For those who missed the announcements and posts this year’s Angel’s Project was held at the Milwaukee Historical Society on May 15th. More than 20 volunteers came to the Historical Society headquarters at the former Second Ward Savings Bank building. This year’s project was to document, evaluate, and rehouse the Historical Societies photography collection. After a full day’s work over 400 tintypes, ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes were assessed and rehoused for archival storage.
On a personal note this was my first Angel’s Project and I didn’t really know what to expect. I was apprehensive about this years project because as an architectural conservator I’ve never worked with photographs and was wondering if I would actually be of any help at all. I could not have been more wrong, there were volunteers who were professionally trained photography conservators paired with pre-program students with no experience. Meg Geiss-Mooney was my partner I sat down next to her and learned exactly what I needed to do my job, as well as hearing her great textile conservation stories about polyester Star Trek uniforms and the conservation of Princess Leia’s golden bikini (yes, that bikini!).
Overall, the Angel’s project was a great experience and one that I hope to be a part of for many years to come. Not only was it an opportunity to learn a lot about proper archival housing for early photographs, I had fun and felt good about donating my time to a worthy cause.
In addition to the pictures posted on flickr, this year ECPN made a short movie about the Angel’s Project. I hope you enjoy and if anyone wants a copy just let me know.