I love matting projects! Matting is an elegant way to present images and documentation for exhibition. We received a collection of letters and images from Abraham Lincoln in the lab from the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) for preservation and conservation. After our conservator Ashleigh Schieszer completed the preliminary work of removing the artifacts from all the acidic and harmful elements they were previously in contact with, we collaborated on the matting choices. One cool thing I just love about this job is the opportunity to make tiny models of our intended work. Obviously, we can iron out some of the bugs and problem solve unforeseen obstacles with models, but making a tiny representation of my work is not only great to have as a future reference but is just really cool.

So, for one of the previously matted compilations the curator suggested retaining the beautiful custom mat for the finished system. This presented a problem because of the acidity in the original mat. The solution we came up with was to create an archival buffer mat between the original mat and the artifacts. Easy-peezy.

To mount overlapping objects, we decided to secure them to different mat board layers.  For example, the document on top will be attached to the back of the archival buffer with a polyester sling while the letter and portrait will be mounted to the backing board with edge strips or photo corners.

We also added a custom portfolio for transportation and long term housing.

Chris Voynovich (CHPL) – Conservation Assistant