Thursday, January 29, 2009 Since all the cleaned items will be off to their home, I am taking today and tomorrow to box them up for travel, and also future protection. It is so pleasing to see these items we have lived with snuggled in new boxes, waiting to be picked up. Making the clamshell boxesContinue reading “Boxing Up African American Objects”
Category Archives: African American Museum of Iowa
African American Museum of Iowa Grand Re-Opening
Friday, January 16, 2009 Today was the grand re-opening of the African American Museum of Iowa. A feat to be commended and celebrated. Since the June flooding, they have mucked out their building and restored it sufficiently to have staff back in the building, the beginnings of a museum store, and an exhibit installed. WhileContinue reading “African American Museum of Iowa Grand Re-Opening”
Good Preservation Practices Save Photos
Monday, January 12, 2009 These photographs were found among the documents from the African American Museum that were returned from the freeze dryer. This is one example of many envelopes full of photographs. These photographs were interleaved with sheets of archival paper which were adhered to the photographs when they were immersed by the flood.Continue reading “Good Preservation Practices Save Photos”
Up Close and Personal
Friday, January 2, 2009 I like to wear these magnifying glasses to demonstrate how fashion forward we are at the University of Iowa Conservation Lab. Aside from being extremely attractive they are actually quite helpful in situations like this one. The infamous gourd drum which took roughly 40 hours to complete has hair attached aroundContinue reading “Up Close and Personal”
Cleaning Gourd Drum
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 This gourd drum, an artifact from the African American Museum is a dried and hollowed gourd, the top has been sliced away to create an opening which has leather stretched across it. Two sticks intersect inside the gourd with the ends protruding from the sides, through the leather as you canContinue reading “Cleaning Gourd Drum”
Making A Difference With Baskets
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 The African American Museum has a collection of baskets that were sent to us after being damaged in the flood. In September we were sent to the Campbell Center in Mt. Carroll, IL for training in cleaning and preserving these baskets. This is an example of one of the baskets I cleaned. This particularContinue reading “Making A Difference With Baskets”
Buttons, Buttons, Who’s Got the Buttons
Friday, October 17, 2008 This small metal box is full of buttons of all shapes and sizes that are from Mason’s Dry Cleaners that was owned by Elmer Smith Jr. in Cedar Rapids. These buttons, and the box they are housed in, were painstakingly cleaned by one of our volunteers, Diana Henry. She sorted theContinue reading “Buttons, Buttons, Who’s Got the Buttons”
Sandals Almost as Good as New
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 These Sandals are one of two pairs from the African American Museum. They were both caked with mud and sludge. We chose to clean these sandals because they were in better condition than the other pair, which had some warping and cracking. For these I used a PVOH sponge to do an initial cleaning and thenContinue reading “Sandals Almost as Good as New”
Feather Fans
Friday, October 10, 2008 Three feather and wicker fans were salvaged from the African American Museum, all three were moldy and covered with a thick layer of muck. We knew they would take a very long time to clean so as part of the museum’s triage we were told to save two of the three.Continue reading “Feather Fans”
Basket Cleaning
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 We march on with cleaning baskets. This consumes most of my time at the lab now, as we are trying to finish cleaning the baskets before November 11th. I think we might cut it close. Sometimes it is difficult to know when to stop, as it seems there is always moreContinue reading “Basket Cleaning”