The Monkey Photograph, Before and After

The treatments are finished!  This is the eighth in a 12-part series on selected conservation treatments of artwork and photographs.  "Preserving a Family Collection" concludes on August 31.

Front of photo, before.

Of all the items we brought in for treatment, I think this tiny photograph may have been in the saddest state of all.  Only slightly larger than a postage stamp, the photo was thoroughly crumpled and a corner had been ripped off, only to be pasted back on by Scotch tape – the bane of conservators everywhere.

Back of photo, after.

Tiny though it is, this picture means a lot to my sister and I because it’s the only physical memento of a favorite family story.  When our father was stationed in Shanghai in 1945/46, he was told that it was his duty as quartermaster to care for the monkey.  Since he had his own room as quartermaster, he was expected to share it with the monkey.  My sister remembers

that he never said anything nice about the monkey – a likely indication that they never became particularly close.  When they sailed from Shanghai, the monkey stayed behind to become the charge of the next quartermaster.

Back of photo, after.

Treating this photo was a two-person job at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts.  Rachel Wetzel, Photograph Conservator, used a heated spatula to remove the tape and then got rid of any remaining adhesive residue with a little organic solvent and a crepe square.

Then Barbara Lemmen, Senior Photograph Conservator, received the photograph in two pieces, no longer attached by the tape.  Barb pieced it together with some wheat starch paste, adding a layer of warm and dilute photographic gelatin over the crack to help consolidate it.  She meticulously inpainted the areas of loss, using a stipple technique of little dots that appear
                                                                 as a harmonious tone from a normal

Front of photo, after.

viewing distance. 

It’s a real thrill to recover this picture and now we even have it in two versions.  We have the original, now in better condition than we’ve ever seen it before.  And we have a digitized image by Michelle Dauberman, Manager of Digital Documentation, that enables us to view this 65+ year old picture enlarged and close up on a computer screen – or even to post it on a blog.  Our family’s legendary monkey is fully visible at last!

Art Price with monkey in Shanghai, circa 1945, before treatment.

Art Price with monkey in Shanghai, circa 1945, after treatment.

© 2011 Lee Price

Minesweepers in Shanghai, Before and After

The treatments are finished!  This is the seventh in a 12-part series on selected conservation treatments of artwork and photographs.  "Preserving a Family Collection" concludes on August 31.

Minesweepers at port in Shanghai, circa 1945.

Charcoal sketch of a
minesweeper by Art Price.

As quartermaster, my father served as the petty officer in charge of day-to-day navigation tasks on several minesweepers during his service in the Navy, 1944-1947.  When he was stationed in Shanghai, his ship was the YMS6, a Yard minesweeper.  You can see it pictured in the photograph above (the ship with the 6 on its bow) and in his own drawing on the right.

The treatment of this magnificent photo of American minesweepers at port in Shanghai, circa 1946, was assigned to Barbara Lemmen, Senior Photograph Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts.  There was a large tear running across the image surface along the far right side, as well as image losses along the top.

Barb mended the tear by working on the back, adding layers of Japanese paper adhered with wheat starch paste.  This was followed by humidification and flattening.

Barb Lemmen inpainting the photo.

The final step is an aesthetic one.  On a project like this, a skilled conservator is sometimes asked to inpaint the losses.  I definitely wanted this.  Inpainting reduces the distracting appearance of the damaged area.  With a talented and experienced inpainter like Barb, inpainting can make the image appear much closer to its original appearance.

First, Barb applied a layer of methylcellulose to the areas of loss – a step that enables her to paint on an inert and water-soluble surface rather than the actual image surface.  When it comes to inpainting, old photos like this require the ability to match very subtle tonal differences.  Black and white photographs often age into muted tones of green, yellow, and brown.  Barb still uses her own favorite watercolor set on most inpainting jobs, skillfully mixing them to get the colors just
                                                                                     right.

“It was against the rules for anyone to go on liberty in Shanghai alone.  I always went with this buddy of mine and usually there were 3 or 4 more of us.  Even then we never went in the old Chinese section or even down a side street at night.  Plenty of sailors, out alone with too much to drink, ended up in the river.”

                                                                                                                                    Art Price

 

Minesweepers in Shanghai photograph, before treatment.



 Minesweepers in Shanghai photograph, after treatment.

© 2011 Lee Price

Grandpa on the Lawn, Before and After

The treatments are finished!  This is the sixth in a 12-part series on selected conservation treatments of artwork and photographs.  "Preserving a Family Collection" concludes on August 31.

  

Theodore Carl Anderson, my grandfather, in the
early 1920s.

On the “June and Art” blog, I identified this photo as Theodore Anderson at Brown University in the early 1920s.  In retrospect, I could be wrong – he could just as easily be at home in Deep River, Connecticut or down south in Luray, Virginia, where he met and fell in love with Maud Clem.  Theodore and Maud were my maternal grandparents.

My grandfather mastered the dark room at an early age so it’s a very real possibility that this 8 x 10 enlargement may have been developed by him.  The image itself has held up fairly nicely over the past 80 years.

But I’m betting that he didn’t do the very sloppy framing job.  The print was mounted on a board and then the board was apparently cracked, possibly against the edge of a table, in order to tear it down to frame size.  Pen lines were drawn directly on the image surface to indicate the edges of the mat.  Then a polyvinyl acetate (PVA) white (or school) glue was smeared all over the portions of the image that would be covered by

the mat.  Finally, the mat was adhered directly to the image surface.

Eighty years later, the task of rescuing this poor, mistreated silver gelatin print fell to Barbara Lemmen, Senior Photograph Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art

Barb Lemmen using a heated
spatula to remove mat
fragments.

and Historic Artifacts.  Sometime in its history, the print had been removed from its frame and mat, leaving fragments of mat board and PVA residue along all four sides of the photo.  Barb pointed out that removing PVA can be a challenge since it is not easily softened.  She used a heated spatula to lift off many pieces of the mat board but had to leave some pieces where removal would have meant taking off some of the silver gelatin of the image.

Barb commented that the image itself has changed over time – but not necessarily in a bad way.  Originally, she said, it would have been a crisply detailed black-and-white image.  However, partly because of the acidic board it was mounted on, the colors have deteriorated to these sepia and greenish-yellow tones.  Details have been lost in the face and hands, and Barb ventured that the background has probably lost clarity, as well.  But we both agreed that these changes have added a certain degree of charm, creating an effect as if we are looking at the photo across the mists of time.

Photograph of Theodore Carl Anderson, before treatment.

Photograph of Theodore Carl Anderson, after treatment.

© 2011 Lee Price

Focusing on Photographs

Happy Preservation Week!  Officially, Preservation Week 2011 begins this Sunday, but why not start planning your Preservation Week schedule now?

Here in Philadelphia, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts is presenting a free program:

"Focusing on Photographs:  Preserving Your Family Legacy"

This program will be offered on Tuesday, April 26, at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut Street.  If you’re interested in attending, please RSVP to Abby Eron at 215-545-0613.  (And please bring a photo ID because it’s required for access to the library.)

Barbara Lemmen, CCAHA Senior
Photograph Conservator.

Presenter Barbara Lemmen is a star at “Preserving a Family Collection.”  She helped me with the blog series on preserving photo albums, which included the single most popular entry we’ve ever run:  “The Magnetic Photo Album.”  Barb is Senior Photograph Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts.

Focusing on Photographs will cover the preservation of photographic materials from 19th century daguerreotypes to contemporary digital images, with helpful tips on how to handle, store, and display your photographs.  There will be time to view samples of various photographic processes as well as to inspect currently available storage systems.

This program is just one activity among dozens that will take place in all regions of the United States during Preservation Week.  Check out this handy Google map for preservation activities near you.

Pass it on.  (Note:  “Pass it on” is the official slogan for this year’s Preservation Week activities.)

© 2011 Lee Price