Month: May 2016

44th Annual Meeting – Collections Care, May 15, "Comprehensive Collection Risk Assessment at Museum Victoria" by Maryanne McCubbin and Robert Waller

This presentation focused on using the Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model (CPRAM) at the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. If you scroll to the bottom of this web page you can obtain a free e-copy of CPRAM from Protect Heritage.
Museum Victoria, founded in 1854, specializes in a large range of materials and disciplinary types; natural sciences, indigenous cultures, history and technology. Less than 1% of collection is on exhibit at any given time. The museum complex has a wide range of facilities and each contain very different operational management and environments, and therefore different challenges:

  • Melbourne Museum – newest building – half of collections storage is in this space
  • Royal Exhibitions building – World Heritage listed building; paleontology and geology collection are stored in basement of this facility. They are being moved out of space currently because of the risks associated with storing them here (part of the CPRAM process)
  • Emigration museum – state registered building – just exhibits in this space
  • Off site collections storage – 50% spatially of our collections
  • Pumping stations – contains collection items
  • Science works – 3rd of their exhibition facilities

Summary of Museum Victoria’s experience of working on the CPRAM:
There are a lot of different risks in Museum Victoria’s collections. Before doing the CPRAM, it is important to recognize boundaries between collections and divide collections into discrete units, with exhibits being its own discrete collections unit. In total, there were 38 collections assessment units, with the assessments about 2/3rds of the way completed; 1/4 was completed by September of 2014 (unsure about beginning date). The initiative utilize a lot of staff time, but the Museum considered it a “Redirection” of time spent by staff instead of an extraordinary demand. In other words, they made this work a priority.
Museum Victoria’s main interest in doing the CPRAM was to assess the loss in utility value of collections over time. Value of course is considered in the context of the Museum, including historical/technological; exhibition; scientific; and cultural values to the Museum.
The remaining information below is only somewhat valuable if you are not familiar with the CPRAM model. I recommend getting the CPRAM document from Protect Heritage to understand the context of some of the information below (I was typing information that was on the PowerPoint slides that Robert was showing, and I added some additional information):
Risk Model Enhancements Completed at Museum Victoria:

  • Comprehensiveness
    • Source of risk + type of risk = generic risk – then broken down into specific risk – creating a quantitative sense of risk
  • Accountability
    • Ratio of other elements – 0 – 1 scale
    • Accountable for proving this is not the case?
  • Instrumental power
    • 200 page emergency plan = symbolic of the amount of risk, but who is going to read a 200 page emergency plan? Especially in an emergency.
    • Show risks that are within the control of the facility manager
    • Customized information
  • Extensive external critical reviews
    • Comprehensiveness
    • Clarity
    • Evidence
    • Appropriate model
    • Data sourcing
    • Benchmarking
    • Introduce to a range of benchmarks from other institutions
    • Done own research
    • External input is critical in adoption – to become self sufficient
  • Ongoing reporting
    • Implementing and gaining support at an institution-wide level including the Board – this is the hardest part
    • Reporting at all levels – templates that Robert provided
    • Aggregate and detailed data
  • Integrated incident reports into museum facilities
    • Redeveloped incident reporting
      • Online collection incident reporting
    • We don’t report all incidents – not realistic
    • Consistency of logic to encourage consistency of result, e.g. number scale, etc.
    • Evidence of data – put effort toward that instead of assuming the problem

44th Annual Meeting – Sustainability, May 16, "Sustainable Preservation on a Small Island: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Passive and Mechanized Environments" by Jeremy Linden et al.

This talk’s subject matter was as advertised: a preservation environment project on a remote island off the coast of Maine: Monhegan, Maine.
Never heard of Monhegan? Join the club. The island is protected by legislation – it is considered a conservation zone, since the island is fragile and so are its resources. On this tiny island is the Monhegan Museum. They were looking to improve the environment in the museum while also being sustainable: the environment was the only issue that the museum had not addressed in the CAP Report that was completed for the museum a number of years ago. So the museum got a PAG grant, bought some PEM2 dataloggers to get environmental data, and then brought in the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) to help improve their environment.
By the way, if you ask Ron Harvey, the CAP grant is the gateway drug to grants! 🙂
The island sounds like a lovely place… in the summer. Its remote location creates challenges, especially in the winter. The water lines are above ground, so water freezes in the winter. No wonder the population on the island plummets in the winter: 800 in the summer to *50* in the winter. it doesn’t help that the only way on and off the island is by boat: the mail comes by boat, the artwork travels by boat… you get the idea.
Overall, the building had some HVAC elements, but it wasn’t consistent, mostly due to the additions of buildings gifted to the museum, like the Assistant Lightkeeper’s house, which was gifted to the museum in 1998, and turned into a collections vault. The vault has HVAC and the office has heat, but the gallery spaces were unheated, mostly because they only have exhibitions during the warmer months.
First order of business: monitor the environment and get data. Some alarming conditions popped up:

  • Rising damp was discovered in the building due to how water flowed, so luckily that was simple water mitigation: move the water away from building instead of letting it drain into the basement
  • Working with climate control in a passive manner: using things like foam doors to reduce moisture migration, for example
  • Extremes of environment in this space

So, what’s an island with significant collections to do?
Luckily, this is not IPI’s first rodeo in challenging environments. So what were some of the things they chose to do based on the limited services and accessibility?

  • Period appropriate repairs to bring the keeper’s house closer to its original intended performance while remaining a passive building. Not every building needs an air handler, so let’s try to bring the building back to how it was supposed to behave in its original construction.
  • What about energy reduction and efficiency?
    • Testing strategies (seasonal set points, controlled shutdowns) to allow the mechanized vaults to operate passively for portions of the year while improving preservation
    • Improving energy generation on the island and recovering waste heat as a new source of energy
    • Good construction to original building helps a lot
    • Passive operations during parts of the year
    • Ranges and guidelines safe for collections
    • One of the HUGE challenges was electricity. The wiring needed repairs, but the museum was able to work with the power company and help from them to recover wasted heat for collections during the winter
  • Re-purposing appropriate structures to improve collections storage/ exhibit
    • Ice House
      • Extended the collection storage to include both the upper and lower floors to accommodate the need for appropriate storage for the expanding art collections
    • Gallery
      • CHECK THIS OUT: Solar thermal dehumidification to manage high summer RH! SO COOL (if you pardon the pun)
      • Addition of vapor and thermal barrier in the exposed dirt crawlspace to reduce vapor transfer into the building

To keep in mind: strategies and solutions that are appropriate to place – specifics may not be broadly applicable but the process certainly is! I thought it was an excellent example of collaboration while being considerate of an historic building – lots of places aren’t. This project demonstrated excellent teamwork and the awesomely amazing things an interdisciplinary team can do!
Some questions that came up after the talk:
How did you deal with the rising damp? The answer was downspouts and a French drain; also a plus that water loves to run downhill away from building, so the fact that the museum was set up high was to their advantage
What IS Solar-thermal Dehumidification anyway?: essentially they are running the desiccant system with the SUN only during the summer! The desiccant system is a Munters unit by the way. The vapor barrier is plastic sheeting over the top of the dirt layer in the crawlspaces to prevent rising damp.

44th Annual Meeting – Luncheon Session, May 15, Emerging Conservation Professionals Network Luncheon

The emerging conservation professionals luncheon was one of the events I was really looking forward to at the annual meeting. As a recent graduate and having just entered the conservation field as a postgraduate fellow, the idea of having a chance to converse with established conservation professionals, and receive advice to help launch my own career was extremely appealing.
Prior to the event, participants filled in a short online form that established what we wanted to achieve from the session. We could sign up as a mentor or a mentee, and choose between a variety of interests including (but not limited to) networking, jobs and fellowships, resume writing, getting into conservation and so on. This information was then used to match us to the people we would be interacting with during the session.
At the luncheon, participants were grouped into tables with approximately 7 – 8 people. At my table were two established conservation professionals, three recent graduates with fellowships/jobs, and two others new to the field.
The program started with an overview of the ECPN, introducing their board members, goals, and previous and upcoming programming. This was useful to new participants, allowing them to know who to reach out to, as well as the resources available to them. This was followed by several testimonials from established professionals, including Sarah Melching, Director of conservation at the Denver Art Museum who gave an in depth account of her unconventional pathway into conservation. It was interesting and also served as a source of encouragement for pre-program attendees.
Once the organized talks were completed, the official networking session began. Each table had a list of questions to facilitate discussions, making it easier for those of us who are a little shyer to keep the conversation flowing. The diversity at the tables was interesting, allowing some who came as mentees to serve as mentors to those just entering the field. This was surprising, yet rewarding. Personally, I left the event knowing I made some new connections, connections that only got stronger throughout the course of the conference.
I hope that such opportunities continue to be offered at future AIC meetings. The support provided from established colleagues in the field is invaluable and I find myself wishing that more time had been devoted to the mentor-mentee exchange. I would also appreciate the prospect of meeting more mentors and talking to them on a one-on-one basis. Thank you ECPN and ECC for organizing the event!
To find out more about the ECPN network and their resources, visit their page here.

44th Annual Meeting – Pre-Conference Session, May 14, STASH Flash III, organized by Rachel Perkins Arenstein and Shelly Uhlir

This year’s STASH Flash session featured a whopping fourteen speakers, divided by subject into three groups. To do them all justice is almost impossible — it was really a fantastic session! — but here is my best attempt.

2016-05-14 16.15.56
Nichole Doub presenting on storage solutions for waterlogged wood.

True to the theme of the annual meeting, the first set of talks focused on storage solutions for emergencies, beginning with Kelly O’Neill who presented on a mobile storage rack for paintings. As conservators at ArtCare, Miami, O’Neil and her colleagues must be prepared for severe weather. With this in mind, they worked with a carpenter to design a moveable rack made of marine plywood and reinforced PVC piping, with vinyl flooring and large wheels. A sailmaker was commissioned to create a custom cover with zippered sides and button snaps at the base, using Sunbrella cloth. The completed rack measured 105” x 114”, with the depth ranging from 43 to 93”; this was dictated by the space available in the studio.
Nichole Doub from the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory suggested folding frame tanks (such as those sold by Husky) as storage for waterlogged wooden objects. She also recommended the use of tank liners (Flexiliner has a chemist on staff who can advise in the case of solvent use) as well as above-ground swimming pools, which can be hooked up to the conservation lab’s own filters.
Ashley McGrew from Stanford University recommended the use of nylon mesh and webbing fixed with fast release clips to create user-friendly, flexible, and affordable restraints to protect objects during earthquakes.
The next group of presenters discussed solutions that were large in scale and scope, beginning with Alicia Ghadban, who discussed the implementation of the RE-ORG methodology at a workshop at the WuHou Shrine Museum in China. The workshop focused on a storage room on the third floor, where objects were stored on the floor, limiting access. During the reorganization, most objects were removed from the room, allowing the installation of compact shelving. Materials were reused wherever possible, and objects were housed by size and type. Additional information about RE-ORG is available here.
Gretchen Anderson from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History followed with a way to protect type collections for archeology: she made a lid with a window in it using archival board and polyester film, protecting objects from dust while allowing them to remain visible. Meanwhile, her colleague, Leslie Haines, suggested an alternative to plastic sheeting for building dust covers for large objects: they now use Tyvek, which is draped over a support made of PVC piping. The support is basically a cube made of piping (the bottom framework is important for stability) and can incorporate a Coroplast panel on top to protect the object from water. Cotton ties can be sewn to the Tyvek to help hold it closed, and images of the object can be fixed to the exterior for easy identification.
Erika Range then discussed a recent survey at the Canadian Museum of Nature that developed guidelines and decision trees to use in identifying appropriate labeling materials for use in natural history collections. I was hoping these would be available online, but could not find them; hopefully they will be made available to the wider conservation community soon.
The last segment of the session dealt with multipurpose solutions, beginning with Sanchita Balachandran of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, who presented on the rehousing of small robust archeological objects to facilitate their safe use in classrooms. She and her colleagues developed a repeatable, modular, searchable, and useable solution that could be implemented by student workers. Details on the solution are available here .
Emily Wroczynski followed with a presentation on creating clamshell boxes for oyster shells with rare earth magnet closures. Then, Kesha Talbert described the creation of mounts for the display and storage of handheld fans at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. These custom mounts were made with matboard covered with suede polyethylene, and step by step instructions are available here.
Stephanie Gowler described the problems inherent in displaying and storing items from the archive of performance artist Charlotte Moorman. Mounts needed to be almost invisible, which Gowler and her colleagues achieved by the use of Tycore and Volara panels with Ethafoam and Volara supports. Objects were sewn onto the panels with monofilament and linen thread, and the whole was housed in custom boxes from Talas. Quilts of Hollytex and polyester batting were used to minimize vibration. A great blog-post detailing the process is available here.
The session came to a close with two presentations on the housing of (relatively) flat materials. William Bennett, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives, presented on his creation of a custom pieced housing for a fragile early gelatin print using a magnetic overmat that allowed the photograph to be easily removed if necessary. Liz Peirce’s presentation on the rehousing of a collection of thin wood samples in four-flap boxes that are themselves housed in a clamshell box.
For further information, you can access the abstracts of all the presenters here. Presentations will also be posted on the STASH site.

Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Conference – Objects Session, May 17, "Facing the Past for Action in the Future: Cultural Survival in Native America", by Kelly McHugh

The official theme of the joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Conference was “Emergency! Preparing for Disasters and Confronting the Unexpected in Conservation”, however, a series of talks diverged from the theme, discussing instead the role of the conservation profession in supporting social inequality and established colonial structures: Kelly McHugh’s was one such dark horse.
She began her talk with the disclaimer that her talk would contain much self-reflection. This proved a successful approach to a difficult topic, the marginalization of Native Americans within the United States of America (Canada’s crimes against First Nations groups were not addressed). By expressing her position within the framework of her own experiences, McHugh made her message approachable, sharing blame in the problems she brought to light. As McHugh noted, conversations on reconciliation can be difficult as they bring up paralyzing feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and guilt. She stressed that in addressing injustices, it may feel to Americans that the legitimacy of the origin myth of the USA as the Land of the Free is undermined – an idea expressed by Walter Echo-Hawk in his book, “In the Light of Justice”.

Chota Memorial. From National Geographic’s East Tennessee River Vallery Geotourism MapGuide

McHugh began by discussing Tellico Lake, TN where she and her family vacation. Until recently she was unaware that the lake, created as a result of the construction of the Tellico dam, covered two sacred Cherokee sites, Chota and Tanasi. The construction of the dam, which was delayed for years due to an endangered fish called the snail darter, was not hindered at all by the sacred status of the sites, which were later commemorated through the naming of golf courses and the creation of a lakeside memorial. Tying her talk into the overarching conference theme, McHugh pointed to the irony of those responsible memorializing destroyed sites lost through an intentional, man-made disaster. McHugh went on to emphasize the significance of her own ignorance of Chota and Tanasi as symptomatic of the societal blindness to aboriginal issues, which was particularly uncomfortable for her after 19 years of employment at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Tanasi Memorial, erected in 1989. From National Geographic’s East Tennessee River Valley Geotourism MapGuide.

She then directed the audience’s attention to other sacred Native sites harmed in the interest of industry and tourism. She addressed the inadequacies of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, even noting that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 fails to give First Nations tribes the right to completely barre all disturbance of sacred sites. She highlighted one location successfully protected from development for an army training facility, Medicine Bluff, which was done so by culturally educating the judge in the case, by inviting him to the site and having him walk with a religious leader. She also cited current threats to Native American heritage, notably encroaching sea levels from climate, requiring the displacement of tribal villages.
The Inupiat village of Kivalina, Alaska, is threatened by coastal erosion and rising sea levels. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters.

Stressing the inherent connection between human rights and authority over cultural patrimony, McHugh showed the importance of generating awareness of these issues all the while not separating Native history from our own. McHugh called for true collaboration between museums and native communities, noting that NMAI was getting closer to such a relationship and highlighting other significant organizations like the School for Advanced Research and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums. She suggested the use of listening sessions and the creation of collaborative collections care initiatives to allow for sharing in the responsibilities of problem-solving on equal ground.
Overall, the message McHugh delivered was an important one – that as conservators we need to do more to recognize and respect the essential connection between cultural heritage and community, that we cannot ignore the human element in favour of remaining a neutral observer to the struggle for recognition of human rights for First Nations peoples.  There is no neutral position, inaction and ignorance only support the inequality founded on colonialism and racism. McHugh gave an important call to action: true collaboration or bust!

Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Conference – Textile Session, May 16, "Vial Things: Preserving the Unexpected in the Occult Jewelry of Simon Costin", by Sarah Scaturro

To say Sarah Scaturro had me at “semen” is both entirely accurate and the oddest phrase I have ever put to virtual paper. To be precise, she had my interest at “Vials of evaporating semen…”, the jaw-dropping opener to her abstract, and she held it for her entire talk on the conservation of jewelry by Simon Costin contained within the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute collection.
The two necklaces of discussion were Memento Mori, made by Costin in 1986, and Incubus, made in 1987. Both presented unique preservation problems not frequently encountered by textile conservators. Faced with unfamiliar challenges, Scaturro sought first to better understand the mechanisms of degradation affecting the necklaces: this involved conducting artist interviews and consulting alternatives resources on taxidermy and liquid-preserved specimens.

Simon Costin, Memento Mori, 1986. Wood, metal, bone, claw, synthetic, jet, crystal, bone, hematite. Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006.354a–c).

In the case of Memento Mori, the turkey feet and rabbit skulls, incorporated into the necklace’s design, had begun to degrade due to insufficient preparation methods. The fats contained within the skin of the turkey feet had oxidized leading to a rancid odor – a smell all too familiar to me having recently completed the degreasing of beluga whale jawbones. The oxidized fats were also pooling at the surface of the feet, risking degradation of the neighboring necklace elements. The rabbit skulls, which retained some bits of flesh and hair, suffered from discoloration and mold, negatively impacting the artist’s intended aesthetics. Swabbing with ethanol proved to be the solution for both of Memento Mori’s problems – ethanol was used to degrease the surface of the turkey feet while it also acted as a biocide, killing the mold on the rabbit skulls, in addition to reducing the discoloration. Scaturro also employed preventive strategies which included the use of barriers to prevent transfer of the turkey fats to other parts of the necklace and anoxia to slow the oxidation of the fats.
The treatment of Incubus, the inspiration for the talk’s title and my grim interest, was still in progress at the time of Scaturro’s talk. The necklace, which resulted in a charge of indecency for the artist at the time of its unveiling, contains 5 vials of semen, one donation having been made by the artist himself. Over the past 30 years, the semen has discolored and partially evaporated – how best to address this issue, Scaturro was undecided. She raised two amusing points while discussing her research into the degradation mechanisms of Incubus: one, there is little information available on how semen degrades over thirty years; and two, it would be interesting to understand what elements of the five donations were responsible for the variations in color and evaporation rate.
Simon Costin, Incubus, 1987. Silver, copper, glass, baroque pearls and human sperm. Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006.364a, b).

Her first steps to the treatment of Incubus involved the creation of permanent upright storage for the necklace, thereby avoiding contact between the rubber stoppers on the vials and their contents. Scaturro made note that storage and display at a consistent temperature (as opposed to cold storage and room temperature display) was best practice for slowing the evaporation of the semen. She was also considering applying cyclododecane to improve the seal of the vials – the benefit of cyclododecane wax being its gradual sublimation at room temperature, making it possible to display the necklace without wax coatings affecting the aesthetics.
Scaturro concluded by noting that further interviews with Simon Costin were planned with the hopes that he might be able to offer direction as to the refilling or not of the vials of semen.
Overall, Scaturro handled the unusual topic with professionalism, inciting only minimal nervous giggling. The talk provided a window into the extremes of art and art conservation, and offered an example of how to approach the even the most macabre of objects.

Job Posting (Closes Tuesday): GS-1015-12 Staff Curator (Museum Management)

Staff Curator (Museum Management)
Immediate Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
Agency contact information
1 vacancy in the following location: Richmond, VA
Work Schedule is Full Time – Permanent
Opened Friday 5/20/2016 to Closes Tuesday 5/24/2016
Salary Range: $72,509.00 to $94,262.00 / Per Year
Series & Grade: GS-1015-12/12
Supervisory Status: No
Who May Apply: United States Citizens
Control Number: 439520000
Job Announcement Number: NE61015-12-1709785NM393290D
http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/439520000
Job Overview
Summary
The Navy and Marine Corps team offers innovative, exciting and meaningful work linking military and civilian talents to achieve our mission and safeguard our freedoms. Department of the Navy provides competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and extensive professional development and training. From pipefitters to accountants, scientists to engineers, doctors to nurses-the careers and opportunities to make a difference are endless. Civilian careers-where purpose and patriotism unite!
The mission of the Naval History and Heritage Command is to collect, preserve, protect, and make available the artifacts, documents, and art that best embody our naval history and heritage for present and future generations; advance the knowledge of naval history and heritage through professional research, analysis, interpretation, products and services; make naval history and heritage “come alive” for our Sailors and Marines to enhance readiness and esprit de corps.  This position is located in the Conservation Branch of the Collections Management Division and is responsible for the preservation and conservation of artifacts, textiles, artwork and paper collections and assists other branches and commands in the conservation of large artifacts.
Duties
•Assist in the supervision and direction of the daily operations of the Conservation Laboratory.
•Participate in the management of, and executes, conservation treatments to stabilize and preserve historic artifacts, textiles, artwork and paper media.
•Assist with condition assessments and advise on long-term collections care strategies and environmental control standards.
•Perform conservation and materials science research activities.
•Coordinate with the Collection Manager on issues related to management of the facility.
•Serves as lead conservator in the absence of the branch head.
Travel Required: Not Required
Relocation Authorized: No
Job Requirements
Key Requirements
•You must be a US Citizen.
•Males must be registered or exempt from Selective Service. www.sss.gov
•Selectee must be determined suitable for federal employment.
•Selectee may be required to successfully complete a probationary period.
•Selectee is required to participate in the direct deposit pay program.
•See special requirements section for additional requirements.
Qualifications
In order to qualify for this position, your resume must provide sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge, skills, and abilities, to perform the duties of the specific position for which you are being considered.   Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities, as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience.
Applicants must meet the following positive education qualifications requirements of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Standards Manual: Applicants must possess a degree in museum work, or in an applicable subject-matter field; a combination of education and experience with courses equivalent to a major in museum work or applicable subject matter field, plus appropriate experience or additional education; or have four years of experience that provided knowledge comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of the 4-year course of study as shown above.
In addition, your resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-11grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following: 1) assist in managing a museum collection, library and archive; 2) perform museum collection conservation practices in accordance with professional standards; 3) prepare lectures and presentations on conservation procedures and methodologies for tours, workshops, conferences, symposia and command needs.
This position has a selective placement factor needed in order to qualify. The actual Selective Placement Factor is experience executing conservation treatments to stabilize and preserve historic artifacts, textiles, artwork, and paper media in accordance with professional standards.  Possession of the factor MUST be verifiable via your resume. Failure to possess this factor WILL result in an ineligible rating.
Additional qualification information can be found from the following Office of Personnel Management web site:   https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/1000/museum-curator-series-1015/
You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer and part time experience. You must clearly identify the duties and responsibilities in each position held and the total number of hours per week.
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.
As part of the application process, you must complete and submit an occupational questionnaire. To preview this questionnaire and determine if your experience matches the required skills for this position, click the following link: View Assessment Questions
Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating and/or appointment eligibility.
For positions requiring positive education requirements, or if you are using education to meet all or part of the qualification requirements, you must submit a copy of your transcripts or an itemized list of college courses which includes equivalent information from the transcript (course title, semester/quarter hours, and grade/degree earned) in your resume.   See OPM’s General Policies for information on crediting education.
Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the qualification requirements if the applicant can provide documentation indicating that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is the responsibility of the applicant to provide such evidence when applying for further information, visit:http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html
A security clearance is a requirement of this position. Failure to obtain and maintain the required level of clearance may result in the withdrawal of a position offer or removal.  If you possess a security clearance, please indicate the level and termination date in your resume.
Work requires frequent bending, stooping, walking, standing, working in cramped positions, and climbing.
This position is eligible for part time, full time or ad-hoc telework.
Work requires use of Personal Protective Equipment, which includes but is not limited to protective footwear, eyewear, and hearing protection.
Work may be performed in physically dangerous locations, e.g. extreme height for treatment of sculptural or architectural artifacts.
Conservation treatments may require use of and exposure to toxic, carcinogenic, cryogenic, acidic, corrosive, or other hazardous materials.
Selectee must obtain and maintain a current valid United States driver’s license.
Security Clearance: Secret
Department of the Navy
Immediate Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
Naval History and Heritage Command
Contact:
DON Employment Info Center EIC
Phone: 8003784559
TDD: 858-577-5723
Email: DONEIC@NAVY.MIL
Address:
Immediate Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
700 Robbins Avenue
Philadelphia,  PA

44th Annual Meeting, Textile Session, May 15, "The Creation of a Digitally Printed Reproduction Sleeve for and Eighteenth-Century Painted Silk Dress", by Miriam Murphy and Alexandra Barlow

When I heard the title of this talk, I must admit images of laser scanners and super computers came to mind.  And while the technology is doubtlessly impressive, I was relieved to learn that it is far more accessible (and much less sci-fi-esque!) than I had originally imagined.
The dress at the center of this talk was a silk taffeta Robe à la Polonaise, circa 1780, that had been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1976, sans one proper left sleeve.

The dress on display in 2004's Dangerous Liaisons exhibit. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.
The dress on display in 2004’s Dangerous Liaisons exhibit. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.

Because the silk was hand painted, the best option for recreating it in the 1970s was to hand paint a new sleeve as well.  However, after four decades, and three exhibits, the reproduction had become damaged.  Before being featured in the 2015 show China: Through the Looking Glass, it was decided a new sleeve would have to be made.  For the 2004 show, Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the Eighteenth Century, an entire reproduction petticoat had been digitally printed, so it was not a technology with which the Met was unfamiliar.  Digital printing has also, in recent years, been used to create fabric for mounts, upholstery for chairs, and a dress for a historical interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg.
The first step in the process was to get a good digital image of the fabric, ideally through scanning.  As luck would have it (or so they thought) a flat pattern piece of the same fabric was at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.  Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that there were subtle but definite differences between the two.  Because of the 3-D nature of the dress, scanning was not an option, so digital photography had to be used instead.  The petticoat was selected for this process, rather than the present sleeve, because it offered a large, flat expanse, and the majority of the pattern repeat.  The image was taken at the Met’s photography lab and sent to Dyenamix textile printing, for image manipulation. This proved more difficult than expected because the undulations of the petticoat, visible in the photograph, had to be removed, and the full pattern repeat stitched together.  Another stumbling block was what part of the repeat to print?  Should they go with a mirror image of the extant sleeve, or could it be assumed that such expensive fabric was used conservatively, without an attempt at symmetry? Ultimately, the former path was selected.
The next step was to find a suitable base fabric.  Although the fabric texture can be printed, the best results are achieved when a close match is found, which was a challenge since 18th century taffeta was finer than that available today.  When a good approximation was sourced (from Manhattan’s Garment District), both white and ivory was purchased.  Dyenamix first sent the fabric to Jacquard in California for pretreatment, to prepare it to accept the ink.  When the fabric returned, it was ready for the printing process. The printer prints ¼” at a time, going over each section eight times.
It took many attempts and many weeks to get the colors exactly right. Most of the early attempts were too bright and saturated, qualities prized by industry clients, but not by conservators. Once the fabric was printed, a pattern was taken from measurements and multiple mock-ups were made before the final sleeve was constructed. All-in-all, the process took six weeks and $2,400 (not including the time of the Met staff) to complete. Interestingly, roughly half of that seems to have been because Dyenamix did the image manipulation, judging by a similar project done in the Met’s upholstery department.
The subject of the talk, center, on exhibit in China: Through the Looking Glass. From QMIN magazine.
The subject of the talk, center, on exhibit in China: Through the Looking Glass. From QMIN magazine.

Dyenamix had claimed that their inks were archival and because the dress needed to be ready for exhibition, no further tests were performed beforehand. However, after the exhibition closed, the fabric was given the Oddy test, which it failed. In response, the sleeve was removed from the dress and stored separately.
I would be interested to know what caused the sleeve to fail the Oddy test: was it the pretreatment done by Jacquard to ready the silk for the ink, or the ink itself? This process is a great tool for any conservator to have and (as always!) more research is desired!

What if the artist doesn’t care, but a lot of other people do?

In Joe Morgenstern’s review of the documentary “Eva Hesse” (The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2016), he notes that in the film Grace Wapner, a fellow artist and friend, recalls Hesse saying that she didn’t care that her materials would degrade and that she threw a glass against a fireplace shattering it to illustrate what would happen to them. Hesse may not have cared that her work would degrade, but considering the amount of scholarship that has been dedicated to the condition and conservation of her works, a lot of other people do.

43rd Annual Meeting, General Session, May 15, “The Best Laid Plans: Investigation, Application and Failure of the Finishes on the Sherman Monument", by Michael Kramer

In his presentation, Michael Kramer from the Gilder’s Studio discussed the treatment of the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument, a gilded bronze statue created by Augustus St. Gauden that currently resides in Central Park, New York. Kramer provided a detailed history of the monument, which was installed in 1903, and a candid explanation of the failures seen on its most recent regilding campaign.
During the life of the statue, the object underwent several campaigns of gilding and toning, often met with disapproval by the public as the resulting appearance was considered too bright and garish.   In a 1990 campaign, the monument was regilded and later toned with wax and gelatin.  Failures in this coating were noted in 2005 and attributed, by Kramer, to years of collected pigeon excrement that had eaten into the surface.
At that point, Kramer was commissioned by the Central Park Conservancy to regild and investigate stable coating systems that would also provide protection from pigeon infestation.  Tests of four different systems were applied to coupons and affixed to the sculpture for a year. The coupons were subjected to real life scenarios to measure performance and assessed using hydraulic adhesion tests.  Results showed that while two coats of Butcher’s White Diamond wax with colors in oil proved most visually appealing, its ability to withstand pigeon infestations was questioned.   The three coat aliphatic urethane Ronan Aquathane system using a glaze over Japanese colors was aesthetically the second best alternative and performed better than the wax when subjected to the hydraulic adhesion tests.
In 2013, the sculpture was stripped and regilded by Kramer.  After curing for two weeks, the toning system was applied. Unfortunately, cracks were noticed in the gilding after only two months.  It was discovered that the flaws penetrated beyond the coating system and went as deep as the size layer.  Extensive analysis revealed that the formula of the size that was tested five years earlier had changed and was likely the cause of the failures.  Kramer emphasized that sometimes, despite efforts to replicate the use of the products and methodology used during the testing phase, things may not work out when in the field, He ended his presentation by sharing useful lessons he had learned:  First, lab testing may not translate to real world situations, second, know your product- manufacturers are not obligated to inform users of any formulaic changes and finally, artisans need to ensure the product they tested is the exact one they are using in situ.