Art, science, invention
Subtitle: conservation and the Peale-Sellers family
By: Renée Wolcott, editor
Series: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge -- volume 108, part 1; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society -- v.108, pt.1.
Publisher: American Philosophical Society Press
Published: 2019
Place of publication: Philadelphia [Pennsylvania]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 174
ISBN-13: 9781606180815
Copyright date: 2019
Subjects: Archives; Library materials; Conservation and restoration; Archival materials; American Philosophical Society
Description: The Peale-Sellers Family Collection, held at the APS Library, is the world's largest archival collection related to the Peales. Two recent American Philosophical Society Museum exhibitions, Curious Revolutionaries and Conservation and the Peale-Sellers Family Collection, included selected items from the collection.  The conservation staff reviewed the selected items to ensure that they were stable enough to display for months without fading, discoloring, or suffering physical damage. When books or manuscripts could not be exhibited without conservation treatment, conservators repaired or stabilized them. Conservation of natural specimens and cultural artifacts is essential today, as it was for Charles Willson Peale when he opened his museum in Philosophical Hall. Renée Wolcott tells readers in her introduction, "As the owner of the nation's first natural history museum, Charles Willson Peale served as both curator and conservator, concerned with selecting specimens for exhibition and preserving them for future museum visitors. He was also his own archivist, saving letters, diaries, and museum records that passed through his family for generations before becoming enshrined in the APS Library. This book examines the materials Peale and his family have left us, considers their preservation challenges, and discusses the evolution of conservation care for archival collections. Case studies of conservation treatment for six historic Peale-related artifacts illustrate some of the ways in which today's conservators preserve the materials of the past for the sake of the future"--back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword  -- by Anne Downey; title: Acknowledgements --; title: Author biographies --; title: Introduction  -- Renée Wolcott, Diana E. Marsh, and Amy Noel Ellison -- 1:; title: Charles Willson Peale: artist, scientist, conservator?  -- Renée Wolcott -- 2:; title: Conservation and Curious Revolutionaries: the Peales of Philadelphia  -- Renée Wolcott, Diana E. Marsh, and Amy Noel Ellison -- 3:; title: Conservation and the Peale-Sellers Family Collection  -- Renée Wolcott and Diana E. Marsh; title: References -- -- Appendix A:; title: An annotated checklist for Curious Revolutionaries: The Peales of Philadelphia -- -- Appendix B:; title: An annotated checklist for Conservation and the Peale-Sellers Family Collection.