WCG Angels Projects

The 2009 WCG Angels Project will be held at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives in Washington, DC, on Saturday, November 7th. The project will focus on the re-housing and stabilization of approximately 125 framed documents, portraits and other vertical collections.

Angels Projects are pro-bono work days for which WCG members volunteer their conservation expertise at a particular historic site. They are generally conducted all in one day, although the preparation and follow-up require additional time.

Angels Projects pair conservators with collections that need care. A group of conservators typically volunteer a day of their time to work with curators, archivists, or collections managers to provide basic care and rehousing for specific collections. A successful Angels Project includes local and regional publicity such as television, newspaper and magazine coverage to publicize the need for collections care and preservation.

The history of Angels Projects dates back to the late 1980s when members of WCG's parent group, the American Institute for Conservation, began incorporating Angels Projects at sites near their annual meetings. During the following years, Angels have rehoused collections for storage upgrades, preserved daguerreotypes and tintypes, backed paintings, rolled large textiles, and prepared collections for moving.

Benefits of Angels Projects include:

providing an opportunity for the site personnel to become familiar with conservation and conservators in their area
providing sites with an opportunity to establish ongoing relationships with local conservators who may assist with on-going and future conservation needs
providing the opportunity for conservators to become familiar with a site's staff and facilities which in turn may aid in future emergency response and salvage operations
providing an opportunity for conservators and site volunteers to network and have fun
enhancing public awareness of WCG activities and the goals of the conservation profession as a whole.

Sites may be historic houses or museums, or any organization that has a need for basic collections care, conservation consultation or simple preventive conservation such as re-housing collections. To qualify for financial assistance, the site should have some financial need and have only minimal conservation facilities or expertise on staff.

WCG applies on behalf of the selected organization to The Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC) for grants of up to $1,000 toward the development and implementation of Angels Projects. Funds are to help defray organizational costs, necessary materials and supplies and other expenses such as marketing and publicity. Materials and supplies may also be augmented through donations. All publicity and news releases must recognize FAIC's financial support.

To suggest a project for the next WCG Angels Project, please contact:

   Lisa Young
   Angels Project Coordinator
   conserveit@earthlink.net

Past Angels projects in the Washington area include the following:

Howard University's Art Gallery
The Washington Navy Yard's Naval Museum, Archives and Art Gallery
Friendship Heights, Washington DC, Firefighters Museum
Historic Congressional Cemetery (2004, 2005)
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (2006)
DC Public Library, objects recovered from Georgetown branch fire (2007)
Historical Society of Washington, D.C. (2008)

Click on the project title above to see photos and project descriptions as they are posted to the website.

If you would like to nominate a particular site for next year's project, please contact Lisa Young, WCG's Angels Project coordinator, at conserveit@earthlink.net.

return to top

Historic Congressional Cemetery (2004, 2005)

WCG volunteers at work on the Historic Congressional Cemetery Angels Project

Bill training surveyors	Catherine demonstrating cleaning methods	Angels group photo, 2004
Click thumbnails for larger images

return to top

Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (2006)

On Saturday, October 14, 2006, the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum was the recipient of the latest WCG Angels Project. Organized by archaeological conservator and WCG member Howard Wellman, the focus of the annual pro-bono work day was a massive cleaning and re-storage effort, in which 20 WCG members and graduate interns participated.

Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum is a State of Maryland museum, located in St. Leonard, Calvert County, devoted to the preservation of historical and archaeological cultural resources. The core collections of JPPM (aside from the State archaeological collections) are the buildings, tools, and implements used by Mr. Jefferson Patterson to run the Point Farm property, a 512 acre cattle farm that he created in the 1930's. After the property was donated to the State of Maryland in 1983, this collection has been augmented by local landowners and farmers who have donated farm tools and household implements from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Broken into 2 teams, eighteen volunteer Angels relocated 87 small tools and household implements from their current non-climate-controlled storage areas, removed accumulated dust by vacuum cleaning, rehoused them in archival polyethylene bags padded with Ethafoam (with desiccated silica gel where appropriate), and re-stored them in the climate-controlled rooms of the JPPM Farm Exhibit Building. All conservation materials, the work site, and the collections were organized in advance by JPPM staff members Wellman, Betty Seifert, and Gareth McNair-Lewis.

The Cleaning/Vacuuming Team, wielding HEPA-filtered vacuum cleaner hoses and soft bristle brushes, included WCG members Eliza Gilligan (Conservator, Smithsonian Institution), Marei Hacke (Post-Doc Fellow, MCI), Stephen Chadwick (Visiting Professional), and Amanda Frisoski (Graduate intern). They often didn't know the name of the farm implement they were cleaning, but they gamely continued onwards!

Working alongside the vacuuming team, and on an adjacent table surface, the Re-Wrapping/ Bagging Team included Jennifer Cruickshank (Conservator, Maryland State Archives), Akiko Matsuoko (Graduate Intern), Kerith Koss (Graduate Intern), Melody Chen (Graduate Intern), and Gareth McNair-Lewis (JPPM conservation technician).

In another part of the barn/storage area, the Movers/ Packers Team unpacked two complete rooms full of boxed small tools and individually wrapped implements. They were supervised by JPPM Chief Conservator and Curator Betty Seifert, and included Jane Norman (Objects Conservator in private practice), Krista Pack (Graduate Intern), Beth Rydzewski (Graduate Intern), Claire Peachey (Naval Research Lab), Annie Wilker (Graduate Intern), Rachel Penniman (Graduate Intern), and Kyoichi Itoh (East Paintings Conservator in private practice). Working as a completely separate team, Ann Hitchcock (Conservation Administrator for the National Park Service) and Lynne Gilliland (Ppaper Conservator at the Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution) prepared 2 metal storage cabinets to receive a collection of vintage hand tools, which will now serve as a study collection.

Michele Pagan, AIC and WCG Angels coordinator and conservator in private practice, also served as the Recording Angel for the event. Howard Wellman (JPPM Lead Conservator) was overall site manager, finding tools and greasing wheels throughout the day.

The coordination between JPPM, WCG, and AIC worked well. It was critical that the staff at JPPM was prepared in advance with materials and work spaces so that the Angels didn't lose time on the morning of the event. Having a clear plan of attack, stations for various tasks with staff oversight was also important, and was the only thing that allowed so much work to be accomplished.

A total of 98 boxes of objects were unpacked, rehoused and placed in storage. Additionally, 10 boxes of vintage farm tools, a total of 167 objects, were sorted and placed in 2 storage cabinets as a study collection. Thirteen boxes were pulled aside for treatment, 4 boxes were placed in the antique auto maintenance area, 87 objects were cleaned and vacuumed, then placed in sealed bags for storage. 231 wrapped objects, which includes the 87 newly packaged objects, were placed in storage, and an up to date inventory of the collection was also created.

A terrific catered lunch of soup, salad, desserts and drinks was supplied by the Friends of JPPM, in their Visitor's Center meeting space. Before returning to work, many of the participants enjoyed a short walk to the MAC Lab, where Howard gave a guided tour of these premises and described the conservation activities which take place there.

After lunch, the cleaning and wrapping teams finished up their work and joined the movers/packers, to help them finish their job of re-packing the contents of cardboard boxes into CoroPlast boxes. All items previously removed from storage rooms in the morning were returned to those shelving units before the teams dispersed for the day. All boxes had registration cards attached, and shelf lists had been created for all shelves in these 2 rooms.

As Betty Seifert reflected at the end of the one-day effort: "As one can see, an incredible amount of work was performed. We are deeply indebted to the dedication of each participant."

And an incredibly good time was enjoyed by each participant, Betty!

PHOTOS: WCG volunteers at the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum Angels Project


Click thumbnails for larger images

return to top

DC Public Library, objects recovered from Georgetown branch fire (2007)

The 2007 WCG Angels Project took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on October 13, 2007. Conservators examined and wrote condition reports for 40 objects that were exposed to a fire in the Peabody Room of the Georgetown branch of the DC Public Library last Spring. The volunteers also rehoused and surface cleaned more than 25 of the objects, so that they can be safely stored, handled, and transported.

(Click each photo for larger image)


Howard Wellman and Michelle Savant examining objects and writing condition reports.		Eliza Gilligan, Manda Kowalczyk, and Bart Devolder folding boxes.

Tonja Grafakos, Nina Owczarek, Manda Kowalczyk, Chris Watters and Kat Habib outfitting the boxes with ethafoam supports.		Back: Howard Wellman, Joanna Dunn, Bart Devolder, Nina Owczarek, Tonja Grafakos, Michelle Savant, Lisa Young, Manda Kowalczyk; Front: Julia Brennan, Eliza Gilligan, Kat Habib, Ashley Jehle, Chris Watters, Nina Freed; Not pictured: Jayne Holt, Mark Greek, and Jerry McCoy

return to top

Historical Society of Washington, D.C., Textile Collection (2008)

The 2008 WCG Angels project was held at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. at Mount Vernon Square. Twenty WCG members volunteered their time and expertise to rehouse the HSW’s textile collection, which consists largely of historic costumes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A generous grant from the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC) provided the funds for most of the supplies. The supplies that were not covered by the grant were donated by University Products and shipping costs were donated by Testfabrics and Conservation Resources.

WCG members spent the better part of a Saturday taking care of the special items in the HSW’s collection, which included a satin wedding dress complete with veil, a woman’s navy uniform, a prom dress, and a collection of baby clothes. One of the stars of the collection is a dress purchased by Marian Hooper Adams from the noted Parisian designer Worth in 1879.

The textiles were lightly dusted, padded with unbuffered tissue, wrapped in muslin, and placed in archival textile boxes. In one day, WCG members managed to rehouse the entire collection of nearly fifty textiles! Thank you to all who participated.


Lacasa Michelena, Anne Murray, Jayne Holt, and Manda Kowalczyk labeling the textiles		Nina Owczarek, Yvonne Carignan, and Sunae Park Evans padding the Navy jacket