The S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institution
Thursday, February 5th, 5–7:30 pm
1100 Jefferson Dr. SW, Washington DC, 20560
Nearest Metro Stops: Smithsonian (Blue/Orange/Silver), L’Enfant Plaza (Green/Yellow)
Reception with Exhibitors from 5-6:30pm | Presentations from 6:30-7:30pm
Cost: Free for WCG Members and $15 donation for non-members
Please consider renewing your membership or donating online before attending this event!
Selected talks
For more information about each talk, click the title to jump to the abstract.
Ethics
Leah Palmer: “Revised Histories: Reinterpreting
Archaeological Artifacts from Honduras”
Isabella Moritz:
“Frankenstein’s Dress: Unorthodox Measures for Three-Dimensional Reconstruction”
Elle Friedberg:
“Inherited Interventions: Navigating the Legacies of Past Restorations”
Technical Studies
Patricia Favero: “Technical Examination of Paintings in the Rothko Room at the Phillips
Collection”
Thomas Lam*, Erin Birdsall, Madison Whitesell, Dorothy Cheng, Leah Bright, and Amber Kerr: “Technical study of John La Farge’s Peacocks and Peonies I & II”
Matthew Clarke: “Great Mongol Shahnama – Blue Pigments and Mixtures”
Practical Applications
Joanna Church: “‘Oh, Were We Not Supposed to Use That?’: Conservation Against the Odds”
Peggy Cwiakala: “Bugs, Buildings, and Boundaries: Talking to Exterminators So They Don’t Kill Your Collections”
Teresa Duncan,* Amy Hughes*, Michelle Sullivan, Kathryn Morales, Edwin Chan, Barbara Berrie: “Straight to Jail! How Adsorption
Enhances Agarose Gel Cleaning”
*Indicates speaker if co-authors will not be present
Visit each of our exhibitors during the reception to enter the RAFFLE
American Institute for Conservation, ArtFit 3D, CROZIER Fine Art Services, Hirox,
Huntington T. Block, Spacesaver Interiors, Tru Vue, and University Products
WCG’s 2026 3-Ring Circus is sponsored by
University Products and CROZIER Fine Art Services
WCG’s Annual 3-ring Circus
2026 Abstracts
“Revised Histories: Reinterpreting Archaeological Artifacts from Honduras”
Speaker: Leah Palmer
The Penn Museum holds a set of 54 archeological objects from San Juancito, Honduras, including NA5571, a set of 20 tubular shell beads of various lengths. During my second year at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, I treated and performed technical analyses on this object. Until coming to Winterthur, these beads had never been conserved, researched, or displayed, and as a result, much of their history remained undetermined. While researching this object in preparation for its analysis
and treatment, I found that archeological artifacts from non-Maya sites in Honduras are woefully underresearched, continuing a long tradition of erasing marginal communities’ stories. To better care for this object, I questioned pre-existing paradigms for interpreting Honduran archeological artifacts and sought new ones that would better guide its care in the conservation context. To do this, I pursued three lines of inquiry. First, how have non-Maya Honduran artifacts traditionally been interpreted within the English-language
canon of Central American art history? Second, how are present-day anthropologists improving the interpretation of material culture from marginal communities? And third, how can I utilize these methods to better communicate this object’s story in my documentation?
In my research, I found that archeologists, anthropologists, and art historians have historically interpreted ancient artifacts from Honduras through the lens of the Maya civilization, regardless of whether they have explicitly Mayan origin. This gap in research has sparked novel interpretational paradigms- four of which I utilized in my own writing. First, anthropologist Payson D. Sheets seeks to reject the focus on larger “more developed” civilizations, labeling this focus as the pervasive pejorative, in which an liminal area is characterized as “being slow to adopt the characteristics of higher civilizations beyond its frontiers.” Second, archeological anthropologist Rosemary Joyce pushes for a reduced focus on statehood, highlighting the significance of non-state social organizations in Honduran communities. Third, Kahnawake Mohawk anthropologist Audra Simpson utilizes the concept of refusal when discussing marginalized communities, wherein ethnographers refuse to record narratives that, while true, may be unhelpful. And fourth, conservator Sanneke Stitger argues for an autoethnographic approach in conservation writing, pushing for a self-reflective stance that foregrounds the researcher’s subjectivity.
These methods provided me with a new framework for interpreting the archeological beads. I pivoted from an overreliance on the abundant resources about the Maya, critically considered which narratives might be most important to highlight, and modified how I presented my own interpretations in my treatment and analytical documentation. This research project emphasizes the importance of questioning and revising pre-existing interpretational paradigms for the material culture of marginalized communities and pushes for increased engagement with literature outside of conservation so conservators can better tell objects’ stories.
“Frankenstein’s Dress: Unorthodox Measures for Three-Dimensional Reconstruction”
Speaker: Isabella Moritz
This talk will explore the unconventional approach taken to the conservation of a Jumeau fashion doll’s dress from the 1870s, and explore the reasoning and ethics of this approach related to emerging methodological and theoretical frameworks for reconstruction in the field of dress history.
The French fashion doll company Jumeau was popular throughout the late nineteenth century, and produced a line of bisque dolls with womanly proportions and original ensembles made in the latest French styles. A specimen from the 1870s, now belonging to a collector in the Northeast, suffered extreme losses to the original material of the bodice and skirt, which were structurally compromising and visually disruptive, and precluded its usefulness and aesthetic value. After consulting with the collector on the options to replace missing material on a tight budget, the treatment proceeded with the unorthodox approach of harvesting original material from a non-visible layer of the skirt in order to compensate for the largest areas of loss.
This talk will explore how this treatment navigates the nuanced differences between reconstruction and restoration (especially considering restoration’s complicated relationship with the field of fashion and textile conservation due to its association with highly interventive treatments, and the connotation with the judgement of an object’s value as having been better in its original state). This talk will demonstrate how these terms can be defined and ethically applied to the conservation of historical garments under the American Institute of Conservation’s and the Canadian Association for Conservation’s Codes of Ethics, and building upon the work of Renee Dancause, Jane Malcom-Davies, Hilary Davidson, Sarah Scatturo, and the author’s own forthcoming master’s thesis.
“Inherited Interventions: Navigating the Legacies of Past Restorations”
Speaker: Elle Friedberg
The conservation of an eighteenth-century framed wax portrait of a Madonna (Walters Art Museum, acc. no. 75.22) presented a series of ethical and material challenges rooted in its complex restoration history. Prior to its acquisition by the Walters Art Museum, the portrait had undergone multiple repairs and aesthetic intervention campaigns. Broken components were replaced, degraded pigments disguised beneath brighter overpaint, and structural breaks stabilized with various types of adhesives. While the work of each restorer reflects the enduring value placed on the object’s preservation, these accumulated interventions complicate today’s treatment decisions. The blue paint on the surface of the Madonna’s mantle exhibits significant flaking and lifting. Scientific analysis helped differentiate the two layers of overpaint, one made using synthetic ultramarine blue and the other Prussian blue. While the portrait itself was modeled from different passages of pigmented wax, the underlying wax of the Madonna’s mantle was not the expected blue color symbolic of purity and protection. The exposed break edges of the mantle revealed a much darker brownish-blue wax. Analysis of the wax confirmed the presence of smalt, a colorant known to darken over time, which likely informed the restorer’s rationale to apply the later overpainting. As conversations around the treatment were underway, we encountered challenging questions: When does the work of past restorers become part of the object’s history? Is the intended color of the mantle more important than preserving the layered record of its restoration?
“Technical Examination of Paintings in the Rothko Room at The Phillips Collection”
Speaker: Patricia Favero
The four paintings that make up the Rothko Room at The Phillips Collection, dated between 1953 and 1957, were conceived by the artist as individual works rather than as a group. Recently, a technical examination of these iconic works was carried out to learn more about each painting in the context of what is known of Rothko’s working methods. Visual inspection with magnification led to a better understanding of paint surfaces, while examination with ultraviolet (UV) illumination and infrared reflectography revealed clues
about Rothko’s process and consideration of each composition during painting. Combined with observations from previous examinations, this presentation will discuss findings of the recent study and offer insights into Rothko’s approach to painting each work.
“Technical Study of John La Farge’s Peacocks and Peonies I & II”
Speaker: Thomas Lam
Co-authors: Erin Birdsall, Madison Whitesell, Dorothy Cheng, Leah Bright, and Amber Kerr
Peacock and Peonies I & II by John La Farge, a pair of stained glass windows at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) was recently moved to a new permanent exhibition. Conservation treatment of the windows during this process lead to the discovery of glass alteration on specific colors of glass in the window. Initial macro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements of the glass did not quickly uncover the source of the glass instability, leading to a collaborative study with SAAM and the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute (MCI). This technical study highlights the challenges that can result from XRF measurements of a glass object. By using state-of-the-art analytical techniques of scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), micro-XRF within the SEM, and Raman spectroscopy and methodologies of cross-sectional analysis the glass alteration could be visualized and its composition analyzed with SEM-EDS and Raman spectroscopy. The complementary nature of these laboratory techniques and methodologies allow for the characterization of materials leading to more confident conservation decisions.
“Great Mongol Shahnama – Blue Pigments and Mixtures”
Speaker: Matthew Clarke
The folios of the Great Mongol Shahnama in the National Museum of Asian Art collection have been extensively studied in the past few years. The research has shown that the materials and techniques employed by the artists vary across these fourteen paintings. Non-sampling technical analysis was performed through microscopy, reflectance and Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray fluorescence. This methodology helped discern the material differences between visually similar colors. As an example, the characterization revealed different blues and mixtures of blue pigments used in these illustrations. There are
a range of combinations of lapis lazuli, azurite and indigo, plus lead-based whites across the folio illustrations.
‘Oh, Were We Not Supposed to Use That?’: Conservation Against the Odds”
Speaker: Joanna Church
The General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ Women’s History and Resource Center may have a length name and a devoted fan base, but in the end it’s just one person with a tiny budget trying to manage an art collection, archive, reference library, textiles, and ephemera, plus three historic homes full of antique silver and furniture. Many of the WHRC’s challenges are common to small museums and archives – insufficient funds, questionable retrofitting of historic buildings, well-meaning but untrained volunteers, incomplete legacy data – but others are somewhat unique to whit, our Headquarters also serves as the literal home of our executive leadership, meaning that those well-meaning volunteers have unfettered access to much of the collection at at any given time. GFWC is proud of its museum-quality collection but is definitely not a museum, and conservation concerns can easily end up at the bottom of the priority list. This presentationwill take a brief look at some of the mitigation strategies that current and former WHRC staff have implemented to bring our leadership and members into the preservation/conservation mindset, from informal “teaching moments” and training to calling in the experts … occasionally after a disaster. Some of those strategies have been successful; others, less so.
“Bugs, Buildings, and Boundaries: Talking to Exterminators So They Don’t Kill Your Collections”
Speaker: Peggy Cwiakala
Historic houses and small museums face a double challenge, protecting both their structures and the treasures inside. This talk explores how conservators and pest professionals can collaborate through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) without compromising fragile collections or ethics. Drawing on field experience with a Massachusetts pest control firm entering the heritage sector, I’ll share strategies for
communication, documentation, and prevention that keep chemicals out of collections and partnerships on steady ground. It’s a practical look at pest control as preservation …minus the foggers.
“Straight to Jail! How Adsorption Enhances Agarose Gel Cleaning”
Speakers: Teresa Duncan and Amy Hughes
Co-authors: Micell Sullivan, Kathryn Morales, Edwin Chan, and Barbara Berrie
Do you ever wonder why gels used in conservation sometimes work so well? Our current research explores what processes are involved in gel cleaning, in the hope that a more thorough understanding of how gels work can allow us to formulate ‘better’ gels. We will present the physicochemical process of adsorption in gels—the mechanism by which water-soluble materials become trapped in the gel structure. When a gel is applied to a stained surface, it does more than simply deliver solvent. As staining materials dissolve and migrate into the gel, they can then adsorb onto the polymer chains, where they are sequestered. Adsorption increases the gel’s capacity to uptake additional material while minimizing the risk of redeposition back onto the object. By incorporating just 1 wt% of common adsorbents already found in conservation labs, like microcrystalline cellulose powder or silica gel, we have shown we can increase the adsorption rate and total cleaning capacity of agarose gel systems.
So, what does this mean for conservation practice? Adding solid adsorbents is a simple modification to standard gel preparation. Once cast, these gels are used exactly like unmodified gels with no change in application methodology. Although the optical clarity of the gel is reduced, this is not a critical sacrifice for many treatments.
We will present two case studies. The first demonstrates the efficacy of silica gel-enhanced agarose gel in removing water-soluble degradation products from a sheet of 18 th -century book paper. The second is the overall treatment of a water-damaged 18th-century intaglio print, which we will show alongside element maps collected using mapping µX-ray fluorescence analysis before and after gel cleaning. The imaging demonstrates that microcellulose-containing gels can be used to remove water-soluble salts.
Overall, this work provides a new methodology in the ongoing quest to tailor gels to target specific conservation treatment outcomes. We hope that sharing our research strategy inspires new ways of thinking about how we design, formulate, and use gels
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