professor John Whipple Potter Jenks. The exhibition was on display in Rhode Island Hall from May 2014 to May 2015 and included rediscovered artifacts from the Museum, which was also housed in Rhode Island Hall, as well as a recreation of Jenks' office in 1894, which will remain on display for another year.

The Lost Museum is one of three History in Progress award winners this year nationwide. This award is given for a project that is highly inspirational, exhibits exceptional scholarship, and/or is exceedingly entrepreneurial in terms of funding, partnerships, collaborations, creative problem solving, or unusual project design and inclusiveness. The Award of Merit is presented for excellence in history programs, projects, and people when compared with similar activities nationwide.

The Lost Museum had previously won the awards for best graduate student project from the National Council on Public History and the American Alliance of Museums award for Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing.