The Conservation Center is dedicated to the long-term preservation of artworks and heirlooms, and our job is to preserve and care for the art, antiques, heirlooms, and archives to allow them to have a future life. The focus of conservation is on stabilizing the current conditions of an item and ensuring its safety for the future. Often, this involves services beyond conservation treatment. Custom framing and displays, installation, storage, and handling can all impact the long-term safety of art and heirlooms.
Last year, we preserved a collection of letterbooks from Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the first president of Hampton University. Now, we are honored to be working with Hampton again to preserve documents from the office of the most recent retired university president, Dr. William R. Harvey, covering the correspondence and papers from his time as president between 1978-2022. This second project covers 90 volumes of Presidential letters - a staggering 45,000 documents - underscoring the advantages of digitizing an archival collection.
Historical Artifacts such as photographs, archival documents and letters, journals, maps, ledgers, newspaper clippings, blueprints, albums, and scrapbooks generally experience inherent vice. Inherent vice is the propensity for particular objects or materials to deteriorate due to their intrinsic characteristics. Newspapers, for example, are made from low-cost paper that becomes brittle, discolored, and delicate with age, making it difficult to store and handle safely. Along with proper handling and storage, digitization with state-of-the-art equipment ensures the long-term preservation of fragile historical objects. Whether a corporation, school, college or university, nonprofit, museum, social club, or family estate, digitization makes the information readily and easily accessible electronically while protecting the originals and allowing them to be properly stored.
Tear repair using Japanese tissue and methylcellulose
Binding being mechanically separated
While conservation can address specific conditions, items of this nature often remain delicate, making viewing and reading difficult. This was the case with the archive collection at Hampton University. Despite being well cared for by the university, the historic Hampton letterbooks had reached a state of brittleness due to the thin paper used, and researchers could not safely handle the letters without causing further damage. Losing access to the contents of the letters posed a significant problem to the university's community and researchers.
Detail of digitization process with BookEye Scanner
Detail of digitization process with BookEye Scanner
Conservation treatment addressed condition issues with the documents; however, it would not ensure they would be readily available to researchers and students. Preservation is central to The Conservation Center's mission. Since the original letters are too delicate to be handled by readers, our team collaborated to offer a solution that will preserve access to information while allowing the sensitive materials to be placed into long-term storage to minimize handling and further deterioration.
Page being housed in mylar L-sleeve
Our paper and book conservators stabilized the original documents to prepare them for digitization, and after digitization, they placed each letter in appropriate archival housing. Now digitized, these historical documents are easily accessible by researchers and the community at Hampton University. The digitized files are easily accessed via a cloud-based service, providing a permanent, cost-effective solution to ensure these significant records are available to all who seek to learn from them.
Each clamshell was custom built.
After treatment, the pages are now placed in their mylar sleeves and housed in the clamshell boxes.
We are proud to share a selection of recent projects focused on the conservation and digitization of archives and other documents:
Colleges/Universities/Schools
The Hampton University Letterbooks — The Conservation Center. We preserved 7,500 pages from the historic 19th-century letter book archives at Hampton University. Our team was able to rehouse the archives properly and digitize the entire collection to make it safely accessible for research purposes.
Presidential Letter Volumes: Hampton University. Large-scale digitization and archival storage of 90 volumes/45000+ documents.
The Conservation of a Civil War Painting for Southern Illinois University. Varnish removal and flaking consolidation treatments are carried out on a painting of the U.S.S. Switzerland.
Preparing for Display: Conserving Treasures for the Snite Museum at the University of Notre Dame, Madonna and Child with Saints — The Conservation Center. While building their new art museum, we are assisting the University of Notre Dame with conserving items from their art collection.
The Care of Custom Framing: Showcasing the Relics from Loyola University Chicago. Five relics from Loyola are conserved and custom framed.
Far from Common: The Commonplace Book of Louis de Marillac — The Conservation Center. We conserved this 16th-century book for the special collections library at DePaul University.
The Art of Accessories: A hand-braided hairwork necklace — The Conservation Center. This hairwork necklace is circa 1845 and is part of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts collection in Little Rock, Arkansas.
A Gilded Frame from The Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas A&M University Library. Stabilization, mold-making, and gilding helped conserve this frame for Texas A&M
Corporations
Frame by Frame: Chagall Installation We worked with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to treat, custom frame and install a large tapestry by Marc Chagall.
John Deere HQ: Conservation of “Reflections of an Era” by Alexander Girard. Large scale multimedia conservation project for John Deere Headquarters in Moline, Illinois.
Karl Wirsum's "Buster" Marionette in need of a Custom Mount — The Conservation Center Wirsum's "Buster," one of the artist's marionettes, is part of the corporate collection of a Chicago-based law firm. The firm's collection is focused on Chicago art and artists and is a mixed-media collection.
Time Capsule Reveal at Rush University Medical Center — The Conservation Center The Conservation Center worked with Rush University Medical Center's archivist Nathalie Wheaton to unveil the contents of several time capsules recovered on Rush's campus during an excavation in August 2016.
The Financial Lives of U.S. Presidents (and How We Conserved Them): The First National Bank of LaGrange (FNBLG)’s Presidential Checks Collection — The Conservation Center For The First National Bank of LaGrange (FNBLG)’s prized collection of Presidential Checks to be properly conserved for the first time in more than 20 years, they turned to The Conservation Center’s team for 21st century solutions.
Family Legacy
Lilias Trotter: Missionary, Artist. Five Lilias Trotter journals (a total of 524 pages) were discovered in England recently by private collectors Brian and Sally Oxley. They were brought to The Center for conservation, digital archiving, and reproduction.
Two Holocaust Journals - A Father's Impact on Children of the War. Colleague of CEO Heather Becker, Gail Golden’s Family Journals from WWII are conserved and digitized.
Lester’s Legacy: A Book of Memories. The Center assisted a client with creating two digital and archival scrapbooks that documented the original material from personal memories and events. The custom-made digital scrapbooks were then bound in leather with custom designed clam shell boxes for protection and safe handling.
The Legacy Behind a War Telegram. A Western Union telegram from WWII is digitally retouched to make legible for the Marshall Family in Raleigh, North Carolina
How Photo Conservation and Digital Restoration Reawakened a Family's History. Large Format Sepia Photograph from WWI is flattened, digitized, and printed for the Eisenstein Family.
Museums/Non-Profits
Architectural Drawings by Jeanne Gang — The Conservation Center We cataloged, treated, and framed architectural drawings by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects.
A Look Inside Jeanne Gang's Sketchbook — The Conservation Center Jeanne Gang’s sketchbooks were brought to The Center for treatment, and two particularly significant sketches were digitally reproduced and archivally framed.
Parks and Conservation: The Dubuque Museum of Art's Architectural Drawings — The Conservation Center Dubuque Museum of Art brought more than 80 architectural blueprints to The Center for treatment.
The Glesner House Piece Our objects conservators treat a broken bowl from the Glesner House.
Talking about Revolution: Treating a 1740 War Drum. Revolutionary war drum is conserved for the Georgia Historical Society’s collection.
A Community Comes Together: The Fisher Foundation Project. Multi-day pack out and conservation of Fisher Art Museum Collection.
Hotels/Clubs
Frederic Clay Bartlett's 56 Panels: A Gothic Chase and Feast Our conservators had the rare privilege to conserve an expansive mural in one of Chicago’s historic buildings.
TCC Restores a Treasured Cliff Dwellers’ Painting The Cliff Dwellers’ John W. Norton painting, "Navaho" (1910) came to The Conservation Center in the fall of 2012 in need of cleaning and reframing.
Saving The Scottish Rite’s Silver Gelatin Prints. One hundred twenty years of dust, grime, soot, and age - the early twentieth-century membership photographs from the Chicago chapter of the Scottish Rite are conserved and reframed.
