Internship at Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Women's Committee 2015 Summer Internship in Scrapbook Preservation
Smithsonian

Through the generosity of the Smithsonian's Women's Committee, two
summer internships involving preventative preservation, conservation
treatment and digitization are available.  Jointly sponsored by the
Archives of American Art and the Smithsonian Center for Archives
Conservation at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the interns
will conserve twenty scrapbooks from the records of the Macbeth
Gallery.  The interns will stabilize the albums by assessing and
applying preventative actions and direct treatments that will
facilitate digitization by providing safer handling and assistance
during the imaging portion of the project.  The stipend of $5,000
each is based on a full-time, ten week schedule.  Both current
graduate students in preservation, conservation and archival or
library science, and undergraduates interested in building
pre-program experience are eligible.

The Macbeth Gallery Scrapbooks at the Archives of American Art are
an archival collection in dire need of stabilization and
digitization preparation to allow full research use.  The goal of
digitization preparation is to reunite, mend broken and fragile
overlaid items in their original placement where adhesive has failed
and fragility permits; provide surface cleaning to improve contrast;
apply supportive mends focusing energy on unique manuscript
annotations (as opposed to newspaper clippings with masthead and
date), rehouse undersized loose or especially vulnerable items such
as photographs; and/or intervening with original attachments which
are or will cause damage and possibly rehinging items with tissue
hinges (per curatorial discussion).  This makes the decision path
smoother and operations more efficient for the digitization
contractor, and future users.

The incumbents will over a ten-week period, assess treatment needs,
prioritize, prepare supplies and perform treatments and housing
interventions in support of an ongoing item-level digitization
workflow.

The scrapbooks include news clippings, correspondence, photographs
and ephemera related to the activities of the gallery from the early
20th century with manuscript annotations that are extremely
vulnerable at the edges.  The scrapbook albums have been previously
surveyed, which allows for the interventions and treatments to be
progressively complex.  Learning and understanding vulnerabilities
and history of materials, preparation and selection of repair
materials, and creating modifications for enclosures to allow for
safer handling of contents during digitization, by on-site
contractor are the primary tasks.  As items move into the
digitization workflow, interns will provide assistance in handling
and reassembly as needed, and will have ample opportunity to observe
and participate in the digital product by assisting in quality
assurance, adding content to the finding aid, reviewing metadata and
other topics.

Treatments will include one or more of the following activities:
surface cleaning, reassociation and mending of manuscript fragments
where prioritized and possible; locating and readhering clippings
for which adhesive has failed, or rehousing in envelope labeled with
as-found or presumed original location; paper mending at vulnerable
edges of manuscript; interleaving vulnerable photos; applying corner
or channel mounts to heavy inclusions; interleaving with support
boards; creating custom enclosures (four-flap wrappers or corrugated
clamshells) within the current boxes.  Beyond these stabilizing
actions, there is no shortage of advanced level treatment to pursue
in these albums, such as photograph identification, stain removal,
pressure-sensitive tape removal and/or alkalization per the
curator's priority and time remaining.  The latter work would take
place in the lab at SIA.  Additional archival opportunities include
subject research, and writing description and content notes.

Location/duty stations: Due to the fragile and large nature of the
collection, and time-limited duration, transport of the objects is
largely discouraged.  The project will take place mostly onsite at
the Archives of American Art (Washington DC location) at a
designated field conservation station (70%).  Supply preparation,
some training, and occasional advanced level treatment will take
place at the Smithsonian Institution Archives' laboratory, which is
within walkable or short public transport distance away (30%).
Smithsonian Institution transport is also available between
locations.  Supervisors include the Conservator for the Smithsonian
Institution Archives, and the Registrar and the Head of Digitization
at the Archives of American Art.

Stipend: The stipend of $5,000, generously sponsored by the
Smithsonian Women's Committee is offered for each full-time (40
hour) ten week opportunity.  Interns also have exposure to in-house
tours, seminars and observation of other projects ongoing at both
locations.  Relocation, housing, and insurance are not included.
Start dates are flexible from the week of May 26-June 1, 2015.

Contacts: Full application instructions via the Smithsonian's online
internship application system (SOLAA) are found on the website of
the Archives of American Art

    <URL:http://www.aaa.si.edu/aboutus/opportunities>

Deadline is March 15, 2015.

Nora Lockshin
Paper Conservator
Smithsonian Institution Archives


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:37
                 Distributed: Friday, February 27, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-37-029
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