{"id":15110,"date":"2016-06-28T09:03:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T14:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=15110"},"modified":"2016-06-28T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T14:03:47","slug":"92-year-resident-of-georgia-barrier-island-leaves-home-treated-by-faic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2016\/06\/28\/92-year-resident-of-georgia-barrier-island-leaves-home-treated-by-faic\/","title":{"rendered":"92-year resident of Georgia barrier island leaves home treated by FAIC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sandy West\u2019s family bought Ossabaw Island, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, in 1924. For almost a century, she inhabited the \u201cMain House,\u201d one of the few buildings on the island, and worked to protect the island and share its beauty with others. In 2010, FAIC joined furniture conservator David Bayne in a program to bring emerging conservation students to the island to gain hands-on training in historic home housekeeping and preventive conservation. The culmination of four\u00a0summer workshops on the island resulted in a 40-page guide to caring for West\u2019s home, prepared in 2015 for the State of Georgia\u2019s Department of Natural Resources<\/a>, which will gain control of the house after West\u2019s death.
\nAs a result of West\u2019s eventual financial instability, the 25,000-acre island was sold in 1978 to the State of Georgia for a discounted price in hopes of preserving the sacred place. As a result, Ossabaw became Georgia\u2019s first Heritage Preserve. The deal with the state allowed for West to remain in the colonial revival mansion on the island until her death (at the time, a state-hired actuary predicted she\u2019d live to be 78). Now at the age of 103, West recently relocated to Savannah<\/a> to access more affordable full-time care.
\n

\"2013<\/a>
2013 Team – Ossabaw Island Preventive Conservation Workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe FAIC workshops (see the\u00a0plan for the 2015 course<\/a>)\u00a0taught the basics of preventive conservation in the pink 1920\u2019s Main House. Ossabaw\u2019s remoteness and climate presented a unique medley of housekeeping problems for the groups to consider. These workshops explored the relationship between objects, their history of use, and their long-term preservation in a historic house setting.
\nDuring each day of the two-week program, participants learned about different materials and how to care for them. The activities ranged from pest management to furniture handling; textile cleaning to taxidermy examination; and maintenance of book and paper collections. Participants gained experience in assessing and prioritizing issues with limited time and resources. The site contextualized objects in poor condition with their environment and acted as a counterpoint to the experience of working in a museum lab.
\n
\"The<\/a>
The living room in the Main House on Ossabaw Island, GA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFAIC\u2019s Ossabaw Housekeeping Guide provides yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly care recommendations specific to the main rooms of the house based on the objects and materials in the room. Pests, light levels, temperature, and relative humidity were monitored, with recordings included in the guide. Suggestions for crisis housekeeping are also included, and may be incorporated in a full disaster plan in the future.
\nFor several reasons, including difficulty in\u00a0getting to the island, FAIC had to find a new location for the historic house training workshop. The 2016 workshop<\/a> is currently taking place with eight participants and five instructors at Staatsburgh State Historic Site, a property owned by the New York State Bureau of Historic Preservation. Keep an eye out for blog posts by the participants coming soon.
\nAs West\u2019s time on Ossabaw Island ends and the state prepares to take over the Main House, they are equipped with a solid resource for implementing a standard of practice and recommendations to be considered for the future care of the historic home.
\nYou can find a review of the program from a 2012 participant on the blog: http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/2012\/10\/review-of-faic-preventive-conservation-workshop-ossabaw-island-ga-january-7-20-2012\/<\/a>\u00a0and an article on a\u00a0workshop\u00a0presented as a talk at\u00a0our annual meeting in\u00a0San Francisco (from which the above\u00a0photographs have been reposted):\u00a0http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/2014\/06\/42nd-annual-meeting-collection-care-session-may-29-the-ossabaw-island-workshops-preventive-conservation-training-in-a-real-life-setting-by-david-bayne\/<\/a><\/p>\n

–Article by Sarah Saetren (FAIC Education Coordinator) with Bonnie Naugle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sandy West\u2019s family bought Ossabaw Island, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, in 1924. For almost a century, she inhabited the \u201cMain House,\u201d one of the few buildings on the island, and worked to protect the island and share its beauty with others. In 2010, FAIC joined furniture conservator David Bayne in a … Continue reading “92-year resident of Georgia barrier island leaves home treated by FAIC”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,29,36],"tags":[419,502,738,824],"class_list":["post-15110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ccs","category-in-the-news","category-ecpn","category-preventive-conservation","tag-faic-workshop","tag-historic-house","tag-ossabaw","tag-preventive-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}