{"id":4444,"date":"2020-05-01T23:13:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T23:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/?page_id=4444"},"modified":"2024-04-22T18:13:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T18:13:24","slug":"frankel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/v27\/frankel\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Moth Man: Conserving John Hampson&#8217;s Insect Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Nora Frankel<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Hampson created intricate and works of art using insects as a medium.&nbsp; These works used thousands of dried animals, mostly <em>lepidoptera<\/em> (moths and butterflies) and <em>coleoptera<\/em> (beetles) to create images, often of historical themes.&nbsp; The Fairbanks Museum &amp; Planetarium (St. Johnsbury, VT) currently owns Hampson\u2019s entire collection of insect art, created in a period between his immigration to the US in 1860 and his death in 1923.&nbsp; The piece General Slocum was fragile with large areas of loss, and the museum considered it too damaged to display.&nbsp; Slocum was previously brought to Williamstown Art Conservation Center (WACC) for consolidation to stabilize the crumbling, aging insect bodies.&nbsp; Following further funding, Slocum returned to WACC to address the aesthetic aspects of the treatment to allow for future display.&nbsp; Due to the pictorial nature of the work, the second phase of treatment of Slocum focused on loss compensation and visual infills to enhance readability of the image.&nbsp; As the piece consisted of several species across multiple genera, a wide range of techniques were required to create appropriate fills for lost or damaged insects.&nbsp; While initially using real insect specimens was explored, it was determined that replicas would be more consistent, durable, and reversible.&nbsp; Moths were replicated with Japanese tissue, utilizing digital printing, hand toning, and folding to achieve the appropriate effect.&nbsp; Tissue wings were mounted on original pins and secured with Klucel G.&nbsp; Where losses of beetles were distracting, replicas were hand molded or cast in acrylic resin from silicone molds taken from detached specimens.&nbsp; The opalescent color on some species was replicated with mica powders and replica beetles were tone with acrylic paints.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/04\/osg027-04.pdf\">Download Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"http:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/v27\/\">2020 | Online | Volume 27<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nora Frankel Abstract John Hampson created intricate and works of art using insects as a medium.&nbsp; These works used thousands of dried animals, mostly lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and coleoptera (beetles) to create images, often of historical themes.&nbsp; The Fairbanks Museum &amp; Planetarium (St. Johnsbury, VT) currently owns Hampson\u2019s entire collection of insect art, created [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":4441,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4444","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4444\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/osg-postprints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}