Back to Glen Foerd...
Last week, Erica asked me to help her with collections-related
tasks on Tuesday. She suggested that I wear jeans and comfortable shoes, but I
had no idea what I would be assisting with. When I arrived on Tuesday, she
explained some of the fundamental problems with the collection at Glen Foerd.
Because of Glen Foerd’s largely undocumented past, some of the collection is
not yet entered into PastPerfect, their preferred museum software program. Many
of the objects to have stickers on them with labels, so a cataloguing system
certainly once existed, but no one still involved with the house knows how to
read the system, which makes it basically useless. Not only do we not know what
the numbers signify, but who invented the system is also a mystery. If Florence
Foerderer Tonner used the system, it could unlock the mystery of where she
displayed each object during her lifetime. Unfortunately it is more likely that
either the Lutheran Church or a former member of the museum staff used the
system.
Right now,
the number one priority for the collection is to make sure it is safe. With
weddings and other events occurring frequently at Glen Foerd, having any of the
collection exposed is risky at best. Things could be stolen or broken and,
because much of the collection is not entered into PastPerfect, the staff might
not even be immediately aware of the damage. The second priority is to enter
the entire collection—especially the pieces in parts of the mansion open to the
public—into PastPerfect.
With these
two priorities in mind, Erica and I set out to move valuable objects from a
broken cabinet on the first floor to a secure china cabinet in the art gallery.
Erica knew the objects must be relocated, but finding a suitable place to move
them to proved a bit problematic. The collection at Glen Foerd is vast, and
every secure cabinet in the house was already full of objects. Further, we had
to be mindful not to relocate certain objects that the docents mention in the
tour. In the end, Erica decided to move the objects in question to a glass
cabinet in the alarm-protected art gallery, and to move the china currently
there into the china closet storage space.
The process
seemed simple, but proved a bit more backbreaking than I had thought. We began
by removing each object one by one (with gloves on, of course) and giving them
a good clean. Whoever placed the objects into the case used museum wax to make
sure they stayed put—but went a little (okay, a lot) overboard with the wax.
Some of the figurines had wax completely caked all over their bottoms and up their
sides. We used an artist’s tool that resembled a letter opener to scrape the
wax off. The collection included blue Dutch Delft China figurines, several
items carved from ivory—including a calling card case, a picture frame, several
birds, and an elephant, a collection of porcelain Greek God statues, and
photographs of celebrities displayed in various ways.
After
carefully cleaning each object, we documented their accession numbers. Erica
was helpful in explaining different methods museums use to catalogue their
collections. We then carried the items upstairs to the art gallery in padded
boxes, with just a few items in each box. We each made several careful trips up
and down the large staircase and then began the same process for the china we
had to move. The china had to go up to the third floor, which meant packing
more boxes and making more careful trips up the stairs. I left at three o’clock,
having spent six hours working with Erica to document and relocate probably
around sixty objects. By the time I left, all of the china was safely in the
china closet with its new location recorded. One out of four of the shelves in
the art gallery were arranged. Erica finished up placing the remainder of the
objects on the other three shelves and recording their new locations to be
entered into Past Perfect.
It was hard work, but I enjoyed it. There is
something thrilling about handling the objects (even with gloves on) that everyone
else must view from behind glass. And as Erica pointed out, Collections
Management is even more fun when you have researched the objects and know the
history of the object you are handling.
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