Treatment of Crayon Enlargements
- Registration Closed
October 15-17, 2024
Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
Instructors: Gary Albright, Lisa Duncan, Thomas Edmondson
Coordinators: Laura Moeller, Kimberly Nichols
This three-day workshop intends to share knowledge and skills around the treatment of Crayon Enlargements, providing the opportunity to treat materials in a group of like minded colleagues with slightly differing approaches to the same issues. Participants will have the opportunity to connect with colleagues and will come away with a more complete tool box regarding this type of portraiture.
Crayon enlargements, or crayon portraits, were the first commercially produced photographic enlargements and were printed on artist papers, processed to remove light sensitive chemistry, and then enhanced with media. The photographic image was flat and was thus a guide for hand coloring: some were heavily colored using artist’s pencils, pastels and/or various airbrushing techniques while others were simply enhanced with charcoal and white chalk. The practice of crayon enlargement portraiture was widespread in late 19th century/early 20th century America and many examples we see today are severely deteriorated. Common condition issues are embrittlement of primary and secondary supports, discoloration, localized staining from exposure to water, mold and/or foxing, or even fire, and physical damage frequently associated with image loss.
Although many conservation professionals prefer to design their treatments with minimum intervention, a multi-faceted treatment designed to address both aesthetic and structural issues can be successfully performed on these objects. Treatment of these objects is frequent in private practice and can include backing removal, washing, stain reduction, filling of losses, and inpainting.
The workshop will address the history and technology of the processes, characterization techniques, identification of forms of deterioration, and treatment approaches. The workshop will include hands-on practicum of various forms of surface cleaning, washing, bleaching (reduction bleaches, oxidation bleaches, chelators, light), and lining (tension, pressure).
Funding for this program comes from the Mellon Foundation fund for Collaborative Workshops in Photograph Conservation and the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) Endowment for Professional Development, which was also created by a grant from the Mellon Foundation and is supported by donations from members of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and its friends. Workshops are made possible with the assistance of many AIC members, but no AIC membership dues were used to create or present this course.
FAIC relies on your contributions to support these and its many other programs. Learn more about donating to the foundation.
Workshop materials were generously provided by Hiromi Paper, Inc. and MuseuM Services Corporation.
Gary Albright
Gary Albright has been an art conservator in private practice for the past 21 years. He was conservator at the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY from 1999-2003. Prior to that, he was senior paper and photograph conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center, Andover, MA (1980-1999). During his career he has treated a diverse array of objects, including the Emancipation Proclamation, a Honus Wagner baseball card, Ansel Adams’ photographs, and working drafts of the Constitution of the United States. Since 2003, Albright has been the guest professor of photograph conservation at the Buffalo State College art conservation program. In 2017 he received the AIC Sheldon & Caroline Keck Award in recognition of a sustained record of excellence in the education and training of conservation professionals. Albright lives and works in Honeoye Falls, New York.
Lisa Duncan
Lisa Duncan is a bench conservator in Seattle, Washington who specializes in paper and photographic materials. She spent her 3rd year at WUDPAC working with Tom at his Kansas City conservation studio at Heugh-Edmondson Conservation Services and continues a good relationship with Tom. Gary was one of her teachers at WUDPAC in 2007-2009 and she also enjoys seeing Gary at conferences. She will be providing the background in process and also picking -up the pieces of where Tom and Gary leave off. She offers the experience of a mid-level conservator working on materials who learned from the older master conservators.
Thomas M. Edmondson
Tom was initially apprentice trained in paper conservation theory and techniques at the New England Document Conservation Center, North Andover, Massachusetts (now the Northeast Document Conservation Center, Andover, Massachusetts), 1974-75. Following this training Tom operated a private practice paper conservation studio in Torrington, Connecticut, from April 1978 until August 1987, while continuing with self-training and pursuing other training opportunities. In 1987 he closed his studio and took the position of Senior Paper Conservator at the Conservation Center, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas, from which he resigned in September 1988, when he and Nancy Heugh, relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, to establish their private practice of Heugh-Edmondson Conservation Services, LLC. Tom has been semi-retired since he and Nancy closed their grand studio at the end of July 2019 and works out of an intimate home-studio.
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