2003 Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections
The Heritage Preservation/American Institute for Conservation Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections will be given to three institutions in 2003: The Canadian Museum of Nature, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden, and the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.
The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
In his early years as a collector, Henry Francis du Pont was aware of the damage light could cause and so specified that rooms receiving early morning sun should have the shades pulled down the night before. Before the official opening of the Winterthur museum, he drafted an 83-page document “Letters and Notes to the Executors and Winterthur Directors (Trustees) Concerning the Winterthur Museum and Winterthur House” which articulated basic principles of care in the handling of objects. His foresight set the museum on a path that has continued to have conservation and collections care at its core.
In 1956, the museum invited world renown conservation authority Harold Plenderlieth to assess and make recommendations concerning the environmental conditions. Shortly thereafter, UV-filtered glass was installed in the Period Rooms. This preventive conservation approach continues today in the form of a Preventive Conservation Special Team that has documented all preventive conservation activities in a staff manual that is updated annually. Today 25 staff members care for Winterthur’s collection, including conservators in six different specialties, technicians, conservation scientists, lighting specialists and collections maintenance specialists.
Conservation laboratories were planned for and implemented in the design of a new facility in the mid 1960s. At the same time, Curator Charles Hummel began working with the DuPont Company and the University of Delaware to examine the feasibility of developing an analytical program. Their first project concerning metal objects was such a success that plans for a graduate program to train “museum scientists” began. Today Winterthur’s Scientific Research and Analysis Laboratory is one of the best-equipped conservation science laboratories in the United States.
As the analytical program continued to grow, an initiative to educate and train individuals to preserve decorative and fine arts developed. In 1969 the Trustees approved a graduate program in museum conservation that would use Winterthur’s new conservation laboratories and the facilities of the science and humanities departments at the University of Delaware. By 1973 funding for the first three years of a joint program had been secured and the first class began studies in fall 1974. As of September 2002, the program had graduated 246 Masters-level students.
Winterthur has been able to balance and secure grant support for both this training program and their own conservation projects. Recently, a four-year project to install a sophisticated recessed track lighting system in all 175 period rooms resulted in moving 70,000 objects, surveying 45,000 objects for conservation and treating 25,000 objects. Many of these conservation activities were funded by the Ahmanson Foundation. An Institute of Museum and Library Services grant funded a major restoration of hand-painted wallpaper in the Chinese parlor.
Winterthur has had a long tradition of public outreach. Since 1976, a free-of-charge public consultation clinic is held once-a-month from September to May in collaboration with the graduate students and faculty. There have been numerous opportunities for the public to watch conservators at work. Since regularly scheduled public tours of the conservation department began in 2000, the staff has installed didactic wall panels outside each laboratory. The Winterthur Guide to Caring for Your Collections was published in 2000 with support from the Chubb Insurance Companies.
The outstanding conservation department and the Winterthur/University of Delaware Art Conservation Program are a direct result of Henry Francis du Pont’s visionary thinking. Winterthur continues his tradition by going the extra mile in its commitment and dedication to conservation and collections care.
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden
A program of library materials preservation was begun at The LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden in the late 1960s. Initially it was a basic book care program carried out by a small part-time staff. Today the conservation staff includes a Conservator, an assistant conservator, an intern, a conservation technician and a part-time technician.
This conservation staff has taken on more and more responsibility for non-book collections including archives, art and illustrations, photographic materials, architectural plans and ethnographic artifacts. The staff carries out basic preservation and storage activities, conservation treatment, advises the Library staff on conservation issues regarding all collections and arranges for outside conservation treatment when appropriate.
Over the years, the Library has conducted several collection specific surveys. In 1989-90 the library undertook a general conservation assessment. That report proved invaluable as the Garden planned and constructed a new storage facility and rare book room. The conservation staff was fully involved in working with the architects to plan this building in order to assure the library stacks and other storage spaces were designed following stringent preservation guidelines. A letter of support from the architectural firm cites the “serious commitment the conservators had toward assuring that the new storage facility would provide the best possible environment for the Library’s collections.” Since then, the Garden has designed and built a new exhibition gallery. The conservation staff again played an integral part in its planning and construction. Since the new building opened, the exhibition program has given the conservation staff full responsibility for installing exhibitions and monitoring environmental conditions in the gallery.
A disaster preparedness and recovery plan was developed in the early 1990s. Copies are held by area conservators who are prepared to help the Library in the event of a major disaster. The library also has an impressive record of outreach. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Library hosted the Book Preservation Center. During the first year, the Center’s goal was to provide help and preservation support for libraries in the Bronx that lacked conservation departments or expertise. It later expanded its services to libraries in the greater New York Metropolitan area. The BPC staff offered workshops in basic collection care and made site visits to libraries to provide information and help specific individual libraries. These activities culminated in a book Library Materials Preservation Manual published in 1983. The BPC was supported by the Bronx-based H.W. Wilson Foundation. Since 1993, the Library has provided a series of internships funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to provide benchwork experience. Recently the head of the conservation staff has collaborated on several projects in Brazil.
The Library has labored carefully to preserve the materials in its internationally important plant science collection. The institution’s support of conservation and preservation, evidenced by a well staffed and equipped conservation lab, steady funding and programmatic support is a model for other libraries and conservation programs.
Canadian Museum of Nature
The Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN) has a long tradition of supporting conservation nationally and internationally. Their innovative Risk Assessment and Management Project applies risk analysis techniques to long-term planning for collections care. By defining and quantifying risks to collection materials, it provides a systematic way to allocate resources. The CMN has used this approach to making collections-related decisions for the past decade. A model project, the system has stimulated discussion and growth in the conservation profession.
Furthermore, the museum has supported various workshops and educational endeavors to present this system to the field. This collections risk assessment supported the case for the development of the National Heritage Building (NHB) in 1993. The NHB is a 21,000 square meter facility purpose built to house the museum’s 10 million specimens. Prior to this facility, the collections were housed in eleven buildings around Ottawa. Rather than being housed by discipline or curatorial unit, these collections are stored and managed in climate zones appropriate to the specimen’s requirements. Monthly environmental monitoring reports documented by the conservation section are a basis for working with the facilities department to resolve issues. New hires, contractors and volunteers read and sign off on policies concerning pest management, food and beverages and equipment for transporting specimens. These policies are returned to and logged by the Human Resources department. In twelve years, the Conservation Section staff has grown from zero full-time equivalents to four full-time equivalents.
The museum is now considering a renovation of the Victoria Memorial Museum Building where exhibits are housed. Preservation of the collections is a major factor in these plans. The museum’s commitment to research and development of conservation knowledge is evidence in numerous publications supported since 1980. The Conservation Section has also coordinated a series of preservation awareness sessions for smaller museums and the general public.
