A Natural Legacy, Part II

In Part 1 of this blog, Museum Textile Services Director Camille Myers Breeze shared her experience attending the opening of Charting the Divine Plan: The Art of Orra White Hitchcock (1796-1863) at the American Folk Art Museum. In this episode, we go into detail about the conservation procedures undertaken to prepare twenty early-19th-century painted textiles for exhibition.

Image by MTS.

Back in 2012, all sixty-one of the painted fabric "classroom charts" made by Orra White Hitchcock belonging to the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections were brought to MTS for preliminary conservation and rehousing. Intern Ryan Cochran, overseen by conservator Cara Jordan, surface cleaned and humidified each textile to reduce particulate matter and creasing. Together with conservator Courtney Jason and director Camille Breeze, the team rolled twenty-two textiles and constructed custom storage trays for the remaining thirty-nine textiles. At that time, recommendations were made for additional conservation treatments to correct losses and splits.

Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

The opportunity to address damage to twenty of the twenty-one most fragile textiles came about in 2018 when the entire collection was requested by the American Folk Art Museum for their comprehensive exhibit of watercolors, pen and ink drawings, prints, and classroom charts that Hitchcock created between 1810 and the 1840s. All were humidified and pressed where needed to reduce folds and wrinkles. Two textiles needed no further treatment and were repacked after humidification. 

Four of the classroom charts had paper patches on the front that needed to be re-adhered before exhibition. Most were addressed with just a drop of liquid BEVA 371 allowed to dry beneath a weight. Paper patches on four textiles posed enough of a risk for separation or tearing that we opted to use overlays. Undyed silk crepeline coated with a 50-50 solution of Plextol B-500 in water was cut into small rectangles and adhered to the front surface with a tacking iron set to 50 degrees Celsius. 

Detaching paper patch, before conservation. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Detaching paper patch, before conservation. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Detaching paper patch, after conservation. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Polyester organza patch on the back of a hole. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Ten textiles had splits and tears that required support from the reverse. Many of the splits coincided with areas of dark pigment or chemical burnout. The underlay material we chose is “nude” polyester organza sold by Testfabrics, Inc. in West Pittston, PA. Of ideal stability, weight and transparency, these patches do not stretch and their boundaries are not visible from the front. After testing, we elected to use 1 mil BEVA film as the adhesive. BEVA was first applied to the organza. The textile was placed face-down and patches were tacked to the back of weak areas with a Clover tacking iron set to 50 degree Celsius. The textile was placed face up again, adhesion was double checked on the front, and additional tacking was done as necessary.

Loss caused by chemical burnout, before conservation. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Loss after stabilizing with a full lining. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Five textiles had substantial holes or tears requiring full backings to enable exhibition. The lining material we found most compatible is Holytex, a nonwoven polyester that is light-weight, stable, and resembles the classroom charts in its slightly papery behavior. 1 mil BEVA film was ironed to the Holytex using a Rowenta Steam and Press iron set to 65 degrees Celsius. Higher heat caused the Holytex to curl and pucker, so we used additional pressure with the iron to achieve a good bond. The textile was first placed face down on an ironing surface. The adhesive side of the Holytex was placed over the textile and minimally tacked with a D&K tacking iron set to 50 degrees Celsius. The textile was flipped face up and ironed again from the front side, through a piece of silicone-release film. Excess Holytex was carefully trimmed from the perimeter of the textiles with small scissors. 

"Icthyosaurus" before lining. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

"Icthyosaurus" during the infill process to tone adhesive in areas of loss. Images courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

The appearance of the adhesive-coated Holytex in areas of loss needed to be addressed prior to exhibition. Exposed, unspent adhesive is shiny and tacky, and can pose a risk to other parts of the textile if not properly addressed. We elected to adhere paper pulp to these bare areas. Rather than purchasing the paper pulp, we created our own by filing scraps of acid-free mat board using a stainless steel nail file. This was slow but allowed us to create an optimal color by combining more than one shade of board. The pulp was dispensed evenly onto the spot and covered with silicone release film. The adhesive was reactivated through the paper pulp with a clover tacking iron at 55 degrees Celsius. Larger holes needed to be covered with pulp and heat reactivated several times in order to achieve the desired amount of coverage. 

The final stage of conservation was to advise the American Folk Art Museum on safe methods of display. From the very beginning, they expressed excitement about the potential of neodymium, or rare-earth magnets, the use of which we have been developing at Museum Textile Services over the past few years. After discussing ways of camouflaging magnets with paint or fabric, the museum came up with the perfect solution. Pairs of tiny silver-colored magnets were used in plain sight, blending in with the modern support systems of clear acrylic and black fabric-covered boards.

Nine Orra White Hitchcock classroom charts on display. Installation image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections and the American Folk Art Museum.

Rare-earth magnets used to suspend a textile against a layer of acrylic. Installation image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections and the American Folk Art Museum.

At the conclusion of this conservation project, Museum Textile Services conservators had spent ninety-four hours assessing, testing, cleaning, humidifying, and stabilizing twenty of the sixty-one known classroom charts made by Orra White Hitchcock. To see them on display, visit the American Folk Art Museum before the exhibit closes on October 14, 2018.

Camille Myers Breeze founded Museum Textile services in 1999. She is a prolific author, and educator of museum personnel and emerging conservation professionals in the US and abroad.