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Library News

These are the most recent issues of Winterthur Library News, our quarterly newsletter entitled. If you would like to receive issues as they come out, please use our Newsletter Subscription form. Many thanks for your interest.

Recent Issues

2020 – Summer Edition
2020 – Spring Edition
2019 – Winter Edition
2019 – Fall Edition
2019 – Summer Edition
2017 – Fall Edition
2017 – Summer Edition
2017 – Spring Edition
2017 – Winter Edition

Finding Aids

Search across hundreds of finding aids to get detailed descriptions of archival collections.

Please note that this list is not comprehensive, please contact reference@winterthur.org for more information.

Collections

Documents

Folios

Microfilm

    Microfilm 1-2: Inventories of Estates: New York City and Vicinity
    Microfilm 5, 8-24: Inventories of Estates, Baltimore County, Maryland
    Microfilm 91: John McComb Architectural Drawings and Account Book
    Microfilm 101: Bancker Family Papers
    Microfilm 187: Samuel Wetherill and Sons Ledger
    Microfilm 255-257, 260-261: Kress Library of Business and Economics, Woolen and Silk Trades Papers
    Microfilm 270-282: Inventories of English Royalty
    Microfilm 296: Samuel Rowland Fisher Travel Journals
    Microfilm 314, 437-439: Thomas Cole Papers and Sketchbooks
    Microfilm 665.1: Ezekiel Bennett Daybook
    Microfilm 665.2-3: Robert C. Scadin Manuscripts
    Microfilm 665.4: Leonard Proctor Ledger and Daybook
    Microfilm 665.5: Miles Benjamin Ledger
    Microfilm 667-708: Philadelphia County, Pa. Tax Ledgers
    Microfilm 712-714, 1619: Elias Pelletreau Account Books
    Microfilm 737: American Correspondence of the Royal Society of Arts
    Microfilm 764-809: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Records
    Microfilm 839: American Philosophical Society Communications
    Microfilm 848: Aaron Ogden Account Book
    Microfilm 876: James Dixon and Sons Letterbook
    Microfilm 892-894: New Orleans Artists. Roster
    Microfilm 1424-1525, 2728: Gillow & Co. Business Papers
    Microfilm 1574-1576: Warren Family Papers
    Microfilm 1901: Constitutions of the Journeymen’s and Workingmen’s Associations, Philadelphia, Pa.
    Microfilm 2016-2022: Essex Institute Sample Books
    Microfilm 2579: Charles N. Buck Memoirs
    Microfilm 2677: John Glassford & Co. Records
    Microfilm 2710-2714: John Nicholson Papers
    Microfilm 2855, 2857.1: Job Danforth Account Book

Shaker Collection

     Shaker Artifacts: Shaker Artifacts
     Shaker Media: Shaker Media
     Shaker Photographs: Shaker Photographs
     Shaker 734: Olive Blake Papers
     Shaker 736: Shaker Discharges and Lists of Clothing
     Shaker 737: Wills and Estate Inventories
     Shaker 740: Hancock, Mass. Real Estate Records
     Shaker 751: New Lebanon, NY Apprenticeships
     Shaker 752: New Lebanon, NY Real Estate Records
     Shaker 818: Journal of William Deming’s Travel to the State of Ohio.
     Shaker 871: Jane Emily Smith Papers
     Shaker 1039: Stephen Munson Letters
     Shaker 1044: Pleasant Hill, Ky. Letters
     Shaker 1046: Sodus Bay, NY Letters
     Shaker 1047: South Union, Ky. Letters
     Shaker 1048: Union Village, Ohio Letters
     Shaker 1089: Margaret Brown Collection
     Shaker 1128: New Lebanon, NY Bills and Letters
     Shaker 1130: New Lebanon, NY Receipts and Notes
     Shaker 1142: Florence Roberts Letters
     Shaker 1198: Helena Blavatsky Collection
     Shaker 1202: Laura Carter Holloway Langford Papers
     Shaker 1393: John R. Henry Papers

Chairs of the Fed

A pair of chairs made for Alexander Hamilton and his wife.

Winterthur deconstructs Alexander Hamilton’s seating to see what it might say about furniture making and taste.

The big news about Hamilton, the musical, is that it will open the Broadway Philadelphia season this fall. The bigger news about Hamilton at Winterthur is that the museum recently acquired six chairs that are strongly believed to have been owned by him—and they have much to tell.

Since 1952, Winterthur has owned a side chair that was part of a set of 18 to 24 chairs believed to have been made by New York cabinetmaker Elbert Anderson between 1790 and 1800 for Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Based on close similarities in the decoration and construction of that first Winterthur chair, chairs in other museum collection, and the six added to the Winterthur collection in December, Josh Lane, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture, and Kathy Z. Gillis, the Elizabeth Terry Seaks Senior Furniture Conservator, believe they are all part of the same set.

“We’re looking for a bill, an order, a diary entry—anything like that,” says Lane. “We need that smoking gun.”

‘Kind of radical’

The chairs are made of mahogany. All are decorated with swags of floral inlay, each meticulously incised, then rubbed with ink or paint to heighten the illusion of relief. The seats curve upward at the corners for comfort. The tops are flat, unlike typical shield-back chairs. The Hamiltons used them in the dining room of The Grange, their Federal-style home in Manhattan.

“They’re kind of radical,” says Lane, who describes the chairs as “party furniture.” “This is the cutting edge of high fashion, made for a very public, performative room designed for entertaining and dining on a large scale.”

The chairs were a gift from Lammot du Pont Copeland and his wife, Deborah Copeland, who used them in their own dining room for many years. They match side chairs in other museum collections, including the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York State Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art—all of them believed to be from the original set made for the Hamiltons. The set could have been dispersed through an estate sale or divided among the Hamilton children.

The two armchairs are especially important. When the conservation firm Wilkinson and Fallon replicated the set in 2011 for display at the Grange, no armchairs from the set were known to exist. Designers were forced to speculate about how they might have looked. Conclusive evidence that Winterthur’s armchairs are original would confirm the design and reinforce interpretation at The Grange and other sites.

Finding the story

In Winterthur’s furniture conservation lab, Gillis has removed the latest upholstery and springs, revealing evidence of three or four previous upholstery campaigns through the nail and tacking holes, including a decorative swag pattern that may be the original. Some of the chairs may be re-upholstered to approximate their original appearance, then displayed in the Winterthur house. Two of the chairs may remain uncovered for further study by Winterthur staff and other scholars. With the benefit of new knowledge, Lane himself looks forward to studying chairs in other collections.

By comparing these chairs with those in other collections, “We’re learning more of the story of New York chairmaking and who the craftsmen were, who worked on this commission. These chairs also tell a story of taste and how they functioned in a private home—one in which government officials were hosted,” Lane says. How did a well-connected, high-placed statesman and his wealthy, taste-making spouse define what was fashionable and appropriate for their station in life? “Those are fun questions to explore.”

Object of the Month: Globe or Terrestrial Sampler

Close up image of globe or terrestrial sampler

In 1815, when 14-year-old Ruth Wright embroidered her last stitch in the pale blue silk fabric that she had fitted around an 8-inch spherical form to make a terrestrial globe, did she feel a sense of accomplishment or relief, joy or frustration?

Ruth had sewn the skin of her globe sampler from eight pie-shaped pieces of silk on which she had carefully lettered in ink the names of continents, countries, islands, and oceans. After penciling the boundaries of countries, the equator, the Arctic and Antarctic, Ruth painstakingly embroidered the lines with fine white silk thread. She used red silk thread to delineate the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer and blue silk thread to mark the longitudinal and latitudinal lines.

Image of globe or terrestrial sampler — A rare globe embroidery sampler, made by Ruth Wright in 1815.

The story behind the object

I am drawn to this piece because, in its simplicity and fragile state, it might not seem very attractive at first glance. But further examination and study of the history and makers of such objects can reveal much more. It’s the story behind the object—the why and the who—that interests me.

Because I started embroidering as a pre-teen, I feel some connection to the maker. I also lived and traveled as a child outside of the continental United States, and through these experiences, I learned to appreciate geography and cultures other than my own.

We do not yet know much about the young woman who created this piece. From a label on the bottom of the globe’s wooden stand and from her school’s records, we know Ruth’s name, that she was from Exeter, Pennsylvania, and that she made her terrestrial or globe sampler while enrolled for just one year (October 1814 to October 1815) at Westtown School in Chester County, a Quaker boarding school 25 miles west of Philadelphia. From research into the curricula at Westtown during this period and an examination of other known examples, we know the globe was both a useful study tool and a practical memento that demonstrated Ruth’s needlework skills and, perhaps more significant, the instruction she had received in astronomy and mathematical geography.

A rare example

Ruth’s terrestrial globe is among 40 known surviving examples of terrestrial and celestial embroidered globes made by Westtown School girls from the early 1800s through the mid-1840s. Enrollment records for documented globe-makers reveal that most girls attended Westtown for only one year during their early- to mid-teens and that they came from homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. The earliest Westtown embroidered globes date from an era when the few globes the school purchased for classroom use were made in England.

The silk fabric of Ruth’s globe is fragile and the colors are fading, but the piece is still useful as an educational tool. When not included in an exhibition at Winterthur or out on loan to another museum, it rests quietly in study-storage awaiting visits from researchers and special needlework tours. The globe was most recently loaned in 2016 to the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, for inclusion in the exhibition, The Instruction of Young Ladies: Arts from Private Girls’ Schools and Academies in Early America.

Beth J. Parker Miller

Registrar

Paintings Conservation

The Paintings conservator is responsible for the care of more than 380 paintings in the Winterthur collection, as well as their frames and painted surfaces on objects such as furniture and clock dials. Paintings conservators address structural problems such as torn or deteriorated canvas or stretchers that cause distortion and loss of the paints and varnishes applied to them. Paint on any substrate (canvas, wood, or metal) may begin to flake due to physical damage, corrosion, or shrinking and swelling in the substrate caused by unstable relative humidity. Wood and fabrics such as canvas absorb and release moisture as the relative humidity fluctuates, which results in dimensional changes. Because the paint layer absorbs moisture at a different rate, it cannot change with the substrate, causing the paint to flake. Varnishes and coatings applied to the surface age and darken with time and may require cleaning or removal and replacement.

Visually and structurally, frames are an integral part of paintings because they provide protection and the means to hang a painting. Traditional frames are composed of wood, compo (a plaster-like mixture of chalk, glue, resin, and oil) and various gilt and painted finishes that are subject to abrasion and physical damage that causes breakage and loss of decorative elements.

Preventive Conservation

Like other parts of Winterthur’s collection, paintings are maintained at a stable temperature and relative humidity of 50 percent and protected from excessive light that can accelerate aging of varnish and fading of pigments. Proper framing requires a backing board to protect the canvas and secure hardware to ensure safe hanging.

Textiles Conservation

Textile conservators at Winterthur are responsible for about 20,000 objects such as window treatments, bed curtains, rugs, costumes, quilts and coverlets, needlework, and upholstery. Damage to textiles comes from many sources. Unstable environmental conditions that cause mold and exposure to excessive light weaken and discolor textile fibers and fade dyes and colorants. Abrasive, acidic soil from the environment that becomes embedded in the fibers also weakens and disfigures the textile. Stains and wear from past usage contribute to deterioration. Some dyes and finishes used in the production of textiles are inherently unstable and may case serious damage. Textile conservators support and stabilize the structure of textiles while reducing stains and degradation wherever possible.

Preventive Conservation

Winterthur’s textiles are stored in stable environmental conditions using acid-free archival quality tissues, boxes, and fabrics. To prevent creases that cause localized damage to the fibers, textiles are rolled or padded with acid-free tissue. Textiles on open exhibit are cleaned regularly by careful low-suction vacuuming to remove dust. Lighting specialists are especially vigilant in lighting textiles and keep the levels very low. If a textile becomes too weak to remain on exhibit, it is retired to the study collection and replaced with a textile in better condition or a reproduction fabric. Textile conservators also work with furniture conservators to preserve existing upholstery fabrics or replace them with reproductions.

Furniture Conservation

The Furniture Conservation Lab cares for and treats about 9,000 pieces of furniture and wooden objects in the collection. Historic surfaces, both transparent and painted, change and deteriorate over time, resulting in crackling, flaking, uneven darkening, fading, blanching, scratches, and stains. Furniture conservators are concerned with both structural and surface issues. Conservators maintain and stabilize the structure of objects that may have been damaged or poorly repaired in the past, that suffered an insect infestation, or were weakened by exposure to water or a poor environment. They balance preserving early surfaces and the history they embody with maintaining an aesthetic appearance that respects the intent of the original maker.

Working with textile conservators, furniture conservators also care for upholstered furniture. They preserve and stabilize existing upholstery structures and show fabrics when they are historically appropriate and in stable condition. When the upholstery is inappropriate and/or the structure or show fabric is too deteriorated, conservators replace it with a non-invasive structure that avoids nailing or tacking into the original wood.

Preventive Conservation

To reduce the risk of damage to its furniture collection, Winterthur maintains a stable environment with an average temperature of 68 degrees to 70 degrees and a relative humidity of 45 percent to 55 percent. A stable relative humidity is especially important to furniture since rapid changes cause different parts of the object to expand and contract at different rates and to different degrees, causing problems such as detached veneers, cracks, and flaking paint. Since insects like the powder post beetle can cause serious damage to wooden objects, preventive conservation aides carefully monitor for evidence of insect activity. Excess light can cause surfaces and upholstery fabrics to fade or darken so exterior windows are modified to reduce ultraviolet and visible light. Wintethur lighting specialists design interior lighting to minimize damage.

Garden – Livestock Volunteer

Winterthur’s Natural Lands team is looking for volunteers to assist with the daily care of our five goats and five sheep. This is a great opportunity for families, folks looking to gain experience with small ruminants, or anyone who loves animals. This is a long-term position, with limited supervision.

• Morning feeding, which involves separating the sheep and the goats for different feeding routines and letting goats and sheep into the pasture for the day.
• Afternoon, make sure the sheep and the goats have water, are separated, and secured in the barn for the night.
• Filling/cleaning water containers, as needed
• Sweeping/cleaning the barn, as needed
• Observing goats and sheep and reporting any signs of injury or illness.

Qualifications:
Interested volunteers must be able to commit at least one morning or afternoon per week. Currently the greatest need is on SATURDAY MORNINGS between 6—9 am. & FRIDAY AFTERNOONS, between 4—7 pm. Experience working with livestock is a plus, but not needed; all training will be provided. Ability to lift ~50lbs and handle large animals (between 60lbs and 160lbs) is useful; while the livestock are very friendly and generally gentle, they are animals and can act as such. Must be willing to get a little dirty!

Hours:
• Weekday and/or weekends: Mornings, anytime between 6 am and 9 am. Afternoons, anytime between 4 pm and 7 pm. The average volunteer time per shift is ½—1 hour.

Interested? Apply now!

If you are already a volunteer, log in online!

Paper Conservation

Paper conservation cares for almost 5,000 prints and drawings, including some of the most important prints of the early national era by artists such as Peter Pelham and Paul Revere. The collection also includes pastel paintings on paper, early German American fraktur, and paper-based materials such as hat boxes and several rooms of historic wallpaper. Winterthur’s prints and drawings are found on display in museum rooms and on reserve in a large study collection that is a rich resource for scholars in many disciplines. Paper is vulnerable to damage including tears, creases, soiling, overall discoloration, and stains. Exposure to excessive light, heat, and high humidity accelerate its deterioration. Such conditions also threaten images on paper and may cause flaking media, color shifts, or fading of inks and other design materials. Paper objects suffer additional damage in storage or on exhibit when in contact with acidic mats, folders, and boxes. Frames that are too small or that do not provide adequate space between the glazing and the object can also cause damage. Repairs with pressure sensitive tapes and poor-quality adhesives often must be removed to prevent ongoing damage. Paper conservators focus on repairing and supporting the structure of the paper object, reducing discoloration and acidity when appropriate.

Preventive Conservation

Winterthur’s paper collections are kept in a controlled environment in the museum and a preservation environment of 65 degrees and 45 percent relative humidity in the Maps and Prints study collection. This environment reduces the rate at which paper deteriorates and prevents the growth of mold. All objects are stored in alkaline mats or folders that help protect them during handling and study. A Preservation Housing Specialist ensures that all framing is safe and appropriate for the object.

Books and Library Material Conservation

This conservation lab is responsible for the care of collections in the Winterthur Library. The collections include books, manuscripts, printed ephemera, and photographs. Winterthur’s staff, outside researchers, and graduate students depend on these resources, so maintaining access while preserving the collection is a high priority. The collection includes 87,000 volumes of current and rare publications; more than 1 million manuscripts, printed ephemera, and photographs in the Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection; and 2,200 linear feet of archives, including manuscripts and archives.

Deterioration of library materials can result from poor environmental conditions, poor storage, and careless handling. High temperature and humidity accelerate chemical reactions that cause paper, photographs, and leather to deteriorate. Contact with poor storage enclosures such as acidic folders, unstable plastic, and corrugated storage boxes cause paper and photographs to weaken, discolor, and fade. Careless handling can cause torn, soiled paper and loose, broken bindings. Papers and leathers were poorly made quickly become brittle and deteriorated.

Preventive conservation

Preventive conservation is especially important for Library collections because the materials need to be used. The library stacks are maintained at 65 degrees and 45 percent relative humidity to extend the life of the collection. Researchers use book supports and other aids to help them handle collections safely. The librarians and conservators work together to provide protective enclosures for damaged collections and those in need of extra protection. Brittle or heavily used material may be reformatted to provide digital copies so the original can be retired except for those scholars who need access to the original.

*From left: Toned Japanese paper strip ready to reattach the book’s front cover. Repair paper ready to reinforce the inside hinge of the front cover. Repaired book for return to the library.*

Rare Books

The collection ranges from 16th-century leather- and vellum-bound books to 19th-century cloth-case bindings and elaborate design books in finely tooled Morocco leather to trade catalogs in paper wrappers. Before 1800, most books were sold in sheets, then bound to the specifications of scattered booksellers and purchasers, so each binding is unique. In the 19th century, publishers began to bind books before they were sold, but often issued the same book in different bindings to appeal to different audiences. Each book and its binding in the collection has a story to tell about its time and place, so conservators repair and reuse original bindings whenever possible.

Thomas Wilson, dancing master, wrote An Analysis of County Dancing (GV1763 W75 S) for publication in London in 1808. In it he notes that “even persons of the meanest capacity” may acquire “a complete knowledge of that rational and polite amusement” and illustrates his instructions with woodcuts. The book was bound in a gold-tooled full-calf binding that afforded excellent protection for the text but succumbed to years of wear. The leather is worn and abraded and both boards are detached. Using toned, hand-made Japanese paper and reversible archival adhesives, the boards were reattached without compromising the original binding.

Object credit: RBR GV1763 W75 S Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection

Manuscripts and Archives

The manuscript and archives collections contain everything from the daybooks of 18th-century silversmiths to late 19th-century tradecards for sewing machines; from architectural drawings for early 19th-century town houses to rare autochromes of Winterthur’s gardens; from photographs of Shaker communities to the exercise books of school children.

Peggy Clayton, who lived near Halifax, NC, created her calligraphy mathematics exercise book (Doc 1442) in the 1770s, ornamenting it with pictures of American ships, flags, and patriotic sentiments as well as standard exercises such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, rule of three, and simple and compound interest. She used the common writing materials of the period — hand-made laid paper, a quill pen and iron gall ink. The folded leaves were sewn into a soft cover composed of a canvas laminated between a heavy outer paper and newsprint on the inside.

The cover is detached from the manuscript and it is soiled, torn and dog-eared from years of use. Except for minor tears, the major problem is the unstable and corrosive iron gall ink. The acidity and related chemical reactions of the ink weaken and embrittle paper to the point where the paper splits or fragments in areas of heavy application, even when the paper is handled carefully. Research on processes to chemically stabilize the ink are ongoing but not yet ready for application to documents like this. To prevent additional damage, areas of severe corrosion needed reinforcement. Because moisture increases the rate of deterioration, standard mending techniques using water-based adhesives could not be used. Instead, conservators coated a thin, toned Japanese paper with an adhesive activated with ethanol to reinforce damaged area. This material is easily reversible and will not cause additional damage. After treatment, the manuscript returned to storage in climate-controlled stacks were the low relative humidity will slow the deterioration of the ink.

Object credit: Doc 1442 Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera