Paper Conservation

Graphics Conservation Laboratory (see map)
106 Library Annex, Palm Rd.
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607. 253. 3164

The Graphics Conservation Laboratory (GCL) is located on the outskirts of the Cornell University Campus in the Library Annex, near the Apple Orchard. The laboratory, established in 1987, has been providing for the care and conservation of works on paper from the Cornell University Library’s Asia Collections and from its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Consulting and project-based conservation are carried out by the Laboratory for other Departments of the University including the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

Technical analysis of paper and image medium is executed in situ, as well as at the Materials Science Center, the Textile and Apparel Department, and other University laboratories.

Reflecting the primary mission of the University, the laboratory’s focus is on education and promoting the knowledge of the preservation of historic and artistic works. Training and independent study in preservation is open to the undergraduate and graduate students of the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University. Students, guided by Tatyana Petukhova, the Senior Paper Conservator, and project faculty are engaged in the research of artists’ materials and methods, and practical preventive care.

The pre-conservation internship/study program is funded by Seymour R. Asking Jr. The program brings enthusiastic and deeply committed students to the Laboratory to study the preservation of works on paper. Among the Laboratory’s former interns/students are Cornelia Raugh-Ernst, a Masters Graduate of Fine Art Conservation from the Stuttgart University Conservation Program in Germany, and Matt Hays, a Maters Graduate of Fine Art Conservation from NYU.

The program is presently limited to Cornell University students only.


Jessica Evans, a former graduate student in historic preservation, Department of City and Regional Planning, CU, stabilizing the condition of the George T. Lacey architectural plans and drawings.



Eliza Spaulding, a former lab intern performing structural repair of the extremely fragile work of art on paper by the artist, Anne Comstock.

In 2001, the Graphics Conservation Laboratory received funding from the Paul Getty Grant Program to support the Getty Postgraduate Fellowship in Paper Conservation. The two-year fellowship (2001-2003) provided stipends for two recent graduates for advanced study in conservation techniques, research, and analysis. Claire McBride, and Hyejung Yum, Master Graduates of Fine Art Conservation from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, U.K. were each awarded for one-year fellowships at the Laboratory (see Research Projects for details).

Throughout the years, several professional courses and workshops organized by Tatyana Petukhova brought mid-career conservators from the United States and Canada to Cornell. Among such courses/workshops are the following:

• Microscopy for Art Conservators, taught by Professor Walter McCrone, McCrone Research Institute of Chicago, 1997.
• A New Way of Looking at Pulping/Small Laboratory Practices, taught by Senior Lecturer Jane Colbourne, Conservation of Fine Art Program, University of Northumbria, U.K., 2002.
• Japanese Bookbinding Techniques, taught by Josèe Van Loon, Permanent Education Centre, Ghent, Belgium, 1992.

In 2005-2006, the Department was awarded a grant by the American Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to further promote preservation in the United States. As a part of this program, the interns spent one week at the lab learning about structural composition and methods for preventive care of works on paper.
The Laboratory staff members give lectures and tours on specific topics, advice contemporary artists on historic and modern materials and methods, and provide analysis of works on paper upon request.

The following images are from the Tell-tale Godwit or Snipe print (Plate # 308) of the original double-elephant folio edition of John James Audubon’s BIRDS OF AMERICA. The colored print is from the collection of the Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.


Normal Light digital photograph of a detail of the hand colored Greater Yellowleg print published by Robert Havell in 1836. The design, exquisitely executed on a copper plate, was inked and impressed by pressure of the etching press to the Whatman handmade paper producing the image that was then colored by hand. In a hand-colored print, areas of a design coloring sometimes is extended or recessed due to the movement of a hand. This characteristic can be found by close observation. See watercolor outline near the lower left area of the wing.
Plane-polarized light photograph of the flax fiber, which was stained with the Dying Solution C, and magnified 40 times (40X). Handmade paper of the Tell-tale Godwit or Snipe print was made from good quality rags, traditional raw material used for papermaking in Europe and England. Flax fiber, when beaten during the papermaking process, would split into strands (fibrils) clearly visible in the picture. The flax fiber changed its tone to dim red and grayish red when the dying solution C was applied.

The Graphics Conservation Laboratory is supported by funds from the State of New York, Mr. Seymour R. Askin Jr., and The Getty Grant Program (2001-03).

Research Projects

Staff

Senior Paper Conservator, Tatyana Petukhova has been working at Cornell University since the Laboratory was established in 1987. Ms. Petukhova has been a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works since 1991, and she holds a Masters Graduate degree in the History and Theory of Art from the State University of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Under direct supervision of the Senior Paper Conservator, interns, students, and conservation specialists are hired on a project or a study basis.
To contact the Laboratory staff, please call: (607) 253-3164 or e-mail Tatyana Petukhova (tp16@cornell.edu).