Author: Rachael Perkins Arenstein

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

By Emily Williams, Conservator of Archaeological Materials, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Department of Conservation

Excavated during the Bicentennial year of 1976, the artifacts from Martin’s Hundred tell an exciting tale of colonialism, adaptation to a new land and …a deadly struggle. Situated near the banks of the James River in Virginia, Martin’s Hundred was settled by 280 colonists in 1618. In 1622 the settlement was temporarily abandoned after 58 colonists were killed during the Powhatan Uprising. Resettled shortly thereafter, with a much diminished population, the settlement never regained its footing and by the 18^th century core components had been acquired by Robert “King” Carter, who turned it into a plantation.

The artifacts from Martin’s Hundred represent a broad range of domestic, agricultural and military items. A handful of items, already antiques when they were brought to Virginia, date to the late sixteenth century. Other artifacts include the first close helmets found in North America, pieces of armor and chain mail, table knives with bolsters decorated with silver and gold wire, and a shackle. Most of the iron artifacts were treated when they were first excavated to remove the dirt and rust from the surface, broken artifacts were joined together and the surfaces coated to prevent moisture from causing further corrosion.

Nearly forty years later, the Martin’s Hundred artifacts are a good reminder that, unfortunately, no conservation treatment, however skillfully done, lasts forever. Many of the objects were corroding again. The IMLS grant has allowed us to begin stabilizing them anew. We are carefully removing the wax coatings, cleaning the surfaces, and then desalinating the objects. The process of desalinating removes the salts that have seeped into an artifact during burial, which if left, can cause more damage. Our intervention does not stop there though. We are rehousing the artifacts, providing more support, and reestablishing a system of sealed drawers that maintain a very dry environment. The drawers have clear plexi lids that are held in place by magnets to prevent dry air leaking out but still allow visitors and scholars to see the objects. We are becoming experts on magnet strength, a skill I never thought I would cultivate!

Like the excavation, the retreatment project has offered new tales. As the wax has come off, we, and visitors to our lab, have been impressed by the degree to which objects were reconstructed in the past and by how carefully they were recreated and preserved. They remind us that although techniques have been refined the goal of preserving these objects is a constant.

 

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

By T. Rose Holdcraft, Conservator and Administrative Head, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

Thanks to an IMLS grant, Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology can now share more of its broad-ranging Map Collection with researchers. The collection includes maps and illustrations from the Abri Pataud region in France, hard-to-find documents of the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site Chan Chan in Peru, and unpublished maps and drawings from the Lower Mississippi Valley Survey.

In 2009, we received an IMLS Conservation Project Support grant award to improve access and preservation of the historical maps, architectural drawings, and archaeological site plans. These archival items document American anthropological history of the past 140 years. The Peabody Museum, the oldest museum dedicated to anthropology in the Western hemisphere, conducted some of the earliest fieldwork in North America including the Hopewell, Mississippian, and Mimbres culture sites. By the project’s end in April 2011, we had created more than 5,200 new database records, and conserved and re-housed 6,600 items. Within the year we saw significant increases in public access to this collection and in research and teaching based on it. Researchers search the museum’s Collections Online website to identify documents and then arrange an onsite visit to study the collections. For example, a researcher recently visited with her uncle and marveled at several drawings of Maya monuments from Chichen Itza penned in the 1930s by her grandfather.

With grant funds, we cleaned, humidified, and stored the documents flat in acid-free paper-based folders in new museum-quality cabinetry. Previously, the majority of items were inaccessible: compressed, folded, and/or rolled. The map room with a new large viewing platform provides a comfortable space to safely handle and study these often oversized historic anthropological documents. The project supported professional development of several interns who updated object records with newly realized information critical to future research and preservation.

One of the discoveries during the project was a set of drawings by Ann Axtel Morris. These large colorful illustrations of Maya monuments were used in a 2011 Harvard course. Another find was a printed map, heavily used and annotated during an early expedition to South Africa; it now will be featured in a 2013 publication.

Since 2011, 31 individuals have requested access to more than 50 items in the map collection.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is very grateful for key funding provided by IMLS to make these valuable collections available to the global community. For further information, see this Peabody Museum article and the museum’s conservation web page about the project.

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

By:  Rebecca Buck, Deputy Director for Collection Services, Newark Museum

With the help of IMLS, the Newark Museum has slowly changed its collection storage to best protect important collections and let curators and researchers easily see the safely stored objects within it. Drab gray open shelving has been replaced by enclosed cabinets powder-coated with Chinese red, Tibetan orange, Lenox green, Royal purple and, for the largest project – African storage – a yellow as brilliant as the African sun.

In the 1980s, the Newark Museum renovated and connected a series of early 20^th-century buildings under the direction of Michael Graves Associates. Storage was outfitted according to the standards of the time as directed by the individual curators. Over the years it became necessary to upgrade areas to increase space and develop better ways of protecting and accessing objects in the collections. The two latest projects, storage upgrades for jewelry and for the African art collection, will resolve some old problems and reach current standards of care.

Newark’s jewelry collection is magnificent, an active 1,900+ piece collection curated by Ulysses Grant Dietz, Chief Curator and Curator of Decorative Arts. It reflects Newark’s heritage: home of Tiffany & Company, Herpers, Hedges, Krementz, Riker, Bippart, Durand and others. The new Lore Ross gallery in the historic Ballantine House is one of the few galleries in the United States devoted solely to the display of jewelry.

Six old wooden and metal cabinets were replaced with three Delta cabinets full of narrow drawers with dividers – there is now at least one compartment available for each piece of jewelry. An IMLS-funded technician and a decorative arts intern arranged dividers as needed to accommodate rings, brooches, crosses, bracelets, and necklaces, and developed a volara padding scenario for each compartment. The work of inventory, lining, placement, and photography went on all of the spring and summer of 2012. The result: safe objects, logically stored objects, objects with mounts where they’re needed, a complete inventory, photographs attached to a complete database, and best of all, errors corrected!

The Newark Museum is also in the midst of a multifaceted African art collection expansion project. Led by Senior Curator, Arts of Africa and the Americas, Christa Clarke, the current African art galleries will triple in size, a conservation lab will be developed, and the first-ever catalog of the collection will be published. For the storage portion, an IMLS grant matched by money raised for storage improvement led to a wonderful compact storage unit that will hold thousands of works from the African art collection, reorganized by geography and genre for greater accessibility.

The Newark Museum’s ability to provide safe storage and collection care has been greatly improved by these projects. They help make certain that important objects will be available for generations to come.

 

 

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

Judith Levinson, Director of Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology

Most of the large and important collection of totem poles at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has been on display for more than a century!  As decades have passed and other so-called “permanent” exhibitions have come and gone, these silent sentinels have stood near the entrance of the museum’s earliest building as countless visitors, from royal families to millions of school children, have passed by.

About 10 years ago, the anthropology conservation staff surveyed the 77 monumental poles and carvings from the Pacific Northwest in order to prioritize which pieces would benefit the most from conservation. In 2009, thanks to generous funding from IMLS, we were able to begin to work on some of the neediest cases. We started with the smaller figures—those, less than eight feet tall. Some we could de-install and transfer to the lab for treatment; others were too difficult to remove and had to be conserved in-situ working on scissor lifts.

Giant dust bunnies hid in out-of-reach crevices and thousands of splinters needed to be stabilized. We also had to contend with the well-meaning acts of past restorers. Using modern conservation practices and more stable materials, we were able to carefully reverse old restorations and stabilize the degraded surfaces, ensuring that they can be safely cleaned during routine housekeeping with the goal of maintaining them on open display to the public for another hundred years or more.

During the second IMLS-funded phase of the project, we were presented with the unique opportunity to work on the largest totem poles in our Hall of Northwest Coast Indians. The museum was installing a fire-suppression system that required the temporary de-installation of four monumental house posts. These posts had been commissioned for the museum in 1923 and were carved by native artist Arthur Shaughnessy in the remote community of Alert Bay, British Columbia. They were shipped across the continent and had stood in place, unmoved since their arrival.

Lowering each 1200-1500-pound pole was a feat requiring several “nights at the museum” with Marshall Fine Arts rigging company. Aided by a rotating team of trusty conservation interns and students, we set up our temporary lab in the Northwest Coast Hall and began a task as monumental as the posts themselves.

http://www.amnh.org/our-research/anthropology/news-events/house-posts-reinstallation

We are currently continuing our work on other needy cases from the hall and plan to disseminate our findings and treatment techniques in conservation publications soon.

 

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

By Gretchen Anderson, Conservator, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

In 2009, I was hired as the sole conservator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH). I moved from a small museum, the Science Museum of Minnesota, to one of the great natural history museums, housed in a national landmark building and holding over 22 million stellar collections. The most efficient and effective way to determine the future direction conservation should take at CMNH was to conduct a general survey.

CMNH first conducted a general survey in 1989, funded by IMLS. The survey report was used as the foundation for the museum’s first comprehensive long-range conservation plan, a plan that guided conservation efforts for the past 20 years.

This is the second survey that I have been involved in. It was developed in collaboration between museum representatives and a team of expert consultants: Catharine Hawks, Dr. Robert Waller, and LEED Engineers Ernie Conrad and Paul Kreitler from Landmark Facilities Group.

Phase 1: Planning

I gathered background documents from staff and conducted an in-house review of environmental conditions and monitoring methodology.

Phase 2: Site Visit

The objective was to provide consultants the opportunity to assess the buildings and collections and interview stakeholders. The consultant team was on site for six days. We had to tour three buildings, looking at both the public areas and behind the scenes, such as collections storage and workrooms, mechanical rooms, and attics. We met with staff from curatorial sections, administration, facilities, events, and exhibits. This was by far the most intense and enjoyable part of the project.

Phase 3:  Collaborative Analysis and Strategy Development

The task was to develop workable strategies to reduce the risk to collections. This took the longest and was the most difficult phase. We spent a great deal of time writing and editing the survey results so that the report spoke with one voice. There was a lot of discussion between the consultants on specific issues, such as reasonable environmental conditions

Phase 4: Final Report  

The final product ended up being a very thorough report that identifies the risks to the collections and prioritizes these risks for future care. Strategies for addressing improvements are recommended. The report is being used as the foundation for a detailed long-range conservation plan and a planning tool for administration.

This survey allowed me, as a new conservator at the institution, to learn who the main players are, and build relationships with my museum colleagues who can help me move collections preservation strategies forward.  As a result of the grant we now have a new long-range preservation plan which will guide our conservation and activities for years to come.

 

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

Nicholas Dorman, Chief Conservator, Seattle Art Museum

A busy display and scholarly research schedule in an historic museum building can pose challenges for long-term care of fragile works of art. Preserving our important collection of Asian screens and ensuring safe access to them were two critical priorities for me and my colleagues at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. We had made do with artfully cobbled-together bins and antiquated metal cabinets for a number of years but this was not suitable storage for a great and growing collection of these delicate treasures. A grant from IMLS enabled us to bring our collections-care practices to optimal standards.

Working with a local vendor, we designed and installed a suite of screen cabinets that provide a safe and stable storage environment for the paintings. The furniture is beautifully made and will be very durable. The screens are strapped to sliding shelves within new bespoke archival boxes. The design reduces risk to the art and to the art handlers’ backs and greatly enhances safe access. Since the relative humidity can be passively managed with conditioning gel, the cabinets provide an excellent additional layer of buffering to protect the screens from environmental fluctuations. Another terrific legacy of this grant was that it gave us an opportunity to fully survey the condition of the screens. The resulting condition record and photographs will have a lasting impact as we define treatment priorities over time.

Support from IMLS was absolutely crucial for the realization of the project. It helped us to garner complementary local support and allowed us to show that the project had passed the highest-level process of review and evaluation, which was vital for the credibility of this and related storage projects. This is one of only a few programs that help museums to fund slightly less glamorous back of house development, yet it is these quiet projects that have, perhaps, the greatest impact on the works of art that we leave behind for our grandchildren to enjoy.

You can read more about our IMLS-supported screen storage project at:

http://samblog.seattleartmuseum.org/archives/3754

and about the Seattle Art Museum’s general conservation activities at:

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/collection/conservation

This post is part of the “From the Bench” series celebrating the work of conservators. Part scientist, part detective, they work to preserve the past for the future. This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS-supported projects in museums across the United States. For more information about IMLS funding for museums see www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

Elizabeth Nunan, Associate Conservator, Natural Science Collections, American Museum of Natural History

With funding from the IMLS Conservation Project Support grant program, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) conservators and fossil preparators have spent the past 12 months treating and documenting the museum’s unique and global collection of fossils in amber. The AMNH amber collection is one of the world’s largest, most diverse, and scientifically significant with nearly 17,000 pieces containing well over 25,000 inclusions of insects and other ancient life forms. When exposed to ambient conditions, such as light, temperature, and relative humidity, amber darkens, and over time microscopic cracks can form on exposed surfaces. In severe cases, this network of cracks, or crazing, can completely mask the inclusion, and large fractures can extend through their bodies. Without treatment, the amber can break or crumble, exposing the inclusions to further deterioration and making the specimen unsafe to handle or study. The IMLS Amber Fossil Conservation project was designed to stabilize all of the most scientifically important and some of the most deteriorated pieces in this collection so they can be safely stored, handled, and preserved for future research and exhibition. Of particular concern was treatment of the scientifically important type specimens – the first specimen to which the scientific name of an organism is attached.

To prevent the darkening and crazing that obscures and damages inclusions each amber type specimen is treated with Epo-Tek 301-2 epoxy,  either by coating exposed surfaces or embedding whole pieces under vacuum.  Embedding the amber in epoxy stabilizes the specimen by infiltrating the cracks, and making it less likely to break during trimming and polishing. One of the key benefits of such preparation is that researchers can get much closer to the inclusion and gain clearer views of important characteristics, without risking breakage or internal cracking. Many fossil insect specimens in amber could never have been properly studied without this process.

This project has helped ensure the preservation and overall accessibility of the museum’s priceless amber collections for the benefit of generations to come. In addition, the AMNH has already shared lessons learned and procedures developed with other institutions through publications and lectures at professional conferences such as the Society for Preservation of Natural History Collections, the International Paleoentomological Society, the Paleontological Society of India, and the University of Lucknow, India.