Cheers to the Masters

1/5/2017

This past year was a year of achievements for the Museum Textile Services staff. Three of the staff completed their Master's Degrees in 2016, with research in three very different areas of museum studies.

Morgan Carbone

I completed my qualifying paper for my degree in Fashion and Textiles: History, Theory, and Museum Practice at the Fashion Institute of Technology in May 2016. I had the opportunity to study and conserve a Han-Chinese woman’s pleated skirt panel dating to the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. Very little was known about the textile when it was received, so it was important to research the cultural context of the object, giving way to a study in fashion and symbolism during China’s Qing dynasty (1644-1911). The skirt panel was embroidered with uprooted flowers, which turned out to be a fun linguistic puzzle. The skirt panel underwent a series of treatments, including humidification, underlays and overlays, and adhesive treatments.

As a conservator at Museum Textile Services, I have had the opportunity to work on many Chinese and East Asian object, including a Qing dynasty ceremonial umbrella cover belonging to Wheaton College and a embroidered panel from Wesleyan College.

To finish Harvard Extension School’s Masters Program in Museum Studies, I completed my capstone project on the 2016 closing of the American Textile History Museum after 56 years. When an institution with such an important collection fails, it is important to look at why so that other institutions can avoid making the same mistakes. Examining the Museum’s history, location, revenue, costs, assets, and reviews, as well as comparing other similar local institutions, provided a complete picture of its circumstances. The Museum’s financial problems, seen through its tax returns, began after its move to Lowell from North Andover. Following the move, costs were higher, and revenues lower than projected. This led to years of deficits and rapid spending of assets, depleting them to a point that it was no longer

Courtney Jason

feasible for the Museum to keep its doors open. Now that I have finished graduate school, I continue to contract for Museum Textile Services while looking for a full-time museum position.

Megan Mary Creamer

I completed my thesis for the Harvard University Extension School in May 2016, in partial fulfillment of my ALM in Museum Studies. Titled Opening the Connection: Methods and Ethics of Digital Sharing in the Field of Conservation, I researched the growing body of digital data and informatics tools in conservation, relating the ethical precepts of conservation to the ethics of free and open software. My research included publications and surveys from AIC and ICON to explore what conservators need and want for digital tools, and what is available or commonly used in allied fields.

Through my thesis, I made an argument for a deeper understanding among conservators and museums about how choice of informatics software can impact the free and open access of data that is crucial to the future intellectual growth of the conservation field. I am currently pursuing a master's degree in Textile Conservation with the Centre for Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

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