The N.H. Division of Archives & Records Management received a FY 2004/2005 Mooseplate Conservation Grant award of $6,304 from the New Hampshire State Library to treat and rebind four volumes of manuscript acts of the general court for the years 1865-1868. The manuscripts are the "record copy" of the acts of the General Court owing to the non-existence of the original drafts of bills for these years. The only other version of these laws is in the printed volumes that were derived from the originals at the time of passage.

These volumes had been heavily used for research into state expenditures and activities relating to the Civil War during the years immediately following that conflict. Researchers often printed copies from microfilm, but still needed to see and to copy the originals. Although the paper of the pages remained remarkably stable with impeccable penmanship, the volumes themselves had been rebound a number of times resulting in holes and tears where the stitching had occurred.

Grant funds enabled cleaning, deacidification, encapsulating and post binding for the four volumes. The conserved volumes containing the record of our societal laws are housed in the atmospherically controlled vault at the New Hampshire State Archives, 71 South Fruit Street, Concord.