Monday, May 15, 2023

President's Reflection on Recent Trip to DC

 

My husband and I had the pleasure of visiting our daughter, at the beginning of May, who is doing a Textile Conservation fellowship at the Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Hazy Center for short.  It is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia. It holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, and the Boeing 367-80, the main prototype for the popular Boeing 707 airliner.  Whereas the downtown NASM contains many smaller artifacts, the Hazy center contains huge artifacts unable to be displayed in the downtown facility.

Because she is doing a fellowship at the Hazy Center, we were able to have a behind the scene tour of the conservation lab and some items that are undergoing conservation treatments.  Unfortunately, we were unable to take any photos without having permission to post them.  Our daughter’s specialty is Textile conservation which entails preservation treatments of artifacts to stabilize or reverse adverse effects due to previous non-optimal storage or display techniques.  Her skill set to preserve an item can involve sewing a new cover, repackaging an item using archival materials that contain no acid or other harmful chemicals, analysis of artifacts using spectroscopy or FTIR equipment to determine composition, or application of special textiles that will not interact with the artifact and which can be painted to appear as if the artifact is in perfect condition. All treatments must be reversible and carefully documented so that they can be “undone” if at a future time current acceptable techniques are found to be unacceptable.  She has been involved in making a seat cover for the Spirit of St. Louis, stabilizing a cloth covered wooden propeller designed and built by Samuel Langley (a contemporary of the Wright Brothers) and researching, documenting, and preserving a section of a Civil War Air Balloon made from silk fabric used in women’s clothing but treated with some kind of coating.  The project she is most looking forward to is assisting with the stabilization and construction of a mannequin for a training spacesuit worn by Yuri Gagarin.

We spent well over four hours at the Hazy center and still could have spent more time.  There was so much to see and admire.  My favorite artifacts was those in the Space area, as a kid I dreamed I would be an astronaut.  Although that did not happen, I can admire the technological changes and look in awe at what those astronauts relied on.

We also got to visit the African American Museum due to extremely rainy weather while in the area.  Again another tour of 3 to 4 hours and not enough time to see all. 

 If you are ever in the DC area check out every and all museums (if possible) and realize there is someone behind the scenes making your visit and the display of artifacts the best that it can be.  They are preserving history for all of us.

 Happenings in and around the Capital Area

In the May 7, 2023 Life & Arts Section of the Sunday Gazette, there was an article about a current exhibit at the Albany Institute of History & Art.  The show is titled "It's a Wrap: 200 Years of Outerwear".  The exhibit includes Gilded Age evening wraps, Victorian capes, Shaker cloaks, smart men's and women's suits from the 1900's as well a 1980 Lake Placid Olympic outfit.  Mentioned specifically is a coat and gown made by African American dressmaker Anabel Heath who lived in Albany.

The exhibit also includes coats and hats made with exotic animal furs prior to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

The exhibit is on view until August 6.  Hours of operation are 10 to 5 from Wednesday to Saturday, noon to 5 on Sunday.  Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors.  More information can be found on the Institute's website at https://www.albanyinstitute.org.

 As many of you are aware the ASG National Conference for 2023 is being held in NYC from July 27th to July 31st at the Midtown Hilton Hotel in Manhattan.  Registration is still open and as far as I know rooms are still available as well.  Classes and instructors can be found on the website and the registration process occurs at this link https://www.asg.org/resources/conference/ and click on the registration check mark.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of interest or timing of departure we had few interested members to secure a bus.  If you are planning to attend your travel will have to be done by private vehicle or mass transit in and out of the city.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

January is a good time to sew!

 Weather is unpredictable, and I am sure our fabric stash will keep our machines busy no matter what the sky befalls. What are you sewing? Please drop a line and let us know!