WOLCOTT GRAND LAKE ASHLAND DAMEN

The Works of Art on Paper Department maintains the historical integrity of the piece, while addressing concerns of long-term storage, display, and preservation with established methods in the field of paper conservation.

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The Center's paper conservators encounter a variety of works, such as historical documents, drawings and prints, screens, pastels, watercolors, blueprints, and scrolls. The paper conservators treat each piece individually based on information gathered during examination and testing.

The Paper Department’s approach is dependent upon a wide range of inherent properties in each paper sheet.  The age, type of paper, media, scale, and previous campaigns of restoration are just a few considerations for each treatment approach. Many of these properties are easily affected by a variety of environmental, housing, and age-related factors.

Our paper conservators offer options for the treatment and preservation of your piece, along with advice on proper handling, storage, and care. Each work is treated with established methods and materials used throughout the field of paper conservation. For more complex treatments, conservators maintain an ongoing dialogue with clients.

Archive digitization and collection preservation

The Conservation Center works with colleges, universities, museums, historical institutions, and corporations on the long-term conservation and digitization of archives and collections. All reproduction work starts with our professional-level scanning equipment that provides greater safety for the object being scanned. The overhead scanner does not touch the object's surface and captures images using LED light. Overhead scanners also allow for the careful duplication of bound books, as the binding does not need to be pressed onto the flat surface of a conventional scanner. Original documents can then be conserved, housed in mylar, and stored in custom-built clamshell boxes.

Institutions often have a wide breadth of items needing treatment, such as:

•       Art, artifacts, memorabilia

•       Historical photographs, albums, negatives, slides

•       Archival documents, letters, newspaper clippings

•       Books, journals, scrapbooks

•       Maps, ledgers, blueprints, and other schematics

stories related to paper conservation:

video: PORTRAIT MINIATURES, A TINY STEP BACK IN TIME

Much like the gentry of centuries ago, we were enthralled when a set of miniature profiles of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Eddoweswere brought to The Center. A special find from a client with a collector’s mind and keen eye, the small portraits were mounted to acidic paper, and exhibited acid and water staining throughout, as well as distortion, age-related discoloration, and a moderate layer of surface soil. Perhaps most interestingly, their provenance was attached to the verso of each piece.

 
 
 

STORIES RELATED TO WORKS ON PAPER CONSERVATION:

gREAT (aRTIST) AUNT MARGARET

Many of us have things passed down from our family, maybe stuffed in boxes in the attic or basement, that are treasures to us. These treasures, though maybe not valuable in the eyes of the public (or art market), are priceless to us. “Everybody thinks their Great Aunt Margaret was a great artist,” said one of our clients. Yet sometimes, as that same client found out, it turns out to be true.

Digitization and preservation: The hampton university letterbooks

Letterbooks are filled with a staggering amount of information, indexing all the essential communication a person had during their life. Records of business arrangements, copies of letters, and other important correspondence; the letterbook was an inbox before we had inboxes, a hard drive before hard drives.

The Paper Department at The Conservation Center recently worked on 12 volumes of letterbooks for Hampton University. The letterbooks belonged to General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, an officer of the Union Army who founded Hampton University (originally Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute) established to provide education to formerly enslaved people. They includes Chapman's handwritten and typed correspondence during the establishment of the University. This collection of letterbooks provides insight into the educational experience of African Americans and indigenous peoples of the United States during the time of Reconstruction.

Magical Methods: Water Washing

 
 
 

a lA mODIGLIANI: pORTRAIT OF lUNIA cZECHOWSKA

 

Amadeo Modigliani was an Italian painter who lived and worked during La Belle Époque. Like many other artists during this period, he resided in Paris where he created some of his most famous sculptures, drawings, and paintings. Although Modigliani was prolific and created hundreds of pieces, he was destitute for most of his tragically short life. The artist is well-known for his portraits, which depict faces influenced by the Baule masks and figures from the Ivory Coast. His distinctive style is characterized by long necks and faces, and by his signature small, hazy eyes. We recently encountered one of his drawings in need of minor treatment and cleaning.

CHARLES WHITE: A RETROSPECTIVE

In correlation with the exhibition, we wanted to share our recent treatment of a 1965 Charles White lithograph that came to us from a private client who had concerns about framing damage. The lithograph on paper, titled “Juba”, had been passed down to our client Stacy Robinson by her father Louie Robinson, who was a journalist, one of the founders of Ebony Magazine, and a friend of Charles White. "My father's work put him in close contact with many prominent Black actors, sports figures, and influencers of the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s," Stacy shared with us.

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