Abstracts (Sorted by Presenter Last Name)

MRCG/CACG Joint Symposium
Chicago, IL, October 16-17, 2026

Folds and rolls: Treating a large collection of parchment documents with limited time and space
Whitney Baker, Head of Conservation Services, University of Kansas Libraries
Electroplating Copper on 3D-Printed Plastics
Leila Blanton, Conservation Specialist, Conservation Dept. - Historical Resources, The Henry Ford
Precoated tissues for stabilizing burned paper on the Lynnville Ledger
Mia Bloss, Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellow at the Newberry Library
To See and Be Seen: Lessons in Leadership and Management
Tiarna Doherty, PhD, Director of Conservation, Saint Louis Art Museum
Constructing and Customizing Clothing Mounts: Dorfman, Kyoto, Manex and More
Julia Fahling, Conservation Specialist, Conservation Dept. - Historical Resources, The Henry Ford
Stir, bulk, knead, and burnish: translucent fills for formed glass
Stephanie Guidera, Andrew W Mellon Objects Conservation Fellow, Art Institute of Chicago
Katharine Shulman, Assistant Objects Conservator, Art Institute of Chicago
Revealing the Damascus Room: Insights from the First Year of Conservation
Caroline S. Hernandez, Kress Conservation Fellow, Cincinnati Art Museum
The value of collaboration between conservators and occupational health and safety specialists
Katarina E. Kaspari, Private practice objects conservator and occupational health PhD student, University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health
David Hinkamp, MD, MPH, Occupational and environmental medicine specialist (retired), University of Illinois Chicago and Cook County Hospital
Su-su-spicious: Analytical Evaluation of a Paper-Extract Toning Material
Andrew R. Mancuso, Head, Preservation Services - Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University
Know Your Art: Changing the Dynamics of Art Conservation Outreach at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Zoe Nguyen, Art Conservation Technician, The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Roxane Sperber, Clowes Conservator of Paintings, The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (Coauthor)
The Development of the Board Shear in the 19th century
Noah Smutz, Book Conservator, Owner, NS Conservation LLC
How to House a Shattered Silk and Heavy Metal Handbag?
Lindsey Williams, Conservation Technician at Northwestern University Libraries

Abstracts (Sorted by Presenter Last Name)

MRCG/CACG Joint Symposium
Chicago, IL, October 16-17, 2026

Folds and rolls: Treating a large collection of parchment documents with limited time and space
Whitney Baker, Head of Conservation Services, University of Kansas Libraries

Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas holds the North Family Papers, consisting of nearly 2,000 manuscripts written between the 13 th to 19 th centuries by members of the North family of Kirtling, Cambridgeshire and Wroxton Abbey, Oxfordshire, England. The heaviest concentration of documents spans the 16th to 18th centuries, with both paper and parchment items in the holdings.

Five separate researcher requests in 2026 have led to a large project to treat and better house the collection, which includes many oversize, folded, and rolled items that were not properly housed at the time of cataloging. Rolled and folded parchment items are difficult for patrons to use in the reading room, and researchers have struggled to fully access these materials. Unfortunately, due to space limitations for oversize materials, some folded and rolled items have to remain in less-than-ideal housing.

This presentation will focus on streamlined approaches for treating the parchment documents, many with pendant seals that have not been adequately protected in the past. This presentation will discuss 1) compromises curators and conservators reached to provide the best level of treatment and housing with limited resources and time, and 2) tips and tricks for parchment treatment.

Electroplating Copper on 3D-Printed Plastics
Leila Blanton, Conservation Specialist, Conservation Dept. - Historical Resources, The Henry Ford

3D-printing can be an efficient way for conservators to make reproductions for small components that are missing from an artifact when a visually complete presentation is desired. However, producing metallic finishes on plastics remains challenging. Electroplating is a process that creates a thin layer of real metal on an object’s surface. Combining the convenience of 3D-printing with the appearance of genuine metal allows conservators to fabricate visually convincing metal pieces. This presentation summarizes experimentation with copper electroplating 3D-printed plastics using materials commonly available in conservation laboratories without expensive specialized commercial products designed for additive manufacturing. We successfully reproduced a missing bell for a model train with an Agateen-based graphite conductive layer and a copper sulfate pentahydrate plating solution. Trade-offs among cost, time, ease of use, and plating quality of various materials and methodologies will be discussed to inform future applications of electroplated reproductions in conservation.

Precoated tissues for stabilizing burned paper on the Lynnville Ledger
Mia Bloss, Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellow at the Newberry Library

The Lynnville Ledger, a ca. 1860 handwritten, bound newspaper from the town of Lynnville, Iowa, arrived at the Newberry Library’s Conservation Lab for evaluation and treatment. Significantly, this newspaper's paper support has burned and charred in an upper corner of each page. To ensure that the Ledger can be accessible to readers without further deterioration or loss, the charring required stabilization. Following a comparison of different tissue weights for optimal strength to support the fragile areas, 5 gsm tengujo tissues were prepared with Klucel G on Mylar. The precoated tissue was cut to match each burned area, and the adhesive was then reactivated with isopropyl alcohol. This nonaqueous tissue was successful at preventing loss or cracking even when applied to just the verso of the burned areas of the support. The result was a subtle but robust treatment that considered the object’s history, its current challenges, and its future at the Newberry.

To See and Be Seen: Lessons in Leadership and Management
Tiarna Doherty, PhD, Director of Conservation, Saint Louis Art Museum

This presentation will be a biography-based reflection on what experiences and training have helped me in leadership and management roles. Through sharing stories of professional work experiences related to international exhibitions, interacting with donors, designing professional development opportunities, and transitioning into pan-departmental supervisory roles, I will share tips for successfully embracing these responsibilities. The importance of transparency and accountability at the department and institutional level will be addressed. The goal of this session is to provide colleagues with new ideas regarding their own professional development and approaches to management and leadership.

Constructing and Customizing Clothing Mounts: Dorfman, Kyoto, Manex and More
Julia Fahling, Conservation Specialist, Conservation Dept. - Historical Resources, The Henry Ford

Textiles, especially clothing, preserve personal histories and provide physical connections to the individuals who wore them, enriching museum collections. Exhibiting these objects well requires carefully constructing support forms in order to present the garment accurately, while also minimizing stress. However, creating custom mounts can be challenging, often requiring spur of the moment solutions to new problems while working with the materials on hand and within budget and time constraints.

This presentation shares one approach to costume mounting based on my experience working on some custom forms for an exhibit this past spring. I will discuss the planning, preparation, and construction process, including ways to achieve the proper fit and silhouette while providing the necessary structural support. I will also examine how one’s knowledge of anatomy, close observation skills, and the ability to make aesthetic judgments contribute to creating mounts that seem natural and also effectively display historic clothing. In addition to outlining the construction process, I will explore ways we have maneuvered mounting challenges by thinking outside of the box. Hopefully by sharing what I’ve learned in this process I can provide you all with new design strategies to construct custom mounts, particularly for those with limited costume mounting experience.

Stir, bulk, knead, and burnish: translucent fills for formed glass
Stephanie Guidera, Andrew W Mellon Objects Conservation Fellow, Art Institute of Chicago
Katharine Shulman, Assistant Objects Conservator, Art Institute of Chicago

Conservation of glass presents unique challenges, particularly when addressing losses and past restorations that compromise the aesthetic and structural integrity of these incredible objects. Particularly in the case of casting losses and creating bulked resin fills, practical experience is paramount to the success of the conservation treatment. Building on previously designed bulked adhesive techniques, including a technique originally developed by Celeste Mahoney for loss compensation of alabaster, conservators at the Art Institute of Chicago adapted a mixture of Paraloid B-72, Laponite and dry pigments to create stable and sympathetic bulked fills for Egyptian core-formed glass artifacts slated for upcoming display. The resulting fills offer a visually harmonious alternative to prior restoration materials such as cement and plaster, which are often too opaque and challenging to reverse. In addition, the fills provide an easier to work with and more forgiving treatment option than commonly used glass repair materials and techniques, such as epoxy-based fills and joins, allowing for greater reversibility and ease of modification during treatment. This presentation will discuss the adaptation of the alabaster fill technique for glass conservation, the preparation and application of the material, and its advantages in terms of aesthetics, workability, and long-term conservation goals.

Revealing the Damascus Room: Insights from the First Year of Conservation
Caroline S. Hernandez, Kress Conservation Fellow, Cincinnati Art Museum

The Cincinnati Art Museum has stewarded an eighteenth-century Damascus Room since 1966. One of only a handful of historic Syrian reception rooms held in U.S. public institutions—and the only example in the Midwest—it has become one of the museum's most beloved spaces. This presentation will explore the room's history and the approach to an ongoing, multi-year conservation campaign.

The primary goals of the current treatment are to stabilize the decorative surfaces while recovering the craftsmanship and vibrancy of the earlier decoration, transforming how the room has long been understood and interpreted. Before acquisition by the museum, protective coatings and overpaint were applied to restore and preserve the decorative surfaces. These added materials have naturally aged and darkened, obscuring the earliest decoration and significantly altering the room's color and tonality. Additionally, contraction of the later coatings has caused original decoration to cup and flake. Treatment to reduce and remove these coatings has employed solvents, gel systems, and Evolon CR. However, several sections of paneling contain extensive overpaint, including later fabricated elements that were intentionally painted to match already darkened coatings. Determining the appropriate treatment for these sections and how best to present multiple restoration campaigns within a single architectural interior has been an ongoing challenge.

Drawing on the first year of treatment, this presentation examines the evolving decisionmaking process guiding the project and the ethical balance between preserving evidence of the room's history and recovering the visual experience the interior was originally intended to create.

The value of collaboration between conservators and occupational health and safety specialists
Katarina E. Kaspari, Private practice objects conservator and occupational health PhD student, University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health
David Hinkamp, MD, MPH, Occupational and environmental medicine specialist (retired), University of Illinois Chicago and Cook County Hospital

For many small institutions and for conservators in private practice, the responsibility for identifying and mitigating collections hazards often falls to conservators or other collections staff, who may have limited training in health and safety. In many cases, it can be difficult for these professionals to pursue this training due to time and financial constraints. As a result, conservators may be unaware of the risks of their work or uncertain about where to seek guidance in assessing or managing those risks.

This presentation explores the value of collaboration between cultural heritage professionals (including conservators and collections staff) and occupational health and safety (OHS) specialists. It will provide an overview of hazards in collections, examine how to recognize situations that warrant consultation with an OHS professional, clarify the roles and expertise of OHS practitioners, outline the information conservators should provide to facilitate effective risk assessment and mitigation, and share resources for how to find an OHS professional.

By fostering stronger interdisciplinary partnerships, conservators and other museum professionals can better protect the health and safety of all personnel involved in collections care and stewardship.

Su-su-spicious: Analytical Evaluation of a Paper-Extract Toning Material
Andrew R. Mancuso, Head, Preservation Services - Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University

Su-su, a brown extract prepared from aged paper, has been described as a possible toning material for paper conservation. Its appeal is intuitive: a paper-derived colorant seems materially sympathetic for visual compensation on paper-based objects. However, a material that looks useful in practice still requires evaluation before it can be responsibly recommended for conservation treatment. This presentation examines su-su as a case study in moving from inherited or anecdotal practice to evidence-based recommendation. A sample was prepared from mid-twentieth-century paper through aqueous extraction, reduction, drying, and grinding, then evaluated through visual documentation, Oddy testing, XPS, SEM, SEM-EDS, XRD, and NMR. Rather than confirming su-su as a simple or standardized toning material, the results revealed a more complicated paper-derived residue: heterogeneous, source-dependent, and composed of both organic degradation products and inorganic residues carried through from the original paper and preparation process. The presentation will discuss how each analytical method contributed to the final recommendation, including where the evidence was useful, where it was limited, and where test conditions complicated interpretation. Ultimately, su-su remains valuable as a research, teaching, and mockup material, but the current evidence does not support recommending it for treatment use on collection objects. The broader lesson is applicable beyond su-su: promising recipes still need testing before they become conservation recommendations.

Know Your Art: Changing the Dynamics of Art Conservation Outreach at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Zoe Nguyen, Art Conservation Technician, The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Roxane Sperber, Clowes Conservator of Paintings, The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (Coauthor)

Know Your Art (KYA) is a program at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, that provides visitors with an engaging and meaningful museum experience. Launching in 2023, as part of our Free First Thursday programming, KYA focuses on increasing art conservation awareness by sharing behind-the-scenes conservation knowledge to foster curiosity. The program marks a paradigm shift in how we approach audience engagement from a top-down education approach to an invitation to share in a conversation with an expert. KYA programming not only enhances visitor engagement but also benefits the conservation department by prompting us to create resources for public outreach that can be reused in a variety of contexts. Since starting KYA, members of the department have been approached about participating in a wide range of outreach activities including programming at schools, community centers, and even the state fair. It also allows us the opportunity to foster professional skill development, such as public speaking, and encourages us to collaborate with colleagues in other departments. This presentation will discuss the KYA program in detail, including why the program started, its continued evolution as we navigate challenges, and our endeavors to build a program that is flexible and sustainable for staff.

The Development of the Board Shear in the 19th century
Noah Smutz, Book Conservator, Owner, NS Conservation LLC

In many book and paper conservation labs sits one or more board shears. Several hundred pounds of hard to move cast iron that excels in cutting paper and board into smaller pieces. These machines have existed in various forms for the last two hundred years and most of the examples we see today date to the late 19th or early 20th century. This talk will present the known chronology and development of these machines and the technological advancements that were made along the way. There are only a handful of manufacturers still making these machines and most in use are over 100 years old. Like all the objects we treat and care for in collections it is important for us to recognize the value and increasingly rarity of the machines that help us complete our work.

How to House a Shattered Silk and Heavy Metal Handbag?
Lindsey Williams, Conservation Technician at Northwestern University Libraries

The Jacob M. Loeb Collection of Beadwork at Northwestern University Libraries contains 84 19th century beaded handbags and purses and one cigarette case. Across the collection there is a wide range of materials (leather, silk, glass beads, ribbons, tassels, etc.) and conditions (structurally sound, lost beads, shattering or fraying silk, etc.). When tested with X-ray fluorescence in 2024, the bags were found to contain lead and/or arsenic in their materials. In this collaborative and lab-wide project, we decided to create custom enclosures for the bags that enabled safe storage for the objects and limited handling for both staff and researchers but still allowed for some ease of identification and access. Due to the heavy metals present and the poor condition of some of the bags, the housing solution needed to contain any loose pieces, hold the objects snug but not constricted, and allow the collection to be housed together as much as possible. Materials Care Assistant, Laura Berenger, developed a modified binder that could be stored flat in document boxes on library shelves and easily adapted to the varying depths and sizes of the individual bags. Each binder was custom to fit the bags individually wrapped in folded sheets of cotton percale which allowed for safe handling by lab members and contained loose pieces. This presentation will showcase the processes involved in this project from prototyping housings, material analysis, documentation, and the final housing design and its utility for researchers.