[CPProt.net] Winterthur Art Conservators Assist Gulf Coast Museums

[Ellie Bruggeman]

Winterthur Art Conservators Assist Gulf Coast Museums

Winterthur’s art conservation staff and the University of Delaware Art 
Conservation Department have joined the efforts to preserve cultural 
treasures damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Teams trained in the 
preservation of metals, paper, furniture, and other media have traveled 
to Biloxi, Mississippi, to assist their colleagues at the historic site, 
Beauvoir, and the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum with recovery efforts for objects 
impacted by the storm.

“The Winterthur community, along with the rest of the nation, has been 
deeply moved by the suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina,” said Leslie 
Greene Bowman, director and chief executive officer of Winterthur. “As 
an institution committed to preserving America’s cultural heritage, the 
Winterthur staff is dedicated to assisting our sister institutions in 
the recovery, stabilization, and treatment of their collections. We are 
honored to offer our time and expertise and plan to work with our sister 
museums for the months or years of recovery ahead.”

The first team of Winterthur volunteers carried out initial assessments, 
which will be followed by longer visits for more in-depth treatments. At 
the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum, which houses ceramics by George Ohr, the “mad 
potter of Biloxi,” as well as African American, Native American and 
contemporary arts, Winterthur volunteers have assisted with mold-damaged 
library materials and photographs at an off-site storage location. The 
salvaged books include African American history texts and hymnals. The 
volunteers also taught the staff to remove mold from contaminated 
paintings and sculpture.

At Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis and site of his library, 
Winterthur volunteers worked with the staff to establish emergency 
desalination and corrosion prevention methods for the historic artifacts 
scattered throughout the 52-acre campus. They also established emergency 
processing and housing procedures for the recovered artifacts, as well 
as reviewed storage conditions for library and archive collections.

Winterthur offers a Master’s degree in art conservation, in conjunction 
with the University of Delaware. The program educates and trains 
conservation professionals in the examination, analysis, stabilization, 
and treatment of art and artifacts and in general principles of 
collection care as well as provides a broad academic background in 
science and the humanities. The conservation program is one of only 
three full-time graduate programs of its kind in the country, and its 
graduates work at cultural institutions and other organizations 
throughout the world. In addition to their teaching duties, the 
conservators and scientists on the staff cares for the 85,000 objects in 
Winterthur’s museum.

Winterthur is coordinating its Katrina Recovery efforts with the 
American Institute for the Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works and 
the Heritage Emergency National Task Force of Heritage Preservation.

Winterthur Museum & Country Estate—known worldwide for its preeminent 
collection of 85,000 American antiques; a naturalistic garden; and a 
library that is a research center for the study of American art and 
material culture—offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs, and 
activities throughout the year. USA Today recently named Winterthur as 
one of the country’s “10 great places of historic proportions” and 
Budget Travel called it “one of the 10 grandest mansions in America.”

http://www.artdaily.com