Lectures on contemporary conservation issues and practices

The conservation department of the Boston Athenaeum was founded by
Captain George Cunha in 1963. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of
the conservation laboratory, the Athenaeum is presenting a series of
three public lectures on contemporary conservation issues and
practices.

Dawn Walus
Becoming a Conservator: History, Craft, and Science
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
12-1pm

Modern conservation practice is an interdisciplinary blend of
history, craft, and science. So how does one get started in the
field, and what roles do conservators play in museums, libraries,
and archives around the world? What skills are needed to succeed in
conservation? How long does it take to be ready to work on unique
and rare objects? How does one figure out how to conserve a
collection or object? With personal anecdotes and examples from the
Athenaeum's Conservation Laboratory, Associate Conservator Dawn
Walus will explore these questions and discuss the field's broad
mission to support cultural heritage collections through research,
technical study, treatment, and advocacy.

Dawn Walus is Associate Conservator at the Boston Athenaeum. She
previously worked at the Weissman Preservation Center (Harvard
College Library), Rieger Art Conservation, and the Preservation
Society of Newport County. She held conservation internships at The
Huntington Library and The New York Academy of Medicine. Ms. Walus
is a graduate of the graduate art conservation department at Buffalo
State College, and is a member of the American Institute for
Conservation and the Guild of Book Workers.

Evan Knight
Investing in Rebellion: Digitization of the Athenaeum's Confederate
    Collection
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
12-1pm

The Athenaeum's Confederate Imprints are among the most
comprehensive collections of Southern print culture produced during
the American Civil War. It may seem ironic that a Northern library
should hold such a collection, but the Athenaeum has been committed
to building and preserving the collection since 1864. It is
regularly consulted for research and, with generous support from
Trustee Emeritus Caleb Loring, Jr., is in the process of being
digitized. Currently more than 1,600 items ranging in content from
government documents, religious pamphlets, literature, music,
medical journals, and even ephemera such as soldiers' railroad
tickets and Jefferson Davis' calling cards are viewable through the
Athenaeum's Digital Collections. Project Conservator Evan Knight
will outline the goals of the project, discuss the collection and
some interesting items, and illustrate how conservation practice
plays a fundamental role in the scanning effort.

Evan Knight is the Project Conservator for Confederate Imprints at
the Boston Athenaeum. He was the 2010 Harper-Inglis Fellow at the
Library of Congress and has previously worked at the Northeast
Document Conservation Center, the Benson Latin American Collection
at the University of Texas, and the Municipal Archives of New York
City. He is a graduate of the Library and Archive Conservation
program at the University of Texas and is a member of American
Institute for Conservation, the Guild of Book Workers, and the
American Printing History Association.

Holly Moore
Growing the Huntington: A Programmatic Approach
Friday, November 15, 2013
6-7pm

In May of 2012, the Huntington Library received a $500,000 Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation grant to expand the library's preservation program
to include on-site treatment of paintings and objects from the
institution's art collections.  The Huntington has a long history of
conservation, beginning with the establishment of a book bindery in
the 1920s and leading to new book and paper labs in 2004. Its
current preservation priority is to create an institutional
programmatic approach to conservation, with paintings staff and new
paintings and objects labs added to the existing department.  This
initiative will be described in the context of the Huntington's
overall growth of the past 15 years.

Holly Moore is the Lloyd E. Cotsen Head of Conservation at the
Huntington Library in San Marino, California.  She received her
Masters of Library and Information Science with an Advanced
Certificate in the Preservation and Conservation of Library and
Archival Materials from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998.
She has worked for the Huntington Library for 15 years as a
conservator for rare books and bound manuscripts.  Promoted to
Department Head in 2009, she is responsible for the development and
management of the conservation labs and contributes to various
preservation activities.

All three lectures are free and open to the public.

James Reid-Cunningham
Deputy Director
The Boston Athenaeum
10 1/2 Beacon Street
Boston MA 02108
617-720-7617


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 27:18
                Distributed: Thursday, October 24, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-27-18-011
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