Category: Exhibits

Boston Strong: Part 2

4/11/2014

By Camille Myers Breeze

On the morning of April 7, 2014, Museum Textile Services staff met on the steps of the Boston Public Library before joining the crowds of visitors and press in attendance for the opening of the exhibit, "Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial." During the previous month, we conserved 19 textiles left at the temporary memorial site in Copley Square following the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15th, 2013.

From left to right: Intern Johanna Myers, Technician Josephine Johnson, Visiting Conservation Assistant Lisa Yeats, and Conservator Cara Jordan.

The press conference began with a speech by Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, who was followed by Massachusetts State Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey. All three spoke about what it was like in Boston immediately following the Marathon bombings, and the great job the first responders did in the ensuing days. New England Museum Association Executive Director Dan Yeager, then came on stage and aptly concluded the press conference by thanking those who had contributed funds and services to the exhibit, including our colleagues Will Twombley of Spokeshave Design, Adam Osgood of Historic New England, Independent Curator Rainey Tisdale, and Independent exhibition curator Anne Starr.

New England Museum Association Executive Director Dan Yeager speaking to MTS Director Camille Myers Breeze in the exhibit, "Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial."

As we strolled through the exhibit, it was important to remember that this was not your average art opening. Eye witnesses and people who had been injured by the two terrorist bombs strained to see inside the display cases where notes and signs were displayed along side many textile items, such as shirts, baseball caps, and teddy bears. At the center of the room was the exhibit's main feature, a square platform with hundreds of pairs of running shoes stacked in rows, signifying how the running community and the general public had come together following the bombing in support of a city, a community, and our historic Marathon.

Josephine Johnson and Lisa Yeats did most of the work that Museum Textile Services contributed to this volunteer effort.

In the spirit of the impromptu memorial at which these display items were originally displayed, visitors were invited to leave messages on paper tags and tie them to one of the three trees along one wall of the exhibit hall. This was a powerful way to evoke the outdoor feel of the marathon memorial and allow those of us who didn't make it to Boston in the weeks following the bombings to finally take a moment to say what we were feeling.

"Dear Boston" is joint effort of the Boston City Archives, Boston Art Commission,New England Museum Association, and Boston Public Library. Generous funding was provided by Iron Mountain. For more events marking the first anniversary of the Boston marathon bombings, visit #BostonBetter.

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Boston Strong, Part 1

3/31/2014

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By Camille Myers Breeze

When I was approached in May of 2013 to participate in a voluntary effort to preserve artifacts left at the temporary memorial site in Copley Square following the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15th, I said yes without hesitation. Dan Yeager, Executive Director of the New England Museum Association, facilitated communication among regional museum professionals.

Image courtesy of fastgreyz.blogspot.com.

The Archives and Records Management Division of the City of Boston Office of the City Clerk oversaw the dismantling and preservation preservation effort for the memorial artifacts. First City Archives staff and volunteer from across the museum spectrum documented and packed artifacts into donated boxes. The boxes were loaded into trucks donated by Polygon Corporation and transported to Polygon's facility in Georgetown, MA, where they were air dried with a dessicant. Next they were fumigated by Historic New England in their anoxic fumigation bubble to eliminate the possibility of insect, mold, and bacterial activity. After fumigation, the artifacts were transported to the Boston City Archives in West Roxbury where staff accessioned the material into the collection and stored in their climate-controlled facility.

Image courtesy of USAToday.com.

Our colleague Rainey Tisdale soon took over curatorial responsibilities for the exhibit, "Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial," which will be at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square on April 7 through May 11. Memories of the minutes and days following the two explosions, three tragic deaths, and the subsequent manhunt for two suspects, are still vivid. The challenge for this exhibit will be to present the initial emotional response and tell the story of the attack in a way that also reflects hope and strength.

Image by Museum Textile Services.

In early March, Museum Textile Services technician Josephine Johnson retrieved a box from City Archives volunteers containing nineteen artifacts from the temporary marathon bombing memorial. Inside the box are hats, shirts, baby onesies, and even a Starbucks apron inscribed with messages and memories of the often-anonymous donors. Over the next three weeks, Josephine and visiting conservation assistant Lisa Yeats, photographed, surface cleaned, humidified, and gently straightened out these artifacts so that they can now be safely preserved and exhibited without their condition detracting from the message they are sending.

Image by Museum Textile Services.

Over the next few months, numerous memorial efforts will take place across the Boston area to commemorate the events of the marathon bombings and to help continue the healing. For more information, visit BostonBetter.

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Patton's Pride

4/8/2013

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By Courtney Jason

On December 10, 2012, a shipment of 20 flags arrived at the MTS from Fort Knox, KY. These flags have a particularly interesting history, as many hail from the personal collection of General George Patton. They belong to the General George Patton Museum of Leadership, which is undergoing a major renovation and reinterpretation.

Camille Myers Breeze examining the Nazi flag on site at the Patton Museum in September, 2012. Image courtesy of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership.

The Ft. Knox flags range from a 11.5" x 17" Confederate Calvary guide on to an 80" x 130" Nazi flag. The collection also includes several WWII Army flags, and a North Vietnamese flag that was recovered from a booby-trapped location. The collection is here to be cleaned, stabilized and mounted for display when the Patton Museum reopens later this year.

Gen. Patton wrote on many of his flags. This note explains that this is the first Nazi flag ever captured by US forces, on Nov 11, 1942. Image courtesy of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership.

So far we have vacuumed the flags with a HEPA filtering vacuum to remove any particulate matter. Next we will humidify those with planar distortions using the Gore-Tex system described in a previous blog about the Orra White Hitchcock textiles from Amherst College.

This two-star flag bears the initials of the Western Task Force. Wrinkles and folds will be relaxed using the Gore-Tex humidification system. Image courtesy of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership.

The majority of the flags will be mounted on aluminum solid-support panels manufactured for us by Small Corp, Inc in Greenfield, MA. Each panel will have a layer of 1/4-inch Polyfelt from University Products in Holyoke, MA, covered with khaki-colored cotton poplin from Phillips-Boyne in Farmingdale, NY.

Gen. Patton's inscription on the WTF flag, stating that it landed with him on Nov 8, 1942. Image courtesy of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership.

All of the flags except for the Nazi flag will be pressure mounted on a solid-support panel. They will be centered on the panel and hand stitched to the cotton using a curved needle. Only minimal stitching around the perimeter, along several strategic points in the body, and along the fringe, is required.

The Second Corps Flag has a heavy bullion fringe that will require thorough stitching before pressure mounting. Image courtesy of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership.

A sheet of UV-filtering acrylic will provide the rest of the support for the mount. The museum has chosen Small Corp's powder-coated aluminum frames to complete the mount system. The first batch of eight flags will undergo this process through mid to late April, before being shipped back in early May by US Art of Randolph, MA.

Gen. Patton wrote "II Corps Tunesia 43" on the hoist binding of this flag. Image courtesy of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership.

The Nazi flag will receive a different treatment due to its large size. A future blog will highlight this highly-technical process. We hope you're looking forward to seeing more of these flags as much as we're looking forward to working on them.

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Best of 2012: "Cannonball" Before & After

12/31/2012

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by Camille Myers Breeze

Our choice for favorite project from 2012 has to be the conservation of a baseball uniform belonging to the great Negro league player William "Cannonball" Jackman. As we learned from Sarah Berlinger's March 12th, 2012, blog Will "Cannonball" Jackman Comes to Life, he was perhaps the greatest player you've never heard of.

Uniform on display in "The Color of Baseball in Boston." Courtesy of the Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, MA, USA.

Prior to the completion of this project, Boston globe writer Joel Brown paid Museum Textile Services a visit to learn more about the project. His article, entitled "Preserving the Fabric of History," appeared in the April 19, 2012, issue of the Boston Globe North. Joel's article was a wonderful opportunity for us to let the public know about textile conservation and as a result we have seen a huge increase in the amount of sports memorabilia brought to MTS. In response, we launched a new Sports Memorabilia page in the Conservation section of our web page.

You can see some more images of the conservation of "Cannonball" Jackman's uniform in this short slideshow. Many thanks the Museum of African American History, Boston, and to all who worked on this project, including Cara, Courtney, Katey and Sarah.

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Project EXHIBIT!

12/3/2012

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by Camille Myers Breeze

For nearly a week, the Beard & Weil Galleries at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, was the scene of great collaboration and ingenuity as students of ARTH 335 Exhibition Design installed their Fall 2012 show, "100 Years 100 Objects." The exhibit showcases an object for each of the 100 years since Wheaton Female Seminary became Wheaton College.

"100 Years 100 Objects" will be on display December 3, 2012, through February 15, 2013.

Camille Breeze was hired to participate in two days of teaching and exhibit prep thanks to funding from the Art/Art History Department and the Evelyn Danzig Haas '39 Visiting Artist Program. After a short presentation about careers in conservation, Camille broke students into teams according to what remained to be done to install a pair of priceless textiles conserved by MTS.

Pair of Buddhist scrolls, conserved with assistance of Wheaton College interns Michelle Drummey and Gabrielle Ferreira in summer 2012, were already hanging when Camille arrived.

The first team underwent the final framing of a silk embroidery depicting "Hagar and Ishmael are Cast Out by Abraham" (Genesis Chapter XXI), by Eliza Wheaton Strong (1795-1834). This exquisite textile is very fragile but together the team cleaned the framing materials, placed the embroidery behind the custom mat, and backed the new frame with Marvelseal before hanging it in the gallery.

Upon Eliza Wheaton Strong's death, family members established Wheaton Female Seminary, which later became Wheaton College.

The remaining student teams addressed tasks related to the mounting of the c 1780 costume of the Duchesse de Choiseul, which had been conserved at Museum Textile Services in 2012. You can read about this project in intern Gabrielle Ferreira's first and second blogs.

Josephine Johnson '13.

The bust of the custom manikin was covered with show fabric by senior Josephine Johnson, who is planning for a career in conservation. The base for the manikin was assembled by a team including senior Morgan Bakerman, who is writing her thesis about the dress.

A third team addresses the skirt support, which originally was accomplished with rigid paniers. Students started with a replica of the skirt made by Cara Jordan from cotton muslin. Next, they machine sewed 3-inch twill tape in two rows across the skirt and threaded flexible polypropylene tubing through the channel. The tubing provided the shape of the paniers, and additional pieces of twill tape tied across the underside created the correct, flat silhouette.

Camille Breeze models the paniers after final touches were made by students.

During the final push on Saturday afternoon, the base was attached to the exhibit platform, the manikin bust was installed, the paniers were tied to the manikin, and finally the costume was dressed.

The costume of the Duchesse de Choiseul, c 1780.

Working with an academic institution like Wheaton College is one our favorite jobs at Museum Textile Services. Many thanks go out to Leah Niederstadt, Museum Studies Professor and Curator of the Permanent Collection, and Zeph Stickney, Archivist and Special Collections Curator, for asking Camille to help in this intense and rewarding project.

Leah Niederstadt and Zeph Stickney editing label copy written with the help of students.

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Civil War Exhibits

6/1/2011

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With the arrival of spring in Massachusetts came a flurry of activity surrounding the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Several regional museum exhibits will feature textiles conserved by Museum Textile Services. You can read about three projects here, but nothing takes the place of visiting a museum and seeing the actual artifacts for yourself!

One Foot Square, Quilted & Bound at the New England Quit Museum includes rare and never-before-displayed Civil War artifacts and fabrics. One of the highlights is a rare glazed-cotton "potholder" quilt from Portland, Maine, on loan from the Brick Store Museum. Prior to exhibition, this quilt required stabilization to the splitting silks and reinforcement of the stitches that hold together the twenty individual blocks. This quilt is on display through July 10 at the Lowell museum, 18 Shattuck Street. Read more in the Eagle Tribune.

Image courtesy of Brick Store Museum.

When Duty Whispers: Concord and the Civil War features an extremely important flag on loan to the Concord Museum from the near-by Middlesex School. The First National colors of the Massachusetts 55 Volunteer Regiment was issues in July 1863 but was not used on campaign. It was given to Middlesex School by Col. N. P. Hallowell, who a trustee there from 1902 until his death in 1914. The flag was restored by Hallowell's daughter in 1972 and was on permanent exhibit at the Warburgh Library for almost 40 years. A successful fund-raising campaign allowed Museum Textile Services to conserve and remount the flag, which will now live in a custom display case built by Spokeshave Design. The Flag can be viewed at the Concord Museum through September 18, 2011, before it is returned to Middlesex School. Read more in the April 3, 2011, Boston Globe.

Image courtesy of Middlesex School.

Commemorating Our Role in the Civil War 150 Years Later is the title of this summer's exhibit from the Framingham History Center. Among the historic artifacts on display will be the "Citizen's Flag," a Civil war-era garrison-sized American flag made of wool bunting with cotton stars. The flag was donated to the town of Framingham in 1892 according to vintage printed labels on either side of the hoist binding. Before entering the museum's collection, the flag was exposed to extreme soot which left it discolored and brittle. Museum Textile Services was able to remove the sooty deposits with gentle wetcleaning and then stabilize the flag and install a Velcro hanging system. The visual impact of this large flag hanging overhead is not to be missed! It is on view from June 11, 2011, at the Edgell Memorial Library, 3 Oak Street, from 10:00am4:00 pm. A full calendar of Civil War events in Framingham is available here.

Image courtesy of Framingham History Center.

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Boston Strong: Part 2

Boston Strong, Part 1

Patton's Pride

Best of 2012: "Cannonball" Before & After

Project EXHIBIT!

Civil War Exhibits

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