Feature photo: Portrait of Elizabeth Riddle, from our Highland Vicinity Neighborhood Collection, suffers from many of the common problems with crayon enlargements – the surface is scuffed and scratched in many places and the brittle board has cracked. The portrait was repaired with strips of thin, long-fiber paper adhered with wheat starch paste. Do you have […]
We receive donations to our collection like certificates, panorama photographs and broadsides that have been rolled, which are difficult to handle and house. It is best to store these flat so they can be more easily handled and accessed for research. Many papers are made of poor quality paper and are brittle. The curl retained […]
My favorite part of working at IHS is the challenge of conserving objects and stabilizing them so that they can be safely used. This treatment was an opportunity for me to practice a thought process on ethical conservation, color toning, and to pick the brains of my insightful supervisors even more! This pamphlet consists of […]
Conservators mend paper using a variety of techniques depending on the type of paper, media, or artifact that comes across our bench. One material we use frequently in the Indiana Historical Society Conservation Lab is pre-coated repair papers. These are fabricated in-house and are customizable to a specific project or type of paper that we […]
Charles F. Bretzman was a prominent photographer in Indianapolis during the beginning of the 20th century. The Bretzman Photo Company, was operated for nearly 80 years in Indianapolis. Bretzman ran the business with his, his wife, and son, Noble – who later took over the business – and was responsible for capturing images of Indianapolis’ people, […]
Preservation is central to the mission of the IHS year round, but we celebrate it just a little bit more at the end of April every year. Preservation Week is an initiative of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association, which encourages libraries and other institutions to […]
The 3-D valentines in the current Love Always exhibition in the Rosemary McKeeLanham Gallery are beautiful and whimsical – and they posed a challenge for the conservators preparing them for display. How to showcase their intricate, 3-dimensional nature in a secure and attractive way? Our goal with any exhibit mounting system is to make sure […]
