Week Four at Independence: What's Wrong with the Liberty Bell?

            I’ve been at Independence for almost month, and it’s incredible to see how much has been accomplished since I started just a few weeks ago. I’ve assessed, cleaned, and inventoried an entire storage room of several hundred artifacts. The conservation project in the Second Bank has been a slow one thus far, but it’s important to ensure that all artifacts are treated to protect their future at INDE for future storage and potential use. I’m glad to be part of such a vital project!

            I spent the past week working on the new storage area, which has come with its set of challenges. As I discussed last week, the types of objects in this room are much bulkier than the media I worked with in the previous room. It’s not possible for me to always move everything because of the sheer size of the objects, so I’ve been advised to clean large sofas, chairs, and bedframes as best I can. There is one chair in particular where the stuffing has stretched out from underneath and is virtually in tatters. Moving it is at the risk of further shedding and the potential that the stuffing may finally collapse from under the chair. Important decisions like these need to be made throughout the conservation process so as not to cause further damage on already badly deteriorating items.

            Monitoring the condition of objects at INDE is an important part of the daily and long-term functions of CRM. One of the museum technicians noticed recently an unusual waxy substance underneath the Liberty Bell, located in the Liberty Bell Center across the street from Independence Hall. This may have been due to lacquering, which is a process by which wax is melted and thinly coated on objects to protect them from damage and make them durable. The CRM staff thought the waxy substance could have been residue from previous lacquering.

            As a precautionary measure, Karie brought in renowned metals conservator P. Andrew Lins from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). Early Thursday morning, we arrived one hour before the Liberty Bell Center opened to the public so that the PMA and INDE staff could work to assess the Bell. Lins brought his team from the PMA, where a PMA associate scraped minute samples from within the Bell. She stood underneath the bell while she worked, which was a reminder of how big the Bell actually is. The samples were placed in small capsules, where they’ll be taken back to the lab and examined underneath a microscope to determine the type of material.

           

Here are some pictures from the day: 

Metals conservator P. Andrew Lins using a light to observe the inside of the Liberty Bell.. 

PMA Associates work to scrape samples of the waxy substances from underneath the Bell. 

It was an exciting day working on a special access work project on the Liberty Bell!

Until next week!

Week Three at Independence: New Storage Room, New Problems

                The last time I left off I was just about complete in one of the storage rooms in the Second Bank. Gloria, the museum registrar, asked me to inventory the 20+ cabinets. Done about once a year, the inventory is a vital part in taking account of all of the Park’s objects, ensuring that objects are not missing or have sustained new damage. The project in this storage room took me about three weeks to complete, and with that, Karie took me through the second phase of the project.

                The Second Bank consists of various storage rooms, one of which I will work in for the next few weeks. This new storage area is an entirely different battle in artifact conservation. The strategy for cleaning was about the same, but the structure and needs of this room were completely different than that of my first few weeks.

                Firstly, the shelves are about seven feet tall, which makes the shelves a little more difficult to clean. The shelves are taller and wider to accommodate larger artifacts, such as chairs, couches, busts, etc. In addition to the shelves of furniture and racks of artwork, there are dozens of rows of textiles. This is certainly a challenge that I didn’t have in the first room, where most of the objects were light, primarily paper-based, and stored in shorter cabinets. Many of the objects are too big for me to physically move myself, so it’s a game of doing the best I can in such a large space. As Karie explained the new phase of the project, she made it clear that while it is important to invest time in conserving the objects, I also need to take into account the damage that also comes from physically moving objects in poor condition simply as a result of deterioration over time.  It’s certainly frustrating to know that not all of the artifacts can be restored or cleaned due to the storage room’s space restrictions, but a wide sweep of the room is an important first step in preserving what is already there.

                Working in a new room means a new pace for my days. In the mornings I work in the storage area, and in the afternoons, I complete data entry for the museum database. Called the Interior Collections Management System (ICMS), it’s a NPS cataloging system for all of the museum’s historical and archaeological objects. While I’ve used the cataloging system PastPerfect extensively in the past, I am new to ICMS. Gloria walked me through some of the basics of using ICMS. Each artifact receives a specific classification according to NPS standards, along with fields for current location, provenance, market value, etc. This helps Gloria and Karie keep track of where each artifact is at all times, as well as keeps an organized way of classifying such a high volume of objects. I’m tasked with cataloging several dozen objects, which will take me a few weeks as I balance that along with working in the storage room.

                While I’ve been in a trainee position for the last two weeks, I was required to test my skills and share them with another student this past week. One of the interns in the park works in the ProRanger Program co-sponsored between Temple University and the NPS. He spent two days in the storage areas where I covered some of the basics of collections management, including wearing gloves while handling objects, inventorying principles, and the parameters of the project. Working in such a diverse park as Independence requires that all employees are aware of the park’s different departments to understand how it functions at large, so the ProRanger Program is fantastic in that it exposes all students to various tasks in the park.

             

Week Two at Independence: Conserve, Inventory, Repeat.

                After waiting almost two weeks for my background check and fingerprints to clear, I finally received my NPS identification card and key into the storage areas at the Second Bank. I suppose the process was a test in patience, resilience, and desire for the job. Either way, I learned the complicated steps needed to work for the federal government.

                Last week, I continued to inventory, inspect objects for damage, and clean the drawers of the flat-file cases. As I mentioned in my first blog post, the flat-file cases contain paper-based materials. These items haven’t been inventoried in about five years, so going through them is a big help to our museum registrar.

                Some of the drawers were problematic, however. For example, several drawers included wallpaper samples from various Independence park sites. The wallpaper samples were stored in folders that measured over a foot long, so one of Independence’s museum technicians helped me to lift them out of the drawers. We did so with the makeshift support of sturdy cardboard to stabilize the center of the folders. Some of these materials were not only problematic for their large size, but because of the natural aging process that causes paper to shed over time. Physically removing the wallpaper also brought the risk of further shedding, so extra care was required.

                The question of removing the material at the risk of further deterioration was a question with many of the book drawers well. Many of the books range between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which is a cause for concern. Some of the books are made from animal skins, which over time, are materials that cause of specific form of deterioration called red rot. It’s essentially the shedding of the binding that looks like rust. The process is inevitable, but it’s important to limit movement as much as possible. Due to the fire, however, it was important to ensure that none of the books had been exposed to soot.

                On Wednesday, I finished inventorying the flat file cases and began helping two other museum technicians with some of the pastel paintings hanging in the Portrait Gallery, located on the first floor of the Second Bank. You can read more here about the collection: http://www.nps.gov/inde/second-bank.htm.

                I was tasked with inspecting the 30+ pastel paintings hanging in the Portrait Gallery for any soot damage from the fire. Called the “sharples” after British artists James and Ellen Sharples, these artworks were wrapped about ten years ago in conservator’s tape to seal them from dust and any other inconspicuous particles. They are hanging on the wall in a very specific way to prevent theft, so my coworker gave me a crash course in removing the frames from the wall. 

                    Once I removed the painting from the wall, I sat down at a table under a bright light and opened each individual frame. The frames were custom-made for each individual pastel. I unscrewed the frames, some of which had more screws than other to support the different sharples. 

                   Upon removal from the frame, I took the pastel out of its holding. Each one is wrapped in conservator’s tape, as can be seen here from the front and back views of this portrait of First Lady Dolly Madison. 

Back view of the pastel painting covered in plastic conservator's tape. 

          

      I checked each painting for any gaps in the tape, which this one didn’t have. This was fortunate seeing as the inside of the wood had quite a bit of dust, as can be seen on the cloth’s debris. I inspected the approximately thirty sharples on the wall, some of which I set aside. Someone on staff will later reapply tape to the exposed areas of these problem pastels. Fortunately, the sharples were protected from the soot from January’s fire. 

 

These lint- and acid-free cloths are used to clean artifacts. The one on the right shows the debris from the inside of the wooden frame. Fortunately, the tape on the pastel was well-sealed, which prevented any of the dust from seeping in.

          

               While quite a bit of work, it’s a lesson in the importance of consistent conservation. While the aging process is inevitable and disasters can occur, the preparation process can go a long way in slowing natural and man-made damage to important historic objects. 

"Maintenance is Preservation" - My First Week at Independence National Historical Park

             In the last month I’ve completed my first year of graduate school, went to Brooklyn for the first time, and began my internship at Independence National Historical Park right here in Philadelphia. Working with the National Park Service (NPS) is a dream come true. My journey to the NPS has been an interesting one, a series of events that catapulted me straight into an internship at Independence. After reading the “Imperiled Promise” report in the fall of 2014, I became intrigued with the NPS’s position as a focal point in public history and wanted to become involved with some of the great projects that they work on.

                This past March, I had the opportunity to do just that. I participated the George Wright Society’s Park Break, a week-long fellowship that invites graduate students to work on projects in natural and cultural-based parks. Independence was chosen this year, and I had the chance to work on a project in New Hall, a military museum in the park. You can read here for more information on that project: http://sites.temple.edu/centerforpublichistory/2015/04/01/temples-joana-arruda-joins-park-break-2015/

                While working on the George Wright project, I also conducted research on the NPS’s international contacts in the 1950s and 1960s at the height of its expansion during the Mission 66 years. The culmination of these events led to an unexpected opportunity at Independence, where our project directors from the Cultural Resources Management Department, Doris Fanelli and curator Karie Diethorn, remembered my interest for curatorial work and collections management. During the George Wright week, Doris and Karie mentioned that an air handler fire had erupted in the Second Bank of the United States. Completed in 1824, the Second Bank was built in the Greek Revival style and holds an extensive portrait collection. I had no idea that I would be invited several months later to assist in the cleanup and preservation process of the 10,000+ objects in the storage areas that may have affected by soot from the fire. 

Second Bank of the United States, located on Chestnut Street between 4th and 5th Streets.
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

                My first day was this past Monday, where Karie showed me around the Second Bank, including the amazing Portrait Gallery on the first floor of the Bank. We got started right away. Karie brought me to the storage areas, where we began inspecting the cabinets for any soot damage. Metals are porous, and if soot begins to seep into the microscopic pores, it can cause permanent damage to these materials. I went through all of the free-standing cabinets and encountered a wide variety of artifacts. Pottery, twentieth-century Liberty Bell memorabilia, textiles, ceramics – you name it. I worked on these cabinets through Thursday, where I carefully cleaned artifacts and the drawers in which they were stored.

                While working on the project, I noticed a painting that had hung in Independence Hall that is now in the storage area. Karie had asked a conservator come in to assess the painting. I had the opportunity to watch the conservator look at the damage and offer some of his suggestions for preserving the artwork. Using a UV light, Steven looked at the painting and found that it had been retouched several times throughout the years. It was a great opportunity to be able to see how an outside conservator works with the NPS, as well as witness first-hand someone's expertise in something I know very little about.

                On Friday, I worked primarily on the flat file cases. These cases hold paper-based files – documents, books, drawings, etc. This was by far my favorite thing to look through. I found a book published in 1801 written by William Penn, as well as plans to build the Mall during the mid-twentieth century. I worked to inventory these items to ensure that everything was in place, as well as inspected them for any possible damage.

                Having access to Independence’s amazing collection has exposed me to how these artifacts contribute to the park’s significance in local and national histories. I hope to use this blog as a way to not only chronicle my experiences, but to also feature some of the great pieces at Independence. I’m looking forward to a great second week!