For Immediate Release Contact: Pat Kremer/Nancy O’Shea (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) The Conservation Challenge If they’re going to last the ages, all these textiles—both ancient and modern—require skilled handling and specialized methods of display and storage. But usually not cleaning. “In an anthropological context, evidence of use is part of the object’s interest,” explains the Field’s head conservator, Ruth Norton. “In clothing, things like soil and creases may reflect how an item was worn or used. So we rarely wash a textile.” Instead, she says, conservators use archival quality (chemically stable) materials for storing textiles, and they minimize the objects’ exposure to light, pollution, and changes in humidity and temperature, all of which can degrade the fibers. They also try to optimize the physical support of an object when it’s displayed and stored, so that the material isn’t stressed or folded. And they handle it as little as possible, usually with cotton gloves. “The Field Museum’s textiles are extremely varied,” Norton says. “Some are pure textiles—like Navajo rugs or our very large collections of textiles from China and Madagascar. Others are parts of composite objects; central African masks, for example, are combinations of beads, shell, wood, metal, and cloth. Preserving these complex materials requires both care and—inevitably—compromise.” The task will be made somewhat easier with the completion of the Museum’s new 170,000-square-foot storage areas, under the southeast terrace. One floor will be dedicated entirely to anthropology (the other is for zoology and geology), providing a consolidated storage area with state-of-the-art climate and dust control, specially designed storage units, and easier access to the materials for study, loans, and public exhibitions. The Field’s conservators and mount makers are particularly skilled in putting fragile materials on display—skills they recently had the opportunity to hone. The updating and reinstallation of the Tibet galleries in 2002-2003 required special preparation to stabilize the textiles and special mounts for displaying them. It involved many of the same materials found in the Jacqueline Kennedy exhibition, such as silk, wool, cotton, embroideries, and multiple layers of different materials. “That experience may have been instrumental in bringing the exhibition to the Field,” Norton acknowledges. “It showed that we have not only the facilities and equipment needed, but people with the knowledge, skills, and experience to make this exhibition a success.” The challenges of the two exhibitions are very similar, she notes: protecting the costumes from dust and touching (they’ll be displayed in special vitrines), controlling the levels of light, temperature, and humidity, and setting up the exhibition with minimum damage to the items. “The moment they come into the Museum, the crates go into climate-controlled galleries,” Norton says. “The mannequins are assembled there, and each one is dressed individually—starting with padding and any appropriate undergarments the dress calls for. Then it goes directly into the display case, along with the documents, jewelry, accessories—all in a carefully thought-out order.” It’s a very deliberate, highly organized process. Each step is planned and worked through “almost like a dress rehearsal,” Norton says. The curtain goes up on this compelling new show November 13, 2004. Return to the Jacqueline Kennedy Press Kit main page