A death

Nell Meldahl, proprietor of Far East Conservation, passed away last
week from breast cancer.  Nell was a pioneer in many respects though
she would have been too modest to say so.  She grew up in Japan and
was the first western woman accepted into a scroll mounting studio,
Oka Bokkodo in Kyoto, for a five year apprenticeship.  She completed
her training as a Mellon Fellow at the Asian Conservation Dept. of
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts where she was an assistant
conservator.  In 1984 she opened her own business in Truro, MA.  She
specialized in the repair of Chinese and Japanese screens and
scrolls.  She became an inspired instructor for the Paper and Book
Intensive and returned many times to teach topics such as scroll
making, the tokanoma, Japanese screens and the allied skills of
backing, brush handling, and paste making.  Her family has
established a PBI scholarship fund in her honor.

Pamela J. Spitzmueller
James W. Needham Chief Conservator for  Special Collections
Harvard University Library Preservation Center
Holyoke Center 821
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-7654 or 495-8596
Fax 617-496-8344

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:51
                Distributed: Tuesday, December 15, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-51-001
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