Craigflower Manor National Historic Site (1853-6) in Victoria, BC is one of the oldest remaining farmhouse buildings in British Columbia and opened to the public in 1969. In January 2009, during an unusually cold winter, a fire started on the first floor. It was probably a “delayed ignition” (also called long term low temperature ignition) fire, caused by an electric heater warming and drying the area over time. There was no fire suppression in the house; fortunately, firefighters arrived in minutes, and extinguished the fire before it reached flashpoint.
Most of the damage was limited to the central staircase, adjacent to the ignition site. There was extensive charring of the structure and millwork, in some places total loss. There were also charred and blistered finishes and soot damage, but relatively little water damage. The restoration of Craigflower took four years, and along with cleaning included replacing wood elements (reusing the hardware as much as possible).
The worst damaged wood (judged as 50% or less of sound wood remaining) was removed. CO2 pellet blasting was used to remove char and soot from other areas, which worked well to quickly expose undamaged wood. Unfortunately, the plastic sheeting intended to contain all the material blasted off the surface was inadequate, and dust was deposited all throughout the house, requiring extensive cleanup in areas with no fire damage. While CO2 blasting companies will often claim that the process does not generate waste or leave behind residues, we should be aware that all the material blasted off during cleaning will go somewhere! Before using CO2 cleaning technique, test to determine how much dust will be generated, and make sure adequate extraction and abatement enclosures are in place before blasting. In the end, traditional mechanical removal of the char using chisels etc. may be more controllable and preferable.
Category: Disaster Response and Recovery
Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting and 42nd CAC-ACCR Annual Conference — Paintings Session, May 15th — "The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy — Rescue and Treatment" by Carolyn Tomkiewicz and Caitlin Breare
Carolyn Tomkiewicz’s presentation began with a photo of a modest statue of Mary in the garden of a local church. It had been wrapped up against the oncoming storm—not by conservators, but by mindful parishioners. This protection had more in common with how you shield a plant from frost than how a museum usually guards against damage, but their effort and conscientiousness was rewarded when the statue survived the flood unscathed, a reveal that Tomkiewicz ended the talk with. These photos opened and closed the talk as a demonstration of how a community’s response, as much as a conservator’s response, is vital to the protection of the art in their midst.
Tomkiewicz begins at Westbeth Artists Residence, where studios and storage spaces in the basement were swiftly subsumed by the nearby and overflowing Hudson. When the artists were granted access ten days later, the salvage efforts began immediately. The rescue team—composed of the artists themselves, volunteers from AIC-CERT (Collection Emergency Response Team), and local conservation studios—took over the building’s courtyard and turned it into a makeshift triage center. Salvage operations rely on ingenuity: the team MacGyvered door screens into paper drying racks, applied toilet paper as facing for damaged paintings, used puppy training pads as blotters, and when faced with the unappealing prospect of leaving art unattended overnight, they stored as much as they could in a rental truck that they could lock up. Gaining access to indoor spaces at Westbeth improved the security of the artwork. However, as triage operations continued, more and more objects were brought to the team to be treated. The extent of the work to be done in those first few days never seemed to diminish, but the crew pressed on, even addressing the residents’ personal items as well as their art.
The Westbeth example typified an important part of the success of the Sandy response: educating artists on triage procedures to save their own artwork. This education came through including artists in the conservator-led salvage efforts as well as many informational sessions—specifically a well-attended public presentation at MoMA—and online support forums and resources. That AIC-CERT’s involvement was assisted by private conservators, public museums, and even conservation vendors who donated supplies, was what really propelled the Sandy response to be come an example of effective salvage outreach. Of course, few places worldwide rival the level of cultural saturation as Manhattan, but even cities and towns without MoMA should be able to construct a scaled-down version of this type of unified response within the local arts community.
The opening of the Cultural Recovery Center (CRC) in Brooklyn, run by FAIC to provide in-depth treatment at a secure facility, was the culmination of the volunteer effort to restore art after the devastation of Superstorm Sandy. Tomkiewicz discussed the treatment of three heavily deformed and flaking oil on canvas paintings at the CRC that required gradual-tensioning stretchers, humidity chambers, and a burnt-finger technique which utilized a lightbulb as the convex heat source. Given the type of damage Sandy left behind, she devoted special attention to the variety of ways to re-tension water distorted canvases, including Rigamonti stretchers and a “Gleitrahmen” (sliding frame) technique. Details of the treatments were published in the WAAC Newsletter Volume 35, Number 2 of May 2013, “A Tensioning Device for the Reduction of Severe Planar Distortions in Paintings,” by Carolyn Tomkiewicz.
She concluded her talk with the following advice: don’t store art in the basement in a flood zone!
Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting & 42nd CAC-ACCR Annual Conference, Breakout Session: Emergency, May 16, “Disaster Plan in Greece,” by Maria Lyratzi
I was drawn to this talk merely from the title, having worked in and visited Greece a multitude of times. Maria Lyratzi first introduced herself as the paper conservator for the Library of the Institute of Educational Policy/Greek Ministry of Education in Athens, Greece. She then dove right in to her talk, which covered quite a lot in a short amount of time. Maria was first influenced to begin her path to creating emergency response plans in Greece via the (former) American Institute for Conservation – Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC-CERT), now the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works – National Heritage Responders (FAIC-NHR). She admired how AIC-CERT showed emergency response plans in a systematic way to where she could adopt and adapt for Greece’s circumstances.
Maria gave a background of Greece and the types of natural disasters they experience (photo) as well as the legal framework that builds the foundation for protecting cultural heritage. Currently, the constitution of Greece, Article 24, states that “the protection of the natural and cultural environment constitutes a duty of the State. The State is bound to adopt special preventive or repressive measures for the preservation of the environment.”
The current State of Greece was established in 1830, and not too shortly afterwards in 1833, the Greek Archaeological Service was founded. And just one year following, the first archaeological law of Greece was established. Amendments to this law have occurred in 1899, 1914, 1921, and 1932. The current law, No. 3028/2002 is in effect and can be read here:
[http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/25587/11113354823nomos4en2.pdf/nomos4en2.pdf]
She then went over the main points of the archaeological law and the responsible authorities. The responsible authorities include:
Ministry of Culture
Responsibilities include: archaeological sites, historical sites, all types of museums, all types of monuments (Note: mentioned only ~30% of monuments are under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture)
Ministry of Education, Research, and Religious Affairs
Responsibilities include: Department of Government Archives and the Department of Libraries (Note: there is no specific department for the protection of libraries and archives)
Other Ministries (including Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, EPPO)
Responsibilities include: Processes and designs the country’s earthquake policies, publishing informational and educational materials, and having a program of pre-seismic control of all public buildings (Note: only ~30% of public buildings are checked)
Public Authorities
Responsibilities include: Local organizations that collaborate with Ministries
Academic Institutes (indirectly)
Responsibilities include: Supervising postgraduate/doctorate projects, researching and scientific programs
Also mentioned were other authorities (General Secretariat for Civil Protection, GSCP) that should protect cultural heritage, but currently do not. As one can probably tell, the laws focus on mostly archaeological antiquities, rather than the wider cultural heritage.
Maria then gave an example of an online system that tracks risks of earthquake areas through the Institute of Geodynamics.
Measures of Our Cultural Heritage Protection Against Strong Earthquakes
The site has several different tools, including a map with various options, a list of all the monuments and their associated risk, and an area for local research. It maps various monuments, but not nearly enough. The Institute of Geodynamics’ method of collecting data covered monuments and their condition in regional, seismotectonics, and geological data. They then conducted a hazard assessment for each monument. A map was developed where the user is able to choose a multitude of categories to determine associated risks. Maria had been proposed by the Institute of Geodynamics to be a part of their team to expand their map to include locations of libraries and archives. She was also asked to educate local authorities and the personnel of museums, libraries, and archives in Greece for disaster planning.
Maria had additional support from the Library of the Institute of Educational Policy to publish the first disaster plan in 2009 on their website, to organize and run a three day Greek-American seminar in 2013, and to publish her first book on disaster planning in Greece, a culmination of 5-6 years of work, released 2009. The topic of the three-day seminar in 2013 was Disaster Response and Conservation. There were two days dedicated to lectures of disaster preparedness and salvaging art, libraries, and historic collections with one day hands on in disaster recovery training.
She then went on to discuss two surveys given to Greek scientists. The first covered the recorded catastrophic events to cultural institutions from 2002-2012 and the second presented the degree of readiness of major cultural institutions in the prevention and handling of natural and manmade disasters. The data was collected by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSAT) and the Fire Brigade, neither of which have kept formal records of disaster-affected institutions.
Results of the first survey include: 255 cultural institutions calling the fire brigade to assist in fire and flood incidents. Most of them were incidents on archaeological sites. ELSAT has no data for fire brigade assistance for earthquakes. The fire brigade gave no descriptions of the flood or fire incidents that have occurred in cultural institutions. There are no records for disaster incidents to buildings or collections. It is unknown if the files even exist. From the first survey, most floods reported were on archaeological sites (~71%), with, not surprising, rain water being the main cause. Most fires reported were on archaeological sites (~73%), versus museums (~15%). The cause of fires in museums was of unknown origins.
The second survey, the very first of its kind in Greece, was sent electronically to representatives of all types of official museums, private museums, libraries, and archives:
103 public museums, 77 private museums, 188 libraries, and 1 archives
With an allowance of one month to complete, the response rate was 21%
Maria shared various survey questions with the results, below are a few of those slides:
Plans for the future include(d) a one-day seminar on May 28, 2016 in Nafplio with The Center of Hellenic Studies and Harvard University on how to prepare a disaster plan for your institution. Maria is planning to prepare a five-day seminar for the Bank of Greece in Athens inviting the FAIC-NHR representatives and representatives of all the Greek authorities who should be cooperating in the prevention and response of disasters to cultural heritage. She would like to conduct additional research on the degree of preparedness of libraries and archives in the prevention of disasters, to hold disaster prevention seminars all over Greece, to build a volunteer team to confront disasters all over the country similar to the FAIC National Heritage Response, and to create a website with instructions on disaster preparedness.
The audience was very captivated and supportive by the fact she has taken on this giant task by herself. She hopes to have help from volunteers and is trying to contact Greek ministries almost every day. With the current state of Greece and having seen it in person, I am not surprised on the bulk of the results from the surveys. I am surprised that Maria is able to undertake this responsibility for her country and expand disaster preparedness to libraries and archives and wish her the best of luck.
References:
The Constitution of Greece
Law and the Politics of the Past: Legal Protection of Cultural Heritage in Greece by Daphne Voudouri
Great Moments in Greek Archaeology Edited by Panos Valavanis
Further Reading:
FAIC-NHR (formerly AIC-CERT)
Disaster Response Plan (RAS) in museums and libraries
Purchase Maria’s disaster book HERE
Purchase Maria’s children’s books (really!) HERE
44th Annual AIC Meeting – Track A: Confronting the Unexpected, May 16, "Preservation of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Collection: Protecting Art at Risk" by Barbara Heller
Here was a distinctly man-made disaster of epic proportions. Director and Conservator, Special Projects, Barbara Heller’s past experience had included work on 1966 Florence flood-damaged books and paintings and she was a responder for the DIA’s emergency team, yet no amount of disaster mitigation had prepared her for the stress and uncertainty of bankruptcy. At the risk of oversimplification, the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts’ collection was put at risk of being sold when the city of Detroit declared Chapter 9 in July, 2013.
The DIA collection, one of the largest in the country, includes iconic works by Bellini, Breugel, Frans Hals and Diego Rivera to name a few. Incorporated as a private nonprofit “Founders Society” in 1885, the DIA had moved from the private sector to a city-owned entity in 1919, with a new building dedicated to the people of Detroit. Now the City’s creditors believed the artwork should be sold against municipal debts. The DIA maintained that it held the collection in trust for the public and that it was not for sale.
Christie’s was contracted to appraise the entire collection over a period of four months. Museum staff had to oversee the evaluators while they examined the collection in three phases. Collections management set up a designated examination room in an effort to limit access to museum storage.
Barbara was asked to conduct research, both for the evaluators and the DIA’s lawyers. Her talk emphasized the importance of maintaining access to original collection files, including registration, donor/dealer, curatorial and conservation reports. Barbara’s search revealed critical discrepancies between the museum’s digital database and the original files. For example, several early acquisitions including a Van Gogh and Matisse were listed as city donations in the digital database. Original minutes from early meetings revealed the works had been purchased by private donors and transferred to the City.
A “Grand Bargain” was eventually struck which became the City’s plan to exit bankruptcy, fund pensions and prevent the sale of DIA’s artwork. The Court found that selling the DIA’s collection would be to “forfeit Detroit’s identity.” Not quite out of the woods yet, the DIA had to raise 100 million dollars as part of the deal. Happily, a key piece of the fundraising was a 26 million dollar gift from the Ford Foundation. As of 2015, the DIA once again became a nonprofit corporation aka Founders Society Detroit Institute of Arts. As etched on the marble facade in the late 1920’s, the collection remains “Dedicated by the People of Detroit to the Knowledge and Enjoyment of Art.”
44th Annual Meeting – Emergency Session, May 16, “Lighting a Fire: Initiating an Emergency Management Program,” by Rebecca Fifield
Instituting an emergency management program at your organization is hard. I don’t think anyone would ever argue that. And it’s not just about a written emergency plan. While this is a great place to start, and certainly integral to a complete program, it doesn’t inspire and excite. It doesn’t create an emergency preparedness culture. Rebecca Fifield, a Preservation Consultant and owner of Rebecca Fifield Preservation Services, spoke about several ways to ignite a planning effort and maintain momentum when starting an emergency management program at your institution.
First, create a vision. Don’t just update your phone tree. Get a budget line, meet with your local community, and set up training exercises. Asking for a premium plan built on best practices creates the greatest impact and helps staff get behind the change.
Next, refine and strengthen that vision by creating relationships with allies. Allies can make your project stronger by challenging assumptions, informing the project with their industry expertise, and using their connections to develop momentum around your idea. But how do we identify these allies? Are they our supervisors? Yes! If they haven’t considered it before now, educate your supervisor about how risk management and emergency preparedness go hand-in-hand and how they both are part of our professional responsibility. (See Marie Malaro’s A Legal Primer for Managing Museum Collections). Are our allies Conservators, Registrars, Collections Managers, Security, Facilities Managers, Curators, Educators, IT staff, Human Resources, Communications, and Development? YES TO ALL! Emergency preparedness efforts can often be attached to efforts such as the institutional audit process, health and safety initiatives, construction, or large-scale conservation projects. Start a talking campaign. Remember that a disaster effects every staff member, so it only makes sense to have them as part of your web of allies.
Set a time-sensitive goal. Put a time frame on preparedness to create a challenge, because it can be easy to keep putting off planning. Pose questions that reveal preparedness needs for specific institutional goals: Could there be a potential protest related to an upcoming exhibition? Will you be effected by the upcoming hurricane season? Are you in a region that often deals with large amounts of snow? Look at your historical record. Has your organization suffered a past emergency, and what was the impact on people and collections? Are you dealing with aging infrastructure? Survey your staff. Does everyone know their role in an emergency? These aren’t meant to be scare tactics. This is to make sure that the decision-makers at your institution are well-informed.
Connect with other institutions and your community. Reach out to similar organizations to your own and find out who’s on their planning team and their responsibilities. Take this time to establish an informational exchange. Meet other emergency managers in your region. Get involved with professional organizations such as Alliance for Response, as well as regional responders like the Virginia Association of Museum’s Emergency Response Teams and your local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Encourage involvement from staff by having some of these organizations come to you for a talk or training exercises.
Be resilient in the face of negativity. We are all very busy and you may receive some push-back from management and staff. Use emergency management as an opportunity for situational leadership, which allows you to display your ability to lead for the future. It hones your persuasion skills, creates ties with operations and administration colleagues, and provides you with a ready opportunity for development that your current position may not provide. It may take months, and even years, to understand how your institution will function in an emergency, the decisions that will need to be made, and the conversations to confirm direction and readiness. Just remember, that time is as important as developing the plan itself.
44th Annual AIC Meeting, Pre-Conference Session, May 14: "Florence: Days of Destruction" by Franco Zeffirelli
If we try to pinpoint which events have caused major changes in our lives, we might come to the conclusion that many of them unfolded unexpectedly. And the worst ones seem to also happen fast. Whether we realize it or not, the Florence floods of 1966 were such a change. Many might not remember this time at all, and others – myself included – were yet to be born. As any other part of world history, it is a story that needs to be retold.
One of the pre-conference events was the screening of Franco Zeffirelli’s “Florence: Days of Destruction”. The Florentine filmmaker probably found that filming in this time of need was a way to cope with the immense gravity of the situation. What he also did was create a platform for awareness. The original Italian title, “Per Firenze”, reflects Zeffirelli’s attachment to his hometown and to all that it represented. Richard Burton, who narrates the film, could sympathize as he had recently seen his beloved Wales go through something similar. It doesn’t take being in the film business to relate to this feeling.
On Saturday, February 20th, 2010, heavy showers followed by landslides transformed Madeira Island – the place I will probably always call home – into a sort of gigantic mudbath. Everything that could be dragged from the mountain tops to the shore was. People were hurt, some even died that day. In a video published on February 21st by SkyNews, one sees how mother nature was nothing short of relentless:
On the quiet days that followed, there was a collective sense of mourning and loss. Everyone was shocked. I felt numb. Although I usually had no problem taking photographs, somehow I could not make myself pick up my camera. I could never be a photojournalist.
I first returned to work on February 23rd. Walking through the downtown part of Funchal, I saw damage on a scale I never thought I would have seen before. In a way, it felt like it could have been a war zone. Coincidence or not, that’s said in Zeffirelli’s film about Florence.
After about a week, the conservation team at the Arquivo Regional da Madeira, where I was working at the time, was contacted to provide help to a few cultural institutions in need. The buildings where they had their storages were on downtown Funchal, where basements had simply become pools of rubble. After draining the water out, they needed help figuring out how to deal with piles of books and documentation.
This experience changed my attitude towards conservation, setting a whole new standard of what an object in bad condition looked like. As much as those were tough times, they also provided bonding time with my colleagues. We kept each others spirits up amidst less than pleasing working environments when by the end of the day we were proud of our muddy coveralls. I would like to think it was a feeling common to all of those who put themselves to work during that time.
However catastrophic the situation that Zeffirelli’s documentary shows, it also focuses on the positive outcome that even such an event might have. It underlined the importance of cultural heritage in society and how it could bring people together because it was the right thing to do.
Because Zeffirelli’s work transcended into one of those things that are greater than the object itself, the film was shown for the first time after being digitally restored at this year’s AIC-CAC conference. It brought us together again at the conference, even after all these years have gone by. Not all the destruction was in vain after all.
To see how this event was portrayed in the media of its day, I encourage you to also take a look at the LIFE magazine Dec. 16th, 1966 issue (the report on the flood starts on page 28).
Joint 44th AIC Annual Meeting & 42nd CAC-ACCR Annual Conference, General Session, May 16, “Clandon Park – rising from the ashes,” by Christine Leback Sitwell
In the spring of 2012, as a conservation student at UCL, I had the privilege to visit Clandon Park during a field trip. When I heard of the fire that occurred almost three years after my visit, I was shocked and devastated. My attendance to this talk was driven by a personal resonation with Clandon as well as the curiosity and fascination to see an emergency plan in use, despite the circumstances.
A personal photo of a classmate in the marble hall, 2012 and the marble hall post fire, 2015
Christine Sitwell, the Paintings Conservation Advisor for the National Trust in the UK, discussed the emergency response plan in regards to the fire at Clandon Park. The fire started quite small in a basement office on the right side of the building in the late afternoon of April 29, 2015. The fire then rose through the empty elevator shaft, enabling it to reach the lead covered roof and travel across to the left side of the building. Because of this, items and rooms on the left side, albeit still damaged, were not as badly damaged as the right side of the building. It was estimated that the amount damaged and/or completely lost totaled ninety-five percent.
Clandon Park, being under the auspices of the National Trust, has an emergency plan in place. Ironically, five weeks prior, a training procedure involving the fire brigade occurred at Clandon. Christine briefly went over the basics of the plan, including their incident reporting system. The system involves a phone tree, salvage areas to move objects, security, and something called star item sheets. These star item sheets were developed by property staff that prioritize objects as great significance to the property or of great art historical value. They are clear, simple, and to be used by the fire brigade when salvaging items. They are laminated and have two copies, one on the property as well as one in the regional office. Below are the two example slides she provided.
Once these objects have been removed from the property, they are moved to designated salvage areas, inventoried, and finally moved to more secure locations. Three of the items salvaged included three paintings that, fortunately or unfortunately, had to be cut from their frames as the paintings in their frames were much too heavy and risky to be removed together. Positively, the frames were saved as well. Clandon has bottom hanging frames just for this reason, the frames hang at the bottom for ease of removal.
Once the bulk of the items are salvaged things are not over. In addition to inventory and conservation, the next issue is security. Christine mentioned that the ease of information through the internet, smart phones, and the press increased risk of theft of items and perhaps more subsequent damage to the building. The emergency plan for Clandon Park includes a communication officer. Their duty is to be the point of up to date information regarding any changes, and updates during and immediately following an emergency. They are the point of contact with the press and the public.
Christine then shared a video diary she recorded during the aftermath of the fire. It included a school that was shut down for two days to help store some of the objects. The video diary is below.
Rescued from the ruins – a video diary of the salvage operation at Clandon Park
More issues occurred because of the many different salvage sites. A collections management system was created in a spreadsheet manner in order to determine the different levels of damage to each object within each salvage site. The building construction was damaged but intact, leaving a shell of a building. The damage was assessed with a 3D laser and the building’s structural stability was able to be evaluated. There were various other methods of surveying the damage, including a drone.
There were also the health hazards associated with the burning lead roof. The burning created about six feet of lead oxide dust and debris inside. The possible risk of mercury and asbestos poisoning was also present. Therefore, admittance had to be regulated and personnel properly outfitted in order to excavate the burnt layers to retrieve small finds.
The final part of the talk was in regards to the future of Clandon Park. It was stated that the General Director of the National Trust will rebuild Clandon Park, but to what degree. There have been instances with other National Trust properties on how they have handled such a large devastation. The options with how to handle Clandon park were to: demolish, maintain as a ruin, restore completely, reinvent for another purpose, or a use blended approach. The latter seems the most likely to occur.
To end her talk, Christine shared another video about the future of Clandon Park. The video can be seen below.
Clandon Park: The Future
Overall, it was intriguing and somber to see an emergency plan being utilized during such a destructive event. I enjoyed the fact that it was not a talk on the development of a plan in case of emergency, but rather the practice of it in the moment. Not only was this a learning experience for the National Trust and everyone involved in the process, I’m sure it meant a great deal to everyone who was present at Christine’s talk. If anyone else had the chance to visit Clandon before the fire, then you are aware of how such a startling loss this has been, not only for the local community, but for admirers around the world. I am hopeful for Clandon Park’s future.
Further information:
Clandon Park at the National Trust
Our Work at Clandon Park
44th Annual Meeting, General Session (GO – Emergency Response), May 16, “The Emergency Response Team at the Centre de conservation du Québec” by Eloïse Paquette
The Centre de conservation du Québec (CCQ), in Québec city, is a unique institution. Founded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications in 1979, its mandate is to protect and preserve Quebec’s cultural heritage and to make sure that this valuable heritage is recognized as such, and made as widely available as possible. The CCQ, which provides a variety of services (ranging from restoration to raising awareness about conservation issues and to emergency response), employs thirty conservators. One of these professionals, Éloïse Paquette, Paintings Conservator at the Centre, was at the joint 44th annual meeting and 42nd annual conference on May 16 to let us in on the secrets of the CCQ’s well-rounded Emergency Response Team. I had been looking forward to this talk: as a Quebecoise, and an aspiring conservator, this was a valuable occasion to get to know the workings of the CCQ, as well as how prepared they are to face disasters that threaten cultural heritage in the Belle Province. What I found out is that the members of the Emergency Response Team of the CCQ are, as Paquette pointed out, as ready as they can be.
The ice storm of January 1998, which paralyzed the Montreal region, acted as a catalyst for the coming into being of an official Emergency Response Team at the CCQ. The crise du verglas, as it is known in Quebec, caused massive power outage. At the Lachine Museum, 10 km from downtown Montreal, leaks appeared from previously frozen pipes when the power came back on, and the storage area was flooded with hot, dirty water, critically damaging the Museum’s collections. The CCQ was called for help, and three conservators were on site two days later. 254 of the affected objects demanded immediate care: the exhibition space of the museum was turned into examination rooms, many textiles were dried or frozen on site, and others were washed then and there. 87% of the textiles were saved, and half of them can be displayed today. Some of the textiles, paintings, works on paper, ethnological objects and furniture were restored in the following years.
This disaster prompted the Lachine Museum to revise its storage space (they installed a gas heating system and revised the classification of the objects) and the CCQ to put into place a more detailed and comprehensive emergency plan. Paquette explained to the audience what this plan is, and, most importantly, how good organization and communication make it an effective one. The CCQ’s Emergency Plan, which is revised and put up to date during regular meetings, relies on cooperation between team members as well as with other institutions and museum employees. The CCQ has agreements with the Musées de la civilisation and the Musée National des Beaux-Arts in Quebec City, as well as with Centre des services du Québec – Parcs Canada.
The first aspect of the Emergency Plan which Paquette unveiled was the Telephone Pyramid, a diagram in which a network of names and phone numbers are linked one to the other, in such a way that when a member of the team receives a call telling them about an emergency, they know exactly which other members to call. Hence, everyone is quickly in the know and ready to act. Like every other document related to the Emergency Plan, this Pyramid is available in a binder at CCQ, and every team member has a copy at home. The Pyramid was also printed in credit card format, so that it is carried around at all times (as Paquette pointed out, she had her copy in her wallet during the talk). This goes to prove what is seemingly obvious, but can never be stressed enough: communication is key for efficient emergency response.
The members of the emergency team also own a pocket-size summary of the plan. In the Emergency Plan, nothing is left to chance: the sequence of events is detailed, designated facilities are pointed out, the responsibilities of each team member is exposed, contact information for CCQ’s partners in case of disaster is listed, floor plans of institutions and museums are provided, etc. The document is made complete by a few annexes, the first of which being “Salvage Material Lists.” The materials of the Emergency Response Team, which are regularly inspected, are housed together in a secure area at the Centre, in well identified boxes. On each box is taped a list of the material it contains. The materials are visible, easily accessible, and very well organized. At the end of the talk, an attendee asked Paquette, who had provided us with an example of the list of materials contained in two of the boxes (box #1: aluminum paper, waxed paper, Ziploc bags, plastic fasteners, garbage bags, polythene, and box #4: security helmets, first aid kit, security glasses, dust masks, disposable gloves, dishwashing gloves, latex gloves), what they used aluminum paper for. Paquette stated that most of the materials have no specific, set use. Instead, they are to be brought on site just in case they are needed. This whole organization of the material makes for a quick and efficient disaster response.
The emergency plan has been put to the test a few times since its inception. Paquette told the audience about two disasters that – as someone who grew up in Quebec City – I remember vividly: the burning of the Quebec’s Armoury (2008), and the fire at the Musée de la civilisation de Québec (2014).
The Voltigeurs de Québec Armoury, a Gothic Revival drill hall, was built in the later part of the 19th century. As Paquette pointed out, on top of its historical significance, the manège militaire (as it is known in Quebec) also had architectural value: it was the largest wooden structure in America without columns. Iqn the night of April 4th, 2008, as the whole of Quebec City was still preparing for the celebration of the city’s 400th birthday, the Armoury, which was to have been one of the venues of the festivities, burned to the ground. As Paquette pointed out, the building was completely lost, except for the façade and the Voltigeurs de Quebec’s Museum, located to the left of the building. Several conservators were called on site on April 5th and tried to carry out the drying of archives and paper on site, until the federal government took over the conservation of the artifacts. 90% of the collection, which was mostly archives, was saved, and the museum was relocated.
Six years later, in 2014, an electrical fire broke out on the second floor of the Musée de la civilisation de Québec. Two exhibition rooms were flooded. In the first exhibition, one that contained about 300 First Nations artifacts, the objects were quickly protected and sustained minimal damage. The second exhibition was composed of Pierre Gauvreau’s paintings, which were rapidly covered with polythene to prevent ashes from settling on the surface, since there was no more storage space available. Except for the floors of the rooms, which had to be replaced, everything remained in good condition.
After the fire at the Museum, the CCQ’s Emergency Response Team went over their performance and commented on everything that went right, and everything that went wrong. Paquette concluded her talk by sharing some of the conclusions they drew from this exercise: everyone should have a cellphone and be in constant communication during transportation and intervention; a police escort should be demanded by the team in order to avoid traffic; frontal lamps are a must; the basic needs of the team need to be taken care of; it is necessary to monitor what other people are doing on the site (for example, cleaning company employees will sometimes use products that are dangerous for the collections); and the team (and their material) should be identified. Paquette showed the blue vest that the members of the Emergency Response Team wear when they work on the site of a disaster, which makes them recognizable but also distinguishes them from firefighters and other professionals.
What really makes the Emergency Response Team at the Centre de Conservation du Québec shine is the emphasis that is put throughout their emergency plan on good communication and obsessive organization. With the material always ready to be packed in a car and brought on site, and everyone easily reachable on their phones, it seems like this team could serve as an example for other institutions that have not yet fully embarked on the emergency preparedness train. In this regard, I would like to suggest that it might be worth considering for the CCQ to make the entirety of their emergency plan publicly available. All of their hard work and planning could greatly benefit conservation professionals all over the world.
43rd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Group Session, May 15, 2015. “Superstorm Sandy: Response, Salvage, and Treatment of Rare Pamphlets from New York University's Ehrman Medical Library" by Angela Andres
Angela Andres, Special Collections Conservator at New York University (NYU) Libraries, presented a case study of the salvage and treatment of a rare pamphlet collection from NYU’s Ehrman Medical Library. The collection consists of approximately 200 medical works, which sustained water damage when New York City took a direct hit from Superstorm Sandy in 2012. This presentation tied in well to the overall conference theme of Practical Philosophy, or Making Conservation Work, as the aftermath of the storm made the salvage and conservation of this collection particularly challenging.
Power outages and infrastructure disruptions were widespread in New York City in the weeks following Superstorm Sandy. Though conservators from NYU’s Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department were quickly on hand to assist with the Ehrman Library recovery effort, they were unable to enter some of the library spaces immediately after the storm due to flooding. Once the building was accessible, conservators worked with disaster recovery vendor Belfor and library staff to salvage water damaged materials, including this pamphlet collection. Due to concerns about mold growth and difficulties in locating a freezer or reliable power source, conservators interleaved the pamphlets with Tek-Wipe and packed them for removal to the Conservation Lab at NYU’s Bobst Library. Because of ongoing transit interruptions, it was necessary to transport the collection to the lab by taxi.
The pamphlets were frozen to allow for treatment in smaller groups over the next two years. Because the collection had been submerged in flood water containing sewage and medical waste, individual pamphlets were thawed and rinsed in a water bath. If mold was present, it was remediated after thawing with an alcohol solution. Dirt, fasteners, adhesive residue, and threads were removed while the object was in the bath. Each pamphlet was then dried, surface cleaned, mended, and rebound. Partway through the project, the Ehrman Library decided to digitize the collection, so the level of treatment was scaled back to accommodate imaging more easily.
In the wake of such a large disaster, the urge to assist can be overwhelming. Angela’s assessment of the positive and negative outcomes of this project was both practical and insightful. The active role taken by NYU Library leadership, as well as the effective division of labor, helped recovery efforts go as efficiently as possible. The Ehrman Library had a recently updated disaster plan with designated salvage priorities, and worked quickly to get a contract in place with a disaster recovery vendor when it proved necessary. The conservation treatment of this collection also afforded the Ehrman Library the chance to digitize and rehouse these materials as part of its long-term preservation strategy.
However, the in-house treatment of this collection significantly affected the conservation lab functions, and led conservators there to reexamine their approach to future salvage situations. Angela acknowledged that the strong desire to help in the aftermath of the storm might have prevented conservation staff from evaluating the situation more critically. In retrospect, Angela felt that it might have been useful to do a smaller pilot study prior to beginning treatment of the collection. That would have enabled conservators to get a better sense of treatment times, identify areas where treatment steps could be streamlined, and determine whether additional funding or staff would be needed to complete the project.
During the question and answer session, audience members asked Angela about specific salvage and treatment protocols. One participant asked why the Tek-Wipe interleaving was removed prior to freezing. Angela responded that the Tek-Wipe interleaving had become saturated with filthy water, and conservators wanted to get as much dirt away from the objects as possible. Pre-cut freezer paper is part of the conservation lab’s disaster kit and was readily available, so that was used instead. Another audience member noted the presence of iron gall ink on some of the pamphlets, and asked if any iron gall ink treatment was done. Angela responded that there were comparatively few iron gall ink inscriptions in this collection, and no additional treatment was done.
43rd Annual Meeting- Architecture and Wooden Artifacts Joint Session, May 14, “How to Salvage your Historic House Museum after a Car Crash: The Marrett House Emergency Preservation and Conservation Project” by Benjamin Haavik and Alexander M. Carlisle, Historic New England
When a drunk driver crashed into the parlor of Marrett House (1789) in Standish, Maine, the staff of Historic New England was able to see first-hand how well their disaster plan worked!
The damage was serious: clapboard smashed, wall studs snapped, wainscoting was knocked out, and furniture was displaced inside the room.
Local staff were on the scene quickly to secure the area. A team drove up within hours of the crash, to add temporary supports for the 2nd floor and to board up the hole in the house. The insurance company was called, and the policy was able to cover some recovery costs.
With such extensive damage, recovery was not straightforward. The floor carpet (dating to 1857) was undamaged, and due to its size, it was rolled and boxed to remain in the room during construction work. Furniture and objects had been removed from the room immediately, to be treated and stored. The house remained open for tours during the entire process.
The conservation and restoration of the structure was carried out with the goal of maintaining as much of the original materials as possible. The 1857 wallpaper and paint finishes were protected in situ. Where new support beams were needed, the modern additions were marked with copper tags to identify them as non-original. Plaster, lathe, and wainscoting were replaced; in the end, only spot retouching of the paint on the paneling was necessary.
Only three pieces of furniture were actually damaged (two chairs and a card table), and one vase fell during the crash. No pictures fell off the walls, and the rug was totally fine. Overall, they feel lucky that the damage was not worse.
Here are some tips they shared for disaster response:
-photograph the damage before starting recovery: this is good documentation practice and can help with insurance claims
-don’t throw anything away: a small bit of veneer from the damaged table was later discovered among the wood splinters and debris swept up during recovery (and saved in a box), and was able to be reattached
-make sure the emergency telephone tree makes sense: HNE is geographically far-flung, and in this case the first people called were NOT the closest to the scene