Gerald Ford Conservation Center

"Caution, May Be Loaded" label on box containing firearm.

Not every project we work on at the Ford Center has dramatic before and after results.  Sometimes, the most important work we do is to stabilize an artifact for its long-term preservation.  Sometimes, the object doesn’t look much different from when it was brought in.  This was true for a document we treated for the Nebraska History Museum’s Nebraska Sesquicentennial exhibit.  It is a certificate appointing Alvin Saunders as the governor of the territory of Nebraska. The document is signed at the bottom right by Abraham Lincoln.

It's always satisfying to see a restored piece come out of the Painting Lab, but this work we did for the Frontier Army Museum really brought this painting back to life.

Much has been made over the last several years over “restoration” work performed by untrained people.  First there was the fiasco of the fresco “Ecce Homo” in the Sanctuary of Mercy church in Borja, Spain, which was restored by an elderly parishioner.  More recently, in June of 2018, there was the story of a group in Estella, Spain, that painted over a wooden statue of St George which dated back to the 16th Century.  You can read more about these pieces here.

It was a challenge, but our Ford Conservation Center helped the Wikel family preserve their grandfather's 116-year-old oil landscape paintings.

Last month, we showed the first steps of repairing a soldier's diary that also contained Native American ledger art.  The leather case (covers and spine) and textblock had been cleaned and the torn pages were repaired with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste. 

142 years can put a lot of wear and tear on a leather-bound diary. Our Ford Conservation Center fixed it up and preserved both the original diary entries and the Native American art within.

The Objects Lab at the Ford Center recently treated a interesting frame for a painting of Logan Fontenelle.  It is a large, wooden frame for the portrait by artist William Andrew Mackay. Logan Fontenelle, or Shon-ga-ska (White Horse), was the last ruling Chief of the Omaha Tribe.  He was the son of Me-um-bane, the daughter of chief Big Elk, and Lucien Fontenelle, a French-American fur trader from New Orleans.  

Normally our Ford Conservation Center's Gerald Ford exhibit is open by appointment only, but when Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Chris Tysor showed up they decided to make an exception.

Many of the rural opera houses that once covered Nebraska are gone, but their painted curtains are often still around. Our Ford Conservation Center recently restored the curtain that decorated the Kearney Opera house for nearly 20 years.