Monday, June 14 and Friday, June 18 at 3-5pm Eastern Time
Instructors: Scott Williams, Douglas Nishimura

This workshop is designed to provide an in-depth discussion on the unique chemical properties and vulnerabilities of silver image material. This information will be of great interest and use to anyone involved in the appreciation and preservation of silver-based photographic materials. The workshop will include two complimentary sessions on the chemistry of silver image formation and silver image deterioration. Participants with a general understanding of chemistry will be anticipated, but not required.

Since its inception, photographic images were created using a variety of different materials, substrates and processes. Most of these photographic evolutionary steps were founded on image capture using silver chemistry. This first session will be presented by Scott Williams, professor at the School of Chemistry and Materials Science at Rochester Institute of Technology.  It follows the photographer’s workflow from image capture to preservation through the lens of a chemist. Connections will be made between the chemistry of each process step as the photographer would practice and observe them; thereby, closing an important loop that bridges photographer with chemist, and chemist with photographer. Emphasis will be on the main image making process steps: substrate sensitization to light using silver halide, the light capture process at the silver halide grain level, exposure effects, image development, and ending with the processes that maintain a silver photographic image over time. This two-hour session is intended as a companion to the online series of self-study modules presented by the FAIC Collaborative Workshops in Photograph Conservation on Photographic Chemistry for Preservation, offering a broad overview of this fascinating topic and providing invaluable face-to-face time with instructor, Scott Williams. It is suggested that participants complete the series of online lectures prior to the workshop. 

The second session will be presented by Douglas Nishimura, Research Scientist at Rochester Institute of Technology, who will discuss mechanisms involved in silver image deterioration and likely causes in collections. Typically, silver image deterioration is divided into two general causes: poor processing and oxidation from environmental sources. The idea that all silver image deterioration is caused by poor processing has its roots in the severe fading of photographs in the 19th century that led to the formation of the Fading Committee of 1855. By the 1970s and 80s it was commonly believed that if a silver photograph was deteriorating then it must have been improperly processed. However, James Reilly, former Director of the Image Permanence Institute, noted that examples of poor processing in collections weren’t very common. Certainly, potential external causes of silver deterioration are numerous. The problem of silver image deterioration is very complex. As noted by former Kodak silver stability expert, Art Hertz, image silver must be surrounded by silver ions in equilibrium so that oxidation of image silver can be caused by reduction of the surrounding silver ions.

Scott Williams, Professor of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry

Monday, June 14 and Friday, June 18 at 3-5pm Eastern Time
Instructors: Scott Williams, Douglas Nishimura

This workshop is designed to provide an in-depth discussion on the unique chemical properties and vulnerabilities of silver image material. This information will be of great interest and use to anyone involved in the appreciation and preservation of silver-based photographic materials. The workshop will include two complimentary sessions on the chemistry of silver image formation and silver image deterioration. Participants with a general understanding of chemistry will be anticipated, but not required.

Since its inception, photographic images were created using a variety of different materials, substrates and processes. Most of these photographic evolutionary steps were founded on image capture using silver chemistry. This first session will be presented by Scott Williams, professor at the School of Chemistry and Materials Science at Rochester Institute of Technology.  It follows the photographer’s workflow from image capture to preservation through the lens of a chemist. Connections will be made between the chemistry of each process step as the photographer would practice and observe them; thereby, closing an important loop that bridges photographer with chemist, and chemist with photographer. Emphasis will be on the main image making process steps: substrate sensitization to light using silver halide, the light capture process at the silver halide grain level, exposure effects, image development, and ending with the processes that maintain a silver photographic image over time. This two-hour session is intended as a companion to the online series of self-study modules presented by the FAIC Collaborative Workshops in Photograph Conservation on Photographic Chemistry for Preservation, offering a broad overview of this fascinating topic and providing invaluable face-to-face time with instructor, Scott Williams. It is suggested that participants complete the series of online lectures prior to the workshop. 

The second session will be presented by Douglas Nishimura, Research Scientist at Rochester Institute of Technology, who will discuss mechanisms involved in silver image deterioration and likely causes in collections. Typically, silver image deterioration is divided into two general causes: poor processing and oxidation from environmental sources. The idea that all silver image deterioration is caused by poor processing has its roots in the severe fading of photographs in the 19th century that led to the formation of the Fading Committee of 1855. By the 1970s and 80s it was commonly believed that if a silver photograph was deteriorating then it must have been improperly processed. However, James Reilly, former Director of the Image Permanence Institute, noted that examples of poor processing in collections weren’t very common. Certainly, potential external causes of silver deterioration are numerous. The problem of silver image deterioration is very complex. As noted by former Kodak silver stability expert, Art Hertz, image silver must be surrounded by silver ions in equilibrium so that oxidation of image silver can be caused by reduction of the surrounding silver ions.

Douglas Nishimura,

Presentations in This Session

• Evaluating the Effects of COVID-19 Changes in Mechanical System Operation on Collections Environments
  Kelly Krish
• The Migration of Coconuts; The Historic Uses of Coconut Shell Across Cultures and its Presence in Museum Collections
  Elena Bowen
• Sustainability Committee Ask an Expert Q&A: Zero Waste with Angela Moore

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

• Security and Collection Theft
  Paul Mayer
• Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Managing Security and Risk at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
• Russell D. White

Virtual Security of Museum Collections

Breda Zimkus

• Exhibitor Experience: Bioshare Digitization

  Open Discussion - Regarding the Collection Theft and Security - Monitoring of Collections Tool Kit

• Please see the Google document for more information 

  https://docs.google.com/document/d/17TXSAiX4iSqlHr0-7WNU2t451ErLdngeZUk0OWAqNnQ/edit

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Join members of the AIC board, staff, and the Membership Designation Working Group to discuss the second draft of the Member Designation Proposal Designation Proposal. 

Presentations in This Session

• Photograph Albums; Cross-disciplinary Decisions for These Most Delicate Bound Volumes
  Georgia Southworth
• Exhibitor Experience: Carestream
  
• Revisiting and Reconsidering Disbound Albums
  Anne Marigza
• Exhibitor Experience: Foster + Freeman
  
• Japanese Tourist Albums in the Collection of the Art Institute Chicago: their complex interpretation and material deterioration
  Nayla Maaruf

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

• Re-Examining Surfactant Choices in Textile Conservation
  Callie Jerman
• “How Does My Stitch Work?” an Attempt to Evaluate Stitching Methods in Tapestry Conservation
  Eva Catic
• Exhibitor Experience: Dorfman
• Testing Urease and Protease Enzymes for Use with Cellulosic Textiles
  Zoey Hasselbring
• Little Friends, Big Problems: Treatment and Analysis of the Garments on the Libbey Doll Collection
• Marissa Stevenson

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• Poster: Beyond Stain Reduction: A Collaborative Solution for Reducing the Appearance of a Stubborn Stain
  Katherine Sahmel
• Poster: An Atypical Approach for a Typical Problem: Loss Compensation for a 19th Century Quilt
  Jacquelyn Peterson-Grace

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View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

• Camera Work: One Size Treatment Does Not Fit All
  Sophie Barbisan
• Exhibitor Experience: Foster and Freeman
• Lord Fitzwilliam’s Print Albums as Evidence
  Harry Metcalf
• The Jessie Fuller Scrapbook: Balancing access and context in the treatment of an important Black Sorority Scrapbook from 1949 with a unique but damaging structure.
  Sue Donovan and Krystal Appiah

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

10:00 - 10:30 AM - Virtual tour of the NRF-SAIAB’s Collection Division Platform

South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (NRF-SAIAB), Makhanda, South Africa

The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity’s (NRF-SAIAB) Collection Division Platform is the custodian of the National Fish Collection of South Africa. The collection is home to approximately 121 801 number of ‘jars and tanks’ (containing at least 1 012 552 individual fish specimens), and 62 988 associated tissue samples. The NRF-SAIAB also has a developing collections of amphibians, cephalopods and tunicates. The specimens held in our collections reflect NRF-SAIAB’s aquatic research over the past 50 years and is the world’s largest collection of fishes in the southern African Continent, south of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The NRF-SAIAB is also home to the National Diatom Collection which is held at the North West University in Potchefstroom. The Platform consists of the JLB Collection Management Centre, where collections staff and visiting Scientist work, and where research and sorting of collections is conducted; a dedicated Collections building which has two large temperature-controlled specimen stores; three wet sorting laboratories; a Biobank with -80°C freezers; an X-ray room; a chemical store; a recycling room and a dermestarium. The aim of the platform is to provide access to museum specimens for research and these can be examined at NRF-SAIAB or posted to foreign institutions.
The NRF-SAIAB Collection has been using Specify database software to organize specimen information successfully for over 20 years and the data is published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The data includes the specimen information as well as observations and images. Numerous students have used the Platform through the years, from undergraduates using specimens for course work and fish identification courses, through to PhD students working on systematic studies. The NRF-SAIAB is a participating institution of the Natural Science Collection Facility (https://nscf.co.za/), a network of South African Institutions holding natural science collections.

Tour Leaders - D Nkosinathi Mazungula, IR Bills, S Mceleli, ZS Somana, A Gura, V Hanisi, N Mgibantaka & M Dwani

10:30 - 11:00 AM - The Entomological Collections at National Museums Scotland 

National Museums Scotland

The Entomology collection at National Museums Scotland comprises 2.5 million specimens and is over 200 years old. The strengths of the collection include British moths and flies, and our international collection of parasitic wasps, dragonflies and damselflies. Although our holdings are largely historic, we are still actively adding to our collection, to ensure that it continues to be a centre for research and information about Scottish and worldwide insects. We also aim to maintain and enhance resources for identification, act as a depository for vouchers, and conduct taxonomic research in our areas of expertise. Mobilizing collection data is also a significant activity, particularly projects for biodiversity and conservation, working with a wide range of people and organizations. This short tour presents a view behind the scenes at our collection centre in Edinburgh, showcasing our facilities, introducing some of our most important insect collections, and providing testimonials from our users.

Tour Leader - Ashleigh Whiffin

11:00 - 11:30 AM - The Glass Flowers at Harvard University: History and Conservation

Harvard University Herbaria

One of Harvard University’s most famous treasures is the internationally acclaimed Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, better known as the Glass Flowers. On permanent exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, this unique collection was created by Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) and his son, Rudolf (1857-1939). Over fifty years, from 1886 to 1936, the Blaschkas produced 4,300 astonishingly realistic glass models that represent 780 plant species. Commissioned as a teaching collection and a museum exhibit, the Glass Flowers were made exclusively for Harvard. The collection has been displayed in the same gallery since the university’s Botanical Museum opened in 1890. While changes and improvements were made over time, the first major renovation and reinterpretation of the Glass Flowers exhibit occurred in 2016. A formal conservation program was established in 2015 to support the exhibit renovation.

The Blaschkas’ work evolved over their career. The materials employed shifted from using commercial glass stock to combining this with colored glass enamels made by Rudolf. The earliest plant models were fashioned from colorless glass tubing over copper wires, fused at the joins, and cold-painted with mineral pigments. This method proved to be unstable over time and resulted in delamination of paint and glass. Rudolf may have recognized this problem and developed new methods in response. Some of his innovations, while more stable initially, later presented their own unique condition issues. Because the Blaschkas’ working methods and materials evolved, the conservator must respond to and modify strategies in the conservation treatments of the Glass Flowers. This presentation focuses on conservation activities with an introduction about the collection’s history and an overview of the 2016 exhibit renovation.

Tour Leaders - Jennifer Brown & Scott Fulton

Presentations in This Session

• Disinfection of Photographic Materials with Ethanol Vapours: Preliminary Evaluation of the Effects on Chromogenic Prints
  Chloé Lucas
• Exhibitor Experience: Polygon
• Mass-Treatment of E. S. Curtis’ the North American Indian Photogravures Mass-Treatment of E. S. Curtis' the North American Indian Photogravures
  Richard Stenman and Sara Bone
• Scanning Micro-Xrf for Historical Photography
  Nigel Kelly

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

Lessons Learned: Pandemic Edition

• 
  Taking It "off the Wall": Deinstallation during a Pandemic
  Sara Reiter
• Drains and Flies during the Time of COVID: A Review of Treating Inactive Drains
  Ann Frisina
• Mentoring – How It Can Be Used to Share Information with the Next Generation of Conservators
  Gail Niinima
• Mentoring – Protect & Supervise: Managing Staff Risk during COVID to Continue in Person Conservation Mentoring and Lab Activity
  Gretchen Guidess
• Embroidery up Close: Public Programming during Quarantine
• Laura Mina and Kate Sahmel

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

• Photography beyond Two Dimensions – Exhibition and Re-Valuation of Materiality
  Catarina Pereira
• Exhibitor Experience: Prairie Paper
• International Collaboration, and the Potential of Virtual Condition Surveys - the Conservation Assessment of a Collection of Linnaeus Tripe Photographs at the University of Yangon Central Library, Myanmar
  Tess Hamilton and Natasha Kung
• The Transformation and Printing of Claude Marie Ferrier's Albumen on Glass Negatives by Robert Jefferson Bingham
  Nicholas Burnett

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

To access this program, you must receive a confirmation email from the Getty Conservation Institute and use that link to access the session. You won’t be able to access the session through this meeting portal.

Introduced to conservation in the mid-1990s, the microfading tester (MFT) assesses the light sensitivity of a collection item by exposing a minute area to an extremely bright light to induce a change in color. MFT results can be used to develop display lighting strategies that both reduce damage to light-sensitive materials and expand access to more robust objects. While MFT has been adopted by over 60 institutions, its origin within the conservation field has limited the technical and didactic support typically provided by commercial manufacturers of other broadly used scientific equipment. Thus, it is incumbent on MFT users to become a self-supporting community. Join Vincent Laudato Beltran, co-author of a forthcoming GCI Guidelines publication on MFT, and Katherine Schilling, developer of a virtual MFT workshop at Yale University, for a conversation on efforts to support this important technique for the cultural heritage field.

What is the Virtual Lounge?

Join a Getty Conservation Institute host for a coffee break or happy hour (depending on your time zone) in the Virtual Lounge, every Wednesday during the conference for an informal conversation focused on a different theme.  There will be a limited number of participants so that everyone will have a chance to engage in a relaxed environment and meet some new colleagues. 

Registration and additional information about this week's topic: 

https://getty.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrdu2vqjIpHt08EB8JT7Sj1_mgogwDWefZ

Presentations in This Session

• The Treatment and Preservation of the Emily Howland Photograph Album
  Jennifer Evers and Alisha Chipman
• Rare Findings – Pannotypes in the Design Registers of the Board of Trade Collection at the National Archives
  Ioannis Vasallos
• Intervention Criteria of Two Photographic Albums
  Pablo Ruiz

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

• Using Natural History Collections to Communicate Social Issues: The Hand Lens
  Nicole Tarnowsky and Laura Briscoe
• Building Bridges between Classrooms and Collections at California Botanic Garden: A Pilot Study
  Mare Nazaire
• Exhibitor Experience: Spacesaver
• Student-Focused, Career-Driven, Exploration in Natural History Museums through Experiential Education and Mentorship
  Adania Flemming
• “We Found the Passenger Pigeon?!”: Hands on Student-Involvement in Preservation and Curation of a Neglected and Historic Natural History Collection at a Small Undergraduate Institution
  Lyndell Bade

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

Presentations in This Session

• A Sticky Situation: The Preservation of Self-Adhesive Photograph Albums
  Amber Kehoe
• Exhibitor Experience: MICRO
• Material Characterization and Decision Making in the Conservation of IICT’s Photographic Album
  Joana Sobral and Élia Roldão
• Tips Session

View Abstracts and Speaker Bios: https://flame.firebird.systems...

• Textile Specialty Group (TSG) Business Meeting

Come join us for a fun virtual session creating your own scientific illustration and art! 

• Photographic Materials Group (PMG) Business Meeting