Baker and Houghton Libraries Support Summer Conservation Internships
During the summer of 1997, Baker Library (Harvard Business School) and the Houghton Library Department of Printing and Graphic Arts (College Library) supported internships in paper and photography conservation, which were hosted by the University Library Preservation Center.
Laura Linard, Director of Historical Resources, managed the Baker Library Program. Anne Anninger, Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts, managed the Houghton Library program with help from Julie Mellby, Assistant Curator, and Paul Messier, Photograph Conservator and the proprietor of Boston Art Conservation.
Elizabeth Morse, Paper Conservator for the Harvard libraries, collaborated with curators to plan the internships and select materials for treatment. Ms. Morse supervised the conservation work performed by interns Judy Dion for Baker and Dana Hemmenway for Houghton. Financial support for the Baker internship was provided by the Graduate School of Business Administration. The Houghton internship was made possible by a generous gift from the Fleming Charitable Trust in honor of Albert Blakeslee Wolfe, Esq., long-time Cambridge preservationist and Chairman of the Cambridge Historical Commission.
Judy Dion's work for Baker Library.
Ms. Dion is currently a fourth-year student working on a B.A. in Art Conservation at the University of Delaware. She also works as a Conservation Technician at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware.
Ms. Dion's efforts focused on two groups of materials in the Kress Collection of Business and Economics. One is a collection of prospectuses for over a hundred individual British railway companies proposed during the "pioneer period" in British railroad development (1824 to 1847). These materials are part of Baker Library's extensive holdings relating to British and American railroads and represent the pivotal early days of the railroad industry. Railroad records are crucial to understanding the development of industrial capitalism and the organization, management methods, and policies of big business during the mid-19th century. The prospectuses were folded and torn, and had been repaired using a variety of damaging mending tapes. Ms. Dion surface-cleaned the documents, removed tapes using a variety of methods, and mended tears.
The second collection on which Ms. Dion worked is a series of 74 aquatints depicting street life in early 18th-century London, titled "Cryes of the City of London Drawne After the Life" (London: Henry Overton, 1733). Each engraving represents one of the various trades visible on the London city streets. The street peddler was a favorite subject of many printmakers, who called their collections "Cries," from the chanted or shouted words the peddler used to attract attention. These prints were cleaned and prepared for matting.
Dana Hemmenway's work for Houghton Library
Ms. Hemmenway is currently a candidate for the M.S. in Art Conservation at the H.F. DuPont Winterhur Museum. She has worked as intern, assistant, and apprentice at the Worcester Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Hispanic Society of America, and other facilities; and has had rich and varied training experiences in the field of conservation. Her primary area of concentration is photographic materials; her minor, paper conservation.