Tag Archives: Matt McCoy

Vivak, Velvet, and Vantage: Display Installation for FotoFocus 2024

Introduction

One of my favorite aspects of working for the Preservation Lab is the problem solving required to reach our clients’ goals. Whether performing treatments, building housings, or installing displays, we frequently find ourselves thinking outside the box to come up with custom solutions to unique problems.

FotoFocus

The problem solving aspect of the job was in full force with a recent display request from Art and Special Collections Reference Librarian, Sara Williams, for CHPL’s (Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library’s) participation in FotoFocus 2024 this Fall.

For those unfamiliar, FotoFocus is a biennial “month-long celebration of photography and lens-based art that unites artists, curators, and educators from around the world” (as described by the FotoFocus website). This year’s event was FotoFocus’ seventh iteration and encompassed 107 projects at 86 participating venues across Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky.

The Display Request

The theme for FotoFocus 2024 was Backstories, which focused on hidden stories within photographs that are not initially obvious. With this theme in mind, Sara Williams came up with the idea of highlighting stories hidden within one of CHPL’s most highly prized collection items: the 1848 Fontayne and Porter Panorama Daguerreotype. (For more information about this historic photograph, its preservation, and daguerreotypes in general, an earlier blog post I wrote on the subject can be found here.)

1848 Fontayne and Porter 8 full-plate panorama daguerreotype

To convey this idea, Sara requested that the exhibit contain surrogate images attached to the back of the display cases, with images popping out at varying degrees of depth, highlighting the idea that each subsequent image is zoomed in closer, just as the story within the images become more in-depth.

Constructing a Prototype

I am still relatively new to the world of conservation, and even newer to that of display installation. When confronted with a task I am unfamiliar with such as this request, I like to think about what needs to be achieved, and then brainstorm how it can be achieved practically using stock materials we have in the lab. I did not yet have the specs on the display cases or the sizes of the specific images, but Sara gave me several printed foam board images like what would be used in the display to run tests with. Most importantly, I knew the two following bits of information:

The display needed images attached to a cloth-covered wall within the display case.
The images needed the ability to be mounted at custom depths from the cloth-covered wall.

After some brainstorming with our head conservator, Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer, we decided to try using Vivak to “pop out” the images at various depths.

Vivak is a copolyester plastic that can be easily bent into various shapes, yet retains its shape once creased. It is also clear, making it useful for displays due to its ability to blend into backgrounds and not detract from the featured objects.

We also decided to use our cubicle walls as a test site until we could get our hands on the actual cases, since attaching a support mount to a cloth covered wall was a unique challenge for us.

First Prototype

Attached to wall with two pins along top

I constructed the first prototype by creasing a small sheet of Vivak twice into a “J” shape. I poked two holes in the smaller lip of the “J” so that I could use pins to secure it to the cloth-covered wall, with the image adhered to the larger lip.

This was moderately successful. These would be easy to construct and the pins held the support’s weight. But I was concerned about the Vivak bowing under the weight of the images, especially for the ones that were to be at the furthest depth from the cloth-covered wall, as it was already wanting to sag without an attached image under its own weight.

Second Prototype

I made the second prototype into a “C” shape, so that there were two lips that could be pinned to the cloth-covered wall. My hope was that this would add more stability and reduce the potential sagging. This was certainly an improvement, but it still felt unstable, and I felt the Vivak pieces that needed to be longer still might sag.

Support with added base to combat sagging

I next added an additional support piece of Vivak along the back of this prototype so that the pins would penetrate it as well as the two lips, adding even more stability. This yielded the most favorable result so far, yet I felt like the process could be streamlined.

I wanted the “pop-outs” to be contained to one piece of Vivak, so for the final prototype so I extended the two lips of the “C” so that they overlapped each other making a square shape.

Final Prototype

Attached to wall with Vivak folds at top and bottom – still showed propensity to sag

Attached to wall with folds *along sides* – this eliminated the tendency to sag!

The final prototype gave the stability of the second prototype but was easier to produce as only one piece of Vivak needed to be cut. After constructing this successful variation, I had the idea to rotate the “pop-out” 90 degrees so that the creased section of the Vivak would be vertical rather than horizontal, eliminating any tendency for it to sag from these creases outward.

Installation

Sara had also requested that both the cloth-covered wall and base of the display be covered in black velvet to give the display a cleaner look, as the existing cloth had seen better days. This was accomplished by removing the boards, cutting enough velvet so they could be wrapped and completely covered on its exposed side, and then secured on their hidden underside using a staple gun.

The case before modifications, during deconstruction

The walls and base of the case were recovered with black polyester velvet

I had initially planned on using large “T”-shaped pins to fix the “pop-outs” to the cloth-covered wall, as they were abundant in the lab, and I felt the length of them would yield a stronger hold. However, upon attempting to test the prototype on the actual display case, it was discovered that the wall I assumed was cloth-covered foam was cloth-covered wood. As the “T”-shaped pins were long and not very sturdy, they would be extremely difficult to hammer into the wood.

I ended up using small ½” brass escutcheon pins. They are low profile and would be relatively easy to hammer into cloth-covered wood. I punctured 4 pilot holes through the overlapping “C” lips so the pins could hold the Vivak together, and then individual pins were hammered through the holes into the cloth-covered wood.

Long T-pins compared to the shorter escutcheon pins

The shorter pins were the perfect length to nail into the thin display case wall

Once the velvet was installed and the “pop-outs” were secured to the freshly velvet-covered boards, the images could be adhered directly to the Vivak using double stick tape, as they were surrogate images printed onto foam board.

Nailing the Vivak support to the display case wall

3M 415 double stick tape was used to adhere the surrogate images to the Vivak supports

The Display During Installation

Once the cases were modified with the black velvet polyester and the Vivak supports were nailed into place, the bases were ready for Sara to add additional components underneath.

View at an angle showing the varying depths of field

Three cases ready for final touches by Sara Williams

After Installation

The completed display, entitled Depth of Field: The Universe of the Daguerreotype went live on September 24, and was located on the 2^nd floor of the South building at the Downtown Main branch of CHPL through November 1^st. Sara Williams curated a wonderful series of images, featuring supplemental newspaper articles, city directories, images shot through a microscopic lens, and more to highlight both the scientific and human stories that are contained within this iconic Daguerreotype.

Captions describe:

The astonishing achievement of how the photographic images were captured outdoors when normally, daguerreotypes are produced indoors to control the complicated process.
How moisture and dust caused deterioration specks which are shown under 100x magnification and routinely monitored.
The panorama’s unique anoxic custom enclosure, where the absence of oxygen prevents further degradation.

Although the display is no longer viewable, its primary subject still is. The 1848 Fontayne and Porter Panorama Daguerreotype can currently be viewed in the Cincinnati Room of CHPL’s Downtown Main branch along with other fantastic displays curated by Sara. Be sure to check them out and be on the lookout for the return of FotoFocus in 2026!

View of the exhibit after installation next to the Story Center

Matt McCoy – Conservation Specialist [CHPL]

Meet Me at Main: Exhibit Prep for Reopening!

After a 43 million dollar renovation spanning three and a half years, the CHPL downtown library reopened July 12th, 2024!

In preparation for reopening, the Preservation Lab has been working closely with a variety of CHPL staff to prepare collection items and exhibit cases for display.

To celebrate the dramatic reveal of updates, we’ve provided before and after pictures of the Main downtown library followed by a sneak peek at some of the exhibits.

Main Library Before, During, and After Renovations

Installation of scaffolding for skylight maintenance

July 12th, 2024 – Opening Day! A view of the atrium with a new social staircase.

Exhibits

Exhibit prep work consisted of treatment, matting, creating custom supports, install on site (and more!) for eight different exhibits!

1. Eugenia Rhein Doll Collection

Eugenia holds a Spanish doll wearing a cofrades hat symbolizing penance, often worn on Easter

Located in the Nolan Room (namesake of John T. Nolan Jr, president of the board of trustees from 1951-1983, known as “Jack”), are a collection of dolls from all over the world, representing nearly 100 countries. The dolls were gifted to the Library by Eugenia Rhein who was an administration assistant and a deeply committed employee for over 40 years. During Eugenia’s extensive travels she collected the dolls from countries such as Kuwait, Algeria, Rhodesia, Korea, Pakistan, Whales and more. In the 1970’s the dolls were often used in displays at the library to tell stories about children from other cultures by the Children’s Librarian.

Image of Eugenia is courtesy of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.

The Nolan Room

Now open to the public, this uniquely round room is located on the third floor next to the tower room.

During Doll Installation

Matt McCoy cleans the glass inside and out

Dolls were examined for condition during install. Dolls too fragile (or broken) were left stored in their corrugated clamshells. Dolls in good condition were carefully placed on stands, secured around their waste. Larger dolls required special strapping or additional supports to secure the object in place. Minor treatment was performed on site to repair dolls, reduce creasing in outfits, or clean dust and debris.

2. Veterans Exhibit

Located on the second floor at the top of the social staircase, a new purpose built space was built for the Veteran’s exhibit where artifacts are displayed in concert with stories provided by a digital exhibit and recorded interviews. The Book of Homage is highlighted with the pages turned periodically to reveal lists of names. Original War Bond posters, that were conserved and matted by the Preservation Lab, show the Victory Book Campaign requesting Americans donate books to their local library. War Bond posters will be rotated periodically to protect the vibrant printed colors from fading and the papers from darkening, but perhaps more importantly, show the wide range of art and messages conveyed during times of war.

New purpose-built Veterans exhibit the day of opening

One of my favorite war bond posters drawn by DR. SEUSS! (Not currently on display but available upon request.)

3. Real Art for Young Artists: Original Illustrations from Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells

This exhibit, initially installed in the North building in 2019, was moved to the NEW children’s library location, now on the first floor in the renovated South building.

New Children’s Library

Updated Exhibit Location

The exhibit showcases original hand-drawn illustrations created for the book Noisy Nora, donated to the library by the author and artist, Rosemary Wells.

Original 2019 location in North building

Exhibit Preparation

Luckily, much of the exhibit prep work had already been completed in 2018 for the initial installation (you can read about the original conservation and matting of the illustrations here that are UV protected and waterproof!), but now it was time for maintenance and upkeep.

In particular, the glazing on the frames had developed an iridescent coating residue from well-intentioned cleaners. This made detailed viewing of the illustrations problematic.

Other issues stemmed from the art being at children’s height. The matting and glazing packages had come loose from the frames in a few instances from being pushed inward. Others, such as the illustration “Jack had gotten filthy” had been drawn on with yellow crayon. The crayon marks were not easily removable and needed evaluation by the conservation team to improve.

Despite these issues, due to our forward-thinking work in 2018, the tightly sealed matting packages kept the original artwork completely safe and undamaged. Improvements required adjustments to the frames only!

Before exhibit maintenance, the glazing of the matting package suffers from being drawn on by crayons

Before exhibit maintenance, a matting package was pushed into the frame

During treatment, the matting package is secured with strong nails to the inside of the frame rather than using the folding metal tabs

After treatment the art is secured in the frames and the UV coated glazing is clean

4. History of the Library

With the establishment of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library in 1853, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the oldest libraries in the county and thus full of history to highlight! This physical exhibition beautifully compliments the online virtual exhibit located here.

The physical exhibit is located on the 3rd floor in the Cincinnati Room along the connector where special collections are carefully monitored while on display with specialized light, humidity and temperature controls.

On view are captivating images of the iconic lost library of Vine Street as well as other branch locations, many of which are Carnegie buildings. You can also get up close and personal with past library technologies and special collection objects such as stained glass from the original Vine Street location.

View inside Cincinnati Room
Physical exhibit complements digital exhibt
Original stained glass fragments
Card catalog sorter
Stereoview, lantern slide projector, and paper piano rolls
Special collection ledgers

For this exhibit (and many others!), Conservation Specialist, Matt McCoy worked diligently to replace non-archival black felts at the base of the cases with fresh polyester velvet covered boards. This great improvement is not only archival, but no longer slips and slides when objects are set in place and it’s easily removable to clean crumbs of books off with a brush.

Matt created custom boards covered in polyester velvet in the lab…

5. Circulating Art Books

Located on the third floor of the South building, these stylish 1950’s cases were also refreshed by the lab with new bases of polyester velvet covered boards.

Currently on display are a variety of beautiful art books, sometimes referred to as coffee-table books. Unlike materials in the Cincinnati Room, these materials can be checked out and taken home!

Interested in an art book you see? Scan the QR code to check out any of the titles on display!

6. Birds of America by John James Audubon

Located in the reading room, named the Cincinnati Room, on the 3rd floor connector is where one of the library’s most famous special collection items lives. This item is proudly back on display after resting during renovations. It is the early 19th century double elephant folio known for its gigantic size: the Birds of America Vols. 1-4 by John James Audubon.

With pages that are turned once a week, their grandeur enables you to see the birds represented to scale! Even the flamingo is life size (albeit the neck is wrapped around the page instead of upright).

The Washington Sea Eagle is nearly four feet tall, located in Volume 1.

Exhibit Installation

Cleaning the cases was the first step before installation as they were covered in construction dust inside and out! Before main closed for renovations, the Cincinnati Museum Center modified these cases for us so that the beds pull out for easy access. Their generous modifications were provided as a thank you for loaning all four volumes of the Birds of America for their 2019 exhibit titled In the Audubon Tradition and were a wonderful improvement!

Volumes are protected with custom wrappers. Wrappers consist of strong but lightweight Dibond, archival corrugated board, cloth spines, and ethafoam sheeting secured with cloth ties.

Volumes are also covered in polyester jackets

These heavy books require at least two people to carry

Books are supported with hinging cradles from Benchmark Catalog. The cradles adjust to the weight of the book when pages are turned.

Polyethylene strapping attaches to back of the cradles with Velcro. Strapping protects pages from sagging due to gravity.

The digitized pages are available on a touch screen next to the display case. Nearby, the 1848 eight-plate daguerreotype panorama is also on display!

Supplemental Materials

Perhaps less well-known but just as captivating are the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. In nearby cases, these supplemental materials beautifully complement the Birds of America.

Read more about this amazing collection item that was recently on exhibit March 2024 at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra here and see images of the vibrantly colored lithographs. Or, check out the book America’s Other Audubon by Joy Kiser to see reproductions of the illustrations and learn about the female artist and her family who produced them.

The prospectus of Nests and Eggs is temporarily on display that may have been owned by the illustrator, Gabrielle Estelle Jones, used to entice funders

View the original Nests and Eggs by requesting the material in the Cincinnati Room

Check out and take home this reference material with reproductions of the illustrations and learn about the history of how they’re made

7. Satellite display of reference materials about the Birds of America

Located near the 1950’s cases on the 3rd floor of the South building are supplemental materials relating to the Birds of America. For example, John James Audubon also collaborated with his two sons to depict 150 plates of four-legged animals. While the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library owns these two original volumes which can be viewed in the Cincinnati Room, this display shows reference materials relating to such items.

8. The Inland Rivers Steamboat Exhibition

This exhibit utilizes the Inland Rivers Collection at CHPL to illustrate the historic steamboat and river culture in the region. It is located on the 2nd floor connector.

While much of the materials in the exhibit are owned by the Public Library, some of the more unique treasures are on loan from the Cincinnati Museum Center who provided items such as a heavy life preserver made of cork and a leather-bound bible with handwritten inscriptions salvaged from steamboat wreckage.

Exhibit Installation

Exhibit Installation consisted of creating custom 3-D supports for special collection items on loan while CHPL materials were supported with flat mat board supports. Photographs were mounted to archival boards to prevent them from curling in changes of ambient humidity.

Creating a soft yet strong custom support for the life preserver

Three people are necessary to lift the vitrines safely over objects within these cases

This steamboat relic was previously mounted and matted at the Preservation Lab by Chris Voynovich

Steamboat salvaged bible needed strapping and a custom cradle to show the handwritten inscription

View of Inland Rivers Steamboat Exhibit from the opposite end of the connector

With so many exhibits and a variety of content for all ages be sure to head downtown and visit them in person!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer [CHPL] – Conservator and Conservation Lab Co-Manager

Bonus Images of Main

The new Story Center with large touch screens for digital exhibits

What ſay you! A brief look at the “long s” and its usage

Introduction To The Long S

I was recently building an enclosure for a book dating back to 1681 entitled The Experienced Farrier. While examining this item I noticed something interesting about the spelling of certain words: often, rather than seeing what normally should be the letter “s” I would see what appeared to be the letter “f.”

Figure 1: An image from The Experienced Farrier, containing what appears to be “strange” spellings.

Since noticing this, I started seeing these seemingly bizarre spellings in other items dating to this period, as can be seen in the title page from a copy of Don Quixote from 1678.

Figure 2: An image of the text from Don Quixote, with further examples of these “strange” spellings.

Identifying The Long S

After some sleuthing, I discovered something interesting: these letters were not “f”s at all. They were a now defunct character known as the “long s.” Closer examination of these letters in the text showed that, although they closely resembled an “f,” the horizontal cross bar did not extend all the way across the letter; it starts on the left side and ends in the middle.

Figure 3: A close-up of the word “most” that uses the “long s.” Note that the horizontal cross bar stops at the center stem of the letter.

Figure 4: The “long s” (left) as compared to a lowercase “f” (right).

This solved some of the mystery, but what about the characters that looked like an “f” where the bottom of it curves to the left?

Figure 5: Another style of the “long s,” depicted as it would appear in cursive handwriting.

The answer is that this is also a “long s,” but depicted how it was written in cursive. If you feel like you’ve seen this character before, you’re probably correct: a notable example of this style of “long s” can be found in the first line of the Bill of Rights. Some may also recognize this character from calculus as the “integral” symbol.

Figure 6: The “long s” that occurs in the word “Congress” as it appears in the handwritten Bill of Rights.

Figure 7: The “integral” symbol used in calculus uses the same character used for the cursive-style “long s.”

When The Long S Was Used

You may have noticed in some of these examples that not every “s” is the long form. So, what exactly were the rules for when and where this character was used?

It’s difficult to say exactly, as the rules changed over time and writers/printers didn’t always adhere to the same rules. However, according to a blog from the National Archives, some simple guidelines for when and where the “long s” was used are as follows:

An “s” would use the long form if it appeared at the beginning or in the middle of a word, but only if it is a lowercase s. An uppercase S would not use the long form of the letter.
An “s” would not use the long form if it was the last letter in a word.
It was very common in the case of a “double s” or “ss”, as in the word “opossum”, for both “s”s to be the long form (opoſſum), unless the “ss” ended the word, as in the word “congress”, in which only the first “s” would be the long form (congreſs). *

*An observant reader may notice that this last rule is redundant given the first two rules; however, mentioning the “long s” in the case of an “ss” is significant in that as this character fell out of favor with writers/printers, one of the last remaining circumstances that utilized it was in the case of an “ss.”

Figure 8: Examples of when the “long s” was/was not used.

Final Observations

Gradually, the “long s” fell out of usage around the time of the late 1700’s-1820’s, although it persisted longer in handwriting. Serendipitously, while writing this blog post, the lab received a first edition copy of Goblin’s Market with a handwritten note inside from the author, Christina Rossetti dating to 1862 that features this use even in the late 19th century:

Figure 9: Although difficult to read, this is the word success (ſucceſs) from a handwritten note dating to 1862 that utilizes the “long s” several decades after it fell out of common usage in printed media.

If you still find words containing a “long s” difficult to read, you aren’t alone; it has been theorized that it was phased out in favor of exclusive “short s” usage as they weren’t as easily confused with other letters and were found to be more legible. The disappearance of the “long s” is a good reminder that language, both written and spoken is fluid with ever evolving rules and norms.

Resources

For further information about the long s and its history be sure to check out these excellent blog posts, that were very helpful in the gathering of information for this post:

U.S. National Archives blog: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2021/12/14/the-long-s/. Images Credits for the Bill of Rights belong to the National Archives at this link above.
Jeremy Norman’s History of Information: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2344

Matt McCoy, Conservation Specialist [CHPL]

Panorama Preservation: A Visit with Ralph Wiegandt

As conservation professionals at the Preservation Lab, we get to see and work with our fair share of historic, rare, and just plain interesting artifacts. I recently had the pleasure of becoming familiar with an item that is all 3 of these, and just so happens to be one of The Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library’s (CHPL) most prized possessions: the Fontayne and Porter 1848 Cincinnati Panorama Daguerreotype.

Cincinnati Daguerreotype Panorama by C. Fontayne and W. Porter, 1848

For those who are unfamiliar, a daguerreotype is the very first photographic process, utilizing iodine-sensitized silver plates and mercury vapors, often offering stunning detail and resolution. Currently on display in the downtown Main Library’s Cincinnati Room, the Cincinnati Panorama is no exception, and is considered one of the most detailed and vivid examples of daguerreotype photography currently in existence.

CHPL panorama plate 5 detail
CHPL panorama plate 4 detail
CHPL panorama plate 2 detail

Daguerreotype photography is not without its challenges, however. Most significant of these (at least which concerns us in the conservation field) is that daguerreotypes are extremely delicate. They scratch easily and can degrade with simple exposure to oxygen, atmospheric pollutants, and moisture. These attributes bring up a difficult question: how does one display an item like this, while also ensuring its preservation for generations to come?

Enter Ralph Wiegandt. Wiegandt is a Photograph Research Conservator who designed and installed the 1848 Cincinnati Panorama’s enclosure and display case in 2008. He routinely has performed on-site follow-up consultations in 2012, ’14, ’16, and most recently this past June with Genealogy and Local History and Preservation Lab staff. My fellow lab mate, Hyacinth, and I had the good fortune to also meet with Wiegandt on this recent visit to attend a presentation on his uniquely designed enclosure. Although the primary purpose of the visit was to discuss the enclosure, Ralph shared no shortage of information about daguerreotype plates, the photographers (Fontayne and Porter), the conditions surrounding the panorama, and much more.

Ralph Wiegandt, photo by Hyacinth Tucker

It was clear from speaking with Wiegandt that this project was one he was deeply passionate about, referring to it as “a seminal object in my career.” He spoke with excitement about the unique attributes the Cincinnati Panorama showcases, chief among them: the stunning detail and clarity. According to Wiegandt, this image is so detailed that it can be magnified up to 30x before experiencing any resolution loss. This allowed for intense digital imaging to be performed during the initial conservation of the daguerreotype in 2008. In this process, digital photos were taken from different degrees of closeness to the original image and then stitched together, creating one large interactive digital display, viewable here.

Wiegandt informed us that the 1848 Cincinnati Panorama was not the first attempt at such a picture. Just several months prior, W.S. Porter had taken another daguerreotype panorama of the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia.

Fairmount Water Works Daguerreotype Panorama by W.S. Porter, 1848

The detail of this image, however, is not as impressive as the Cincinnati Panorama. What can be gleaned from this fact, according to Wiegandt, is that the Philadelphia capture was a successful learning experience for Porter, and that his skills and techniques were able to improve dramatically by the time he attempted the Cincinnati Panorama with C. Fontayne.

At the time of the Cincinnati Panorama, daguerreotype photography had only existed for 9 years. Equally as remarkable as the detail these images were able to capture is the inception of this technology. Wiegandt explained how Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre experimented with plates of silver sensitized with iodine fumes. The idea was that the sensitized silver would be reduced as it was exposed to light (i.e., the shutters on a camera opening and allowing light from the image field to hit the plates), thus creating latent images in the silver. Although this proved to be successful, a viewable image was not detectable until a chance happening, which Wiegandt describes as “a miracle.” Legend has it that one of Daguerre’s exposed plates was stored in a cabinet, sharing this space with one other singular item: a broken instrument that utilizes mercury (such as a thermometer, barometer, etc.). Upon examining this plate, Daguerre realized the latent image was now detectable, correctly deducing that the mercury fumes had developed the film. The fumes had caused the light-exposed areas on the silver plate to form small bumps, roughly 1 micron in size, creating an instant high-resolution image. The microscopic size of these bumps means that, according to Wiegandt, daguerreotype images are an early example of what we would today call nano technology. (Ralph also notes the actual circumstances of its discovery are unclear since any notes from Daguerre’s studio would have been lost during a fire shortly afterwards.)

Much like the Fontayne and Porter Cincinnati Daguerreotype, the current display case is quite unique as well. As mentioned before, daguerreotypes are incredibly delicate. To successfully prevent further degradation and preserve this object for generations to come, its exposure to oxygen and other reactive gases must be severely limited. The solution that Wiegandt produced was a specialized inert gas case, similar in concept to how the Declaration of Independence is housed. The goal of this case is “to maintain a slightly elevated pressure of a non-reactive gas such that it will not put excessive strain on the seals yet will be above the potentially highest barometric pressure” (Wiegandt, 2006), thus preventing any atmospheric air from coming in contact with the sensitive daguerreotype plates.

Wiegandt’s sealed encasement design sketch provided in treatment documentation

Wiegandt chose argon to pressurize the case with as it has a better diffusion rate and is more inert than other gases such as nitrogen, all while being cost effective.

Wiegandt informed us on his most recent visit that the case is doing its job: the panorama has experienced no detectable degradation since its installation. However, this was likely his final visit to the Cincinnati Library, as he is retiring from the field. I should add that a further and perhaps more important purpose for this visit was to advise and inform CHPL (and Preservation Lab) staff to be successful in monitoring and caring for the object in his absence. Fortunately, Wiegandt was able to leave us with a wealth of information and resources that will aid in the continued preservation of this amazing artifact. With an updated preservation plan, knowledgeable staff in both the Genealogy & Local History and Preservation Lab departments, and a commitment to preserving cultural property, we can be confident the Cincinnati daguerreotype panorama will be enjoyed by library visitors for many generations to come.

Matthew McCoy [CHPL] – Conservation Specialist

Sources:

http://photographyhistory.blogspot.com/2010/10/daguerreotype-panorama.html (Fairmount Water Works Photo)