Regional Services

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Conservator’s Corner: Knight in shining armour

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Photography by Kate Chidlow @ Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved

We have had a Finnish furniture conservation student, Sanna Makarainen, with us in the Conservation Department undertaking a 3 month internship with Bronwen Griffin, Mixed Media Conservator. Sanna recently worked on a mounted knight for the Tinytorium exhibition.

Photography by Kate Chidlow @ Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved

Firsly, she brush-vacuumed the object thoroughly all over. Using the brush, Sanna removed all the surface dirt from the metal, leather and fabric construction materials. A small plastic tube was attached to the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner to reduce the suction flow. Tulle was attached to the end of the tube with a rubber band to ensure that if any fragments were accidently loosened, they could be easily caught in the gauze, rather than getting sucked into the vacuum cleaner.

Photography by Kate Chidlow @ Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved

Photography by Kate Chidlow @ Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved

The leather straps on the knight’s leg guards had deteriorated and separated and needed to be consolidated. Sanna removed the leg guards to give her better access to the straps. Some of the leather strapping was in poor condition and needed to be supported. Sanna used a heated spatula, Beva film and silk behind the leather to give it more strength. In two places, the leather strapping had to be re-adhered, so Sanna used Beva impregnated stablitex to sandwich the leather together.

Photography by Kate Chidlow @ Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

There was quite a bit of red rot in the saddle leather. Sanna protected the fragile saddle with fabric to prevent further abrasion occurring when the knight is seated on the saddle and horse. Some loose fragments from the hooves were re-attached with Paraloid B72 adhesive.

Kate Chidlow
Conservator

Devereux Viola

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Viola made by John Devereux, 1869. 2003/36/1. Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski.

In the Museum’s Conservation Department, Tim Morris and Bronwen Griffin have been taking apart an unusual tuning peg mechanism for a viola.

The viola was made by John Devereux in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1869. John Devereux was one of the earliest professional makers of violin family instruments (violins, violas, cellos and double basses) in Australia. He was known for using Australian timbers and made special adaptations to his instruments to suit the heat and humidity of the Australian climate.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Photography by Nitsa Yioupras.

A quote from the Argus Newspaper, Melbourne talks about the tuning mechanism. It’s part of a slightly longer account of a visit and presentation of a violin by Devereux to HRH Prince Alfred, The Duke of Edinburgh in 1868 which resulted in him getting a royal appointment which appears on his labels after this point:

His Royal Highness expressed himself much pleased with his present and listened attentively to Mr Devereux’s instructions relative to the pegs of the instruments, an invention of the maker. These are ingeniously constructed so as to prevent the slips which pegs of the old fashioned pattern were liable to. (The Argus, Melbourne, 15/1/1868, p.5 col.b.)

Normally, a viola (or violin or cello) tuning peg is wooden with a finger grip at one end and a tapered wooden pin, which fits through holes in the instrument’s peg box, below the scroll. The string is pushed through a hole in the shaft and wound around several times by turning the peg until the correct pitch is reached. The peg is held in place by string tension and by push-fitting the taper into the peg box. This is a simple method, which usually works, but can be affected by changes in humidity. Pegs can become too loose and slip, causing the instrument to go out of tune, or too stiff to move, also making the instrument impossible to tune.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Photography by Nitsa Yioupras.

Devereux’s invention was to replace the tapered section of the wooden pin with a straight metal rod to which the string was attached as above. This rod passes through the holes in the peg box and extends to a threaded section, over which a wooden finger grip is secured with a metal ferrule. This assembly encompasses a flange on either side of one wall of the peg box, which squeezes against the timber when the ferrule is tightened, creating a clutch mechanism. The tuning peg looks and acts pretty much like an ordinary wooden one, but is less susceptible to changes in the weather.

For more information on other Devereux instruments in the Powerhouse collection, see here.

Bronwen Griffin, Mixed Media Conservator and Tim Morris, Metals Conservator

Tutorial: How to make a simple paper wig

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Photography by Sotha Bourn

This method of making wigs for display mannequins has been used in museums for over 20 years.

It is a great way for small museums and fashion students to create elegant wigs cheaply and easily. We have used white paper for our tutorial, but you could use anything you liked; ribbon, fabrics, unusual papers. You are only limited by your own imagination!

Post by Suzanne Chee, Conservator

Conservator’s Corner: Caring for maps

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One of the flattened maps, showing a large tear. Photography © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

One of the Museum’s paper conservators, Dee McKillop, has been working on a set of navigation maps including one titled ‘Montague Island to Beecroft Head’. The map collection has not been treated since it came into our collection some time ago. The maps were in a poor state as they were rolled, creased, torn and were quite dirty and dusty.

Half way through the cleaning process, the rubber, brush and metal stencil were used. Photography © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

There are 56 maps in all and they vary in size from 500 x 500mm up to 1500 x 600mm. After the maps were photographed, the next step was to flatten them slowly – this is called the ‘relaxing phase’. The maps were flattened between layers of thick blotting paper for a period of many weeks. Eight maps were flattened at a time. Acid free cardboard was placed on top of the pile for extra weight. The maps gradually acclimatised and flattened out.

Conservator, Dee McKillop, trimming the japanese tissue repair. Photography © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

The next step was to surface clean the maps to remove the loose dirt and dust. Dee brush vacuumed the loose dirt off and then used a chemi sponge (dry cleaning sponge) to do a gentle clean all over the paper. This is particularly important over pen, ink or pencil markings. After that, Dee used a firmer rubber (Mars Staedtler) to clean the plain areas of the map. She was able to remove dirt from very small areas near the pen, ink or pencil markings using a metal stencil. The tears in the maps were repaired with feathered japanese tissue paper and starch paste, drying under weights.

The flattened, cleaned and repaired map ready for storage. Photography © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

The project is nearly finished and the maps will soon be interleaved with acid-free tissue paper and put into plane cabinets in our climate controlled paper store.

Kate Chidlow and Dee McKillop, Conservators

2010 Movable Heritage Fellowship Winner: Carly Todhunter

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Carly Todhunter and Margaret Simpson with the Bayko toy house. Photography by Geoff Friend © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved

Each year the Powerhouse Museum’s Regional Services Program offers a Movable Heritage Fellowship to students residing in New South Wales enrolled at any University campus. Movable Heritage refers to any natural or manufactured object of heritage significance. The successful applicant undertakes a research project as part of the Fellowship on one or more objects in a community museum, historical society or other collecting institution. They are awarded $5,000 and also spend one week at the Powerhouse Museum receiving expert guidance by a supervising member of staff.

The winner of the 2010 Movable Heritage Fellowship is Carly Todhunter. In this post, Carly shares with us the nature of her research project and the experiences she has gained working with Margaret Simpson, Curator, Science, Technology & Industry at the Museum.

My name is Carly Todhunter and I am currently studying heritage and archaeology as part of a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney. As the Movable Heritage Fellow for 2010, I’ve been engaging with ways that the Powerhouse Museum brings their exhibitions to life with oral histories, photography and other online media forms to see how these may be adapted to bring an online presence to the collections of regional museums.

In the past week I’ve sat in on a photography shoot for a Bayko house set, written a blog on a turn of the century ice-cream maker and explored the stores at Castle Hill. Short of swimming with dolphins, the week has given me a taste of the adventures being had everyday behind-the-scenes at the Powerhouse.

Farm cart with milk cans used at Minnamurra House from the Illawarra Museum. Image courtesy of Carly Todhunter.

My project is looking at dairy machinery in collections from the Illawarra, specifically the Illawarra Museum; Tongarra Bicentennial Museum; Berry Museum; Gerringong Museum; Berrima District Museum; Pioneer Farm Museum; Nowra Museum and the Wollondilly Heritage Centre. For each Museum, I am creating records for the dairy machinery in their collections. Some of the machinery I am looking at includes cream separators, butter churns, butter pats, cream and milk cans, ice-cream makers, milking stools, milking machines, cheese presses, pint milk bottles, a Streets ice-cream sign and a farm cart.

Alfa-Laval 'Viola' cream separator from the Gerringong Museum. Image courtesy of Carly Todhunter.

In addition to creating digital records for all these objects, I am also developing a number of other resources including a blog; postings of photographs of the Museums, their collections and important sites in the history of the dairy industry to go on Flickr and education packs for primary school children.

Measures for milk vendors from the Tongarra Museum. Image courtesy of Carly Todhunter.

This project, which will be complete in December 2010, will allow me to pass on the knowledge and many insights I have gained. It has also enabled me to meet some very interesting characters at the regional museums! One volunteer I met shared with me a narrative of the history of the local dairy industry of the Berrima District, which he had researched and prepared for an upcoming exhibition. Ironically, however, this volunteer also revealed to me that he was lactose intolerant! Though I cannot claim to suffer from the same ailment, I’m already beginning to wonder if (after having studied the dairy industry so extensively) that will become my fate too!

Carly Todhunter
Movable Heritage Fellowship winner, 2010

Regional Services: Eden Workshop

Published by Rebecca Pinchin 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photography Powerhouse Museum © all rights reserved

Our Regional Services Program recently held a conservation workshop in the small town of Eden, NSW. This intriguing object was brought to the workshop by Joanne Grant of the Mallacoota Bunker Museum who was seeking advice on its conservation.

The wooden box contains the remnants of an apparatus for administering electrical shock treatment. It states on the inside lid that it was used to treat nervous conditions, but at the time these devices were believed to cure a wide range of ailments from hair loss, to cancer.! It is believed to have been used on the Yambulla goldfields and was found discarded in the bush in the 1960s or 1970s.

Image courtesy of Jody White, Eden Killer Whale Museum


Tim Morris, conservator, Powerhouse Museum, and Joanne Grant from Mallacoota Bunker examining the medical equipment thought to have been used to administer shock
Treatment

After inspecting the box conservator Tim Morris suggested using ‘animal glue’ to repair some of the damage, and offered further support and assistance in preserving the device.

Workshops, such as the one held in Eden, are important in providing advice on how to preserve objects of historical importance that are held in small museums across the country.

Joanne states that ‘I am not a professional – just a volunteer at the museum who obviously loves history and does the best that I can enthusiastically, but with limited resources! I was very grateful for the opportunity to attend the workshop with Tim and learn about his work. I wasted no time in checking the Powerhouse website to look at some of the resources that he mentioned and feel sure that this will be accessed frequently in future! Thanks once again for your interest and your valuable assistance.’

Meet a Regional Services Intern- Michelle Maddison

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Photography by Powerhouse Museum © all rights reserved

As pointed out in our earlier post, internships form a significant part of the Museum’s Regional Services program and in this post, we have invited Michelle Maddison, a Curator from the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga, to talk about her experience.

I was immensely pleased by my stay at the Powerhouse – it met my expectations and I came away with useful knowledge gained both through research and the opportunity to meet face-to-face with specialists.

The Museum of the Riverina has a small but important costume collection. Uncovering the secrets of the collection has been an exciting journey and was the focus of my internship at the Powerhouse in 2009. As part of my internship, I researched a number of garments so they could be entered on the Australian Dress Register.

This research included looking at a tap dancing costume – a tutu-style dress of black tulle decorated with metallic braid and sequins. The dress belonged to Tivoli dancer Pauline Harvey and we thought it had been worn at the Wagga Wagga Eisteddford, in the closing years of World War II. It wasn’t until we put the dress on a mannequin that I realised it was a child’s dress and that Pauline must have worn it just after she began dancing at the age of 5.

At the Museum of the Riverina we have adapted what we have learnt from the Australian Dress Register for practical use. Following an initial workshop with Powerhouse staff, I developed a history of textiles exhibition called Dress for the Occasion. Tips I picked up allowed us to date garments to a more specific time period.

Having had the opportunity to look at the Australian Dress Register and what people are entering onto it, I feel, as someone who works in a regional museum, that it fosters an important sense of community that is especially important in regional museums which can feel isolated from what goes on in the metropolitan areas.

To find out more about the internship program, click here.

Conservator’s Corner- The annual vintage Taralga Machinery Rally

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The Taralga Machinery Club ran its annual vintage machinery rally on the weekend of 21st/22nd November 2009. Despite the sweltering heat of 40′, over 900 people turned out to see the impressive exhibition of machinery. There were dozens of steam engines, stationary engines, tractors, models and a shearing demonstration. Because of the fire ban, no steam engines ran, but tractor engines were used to demonstrate some of the machinery in action. A wheat thrasher in action:

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

This machine takes the stalks of wheat and seperates the heads from the hay. The residual hay is then bailed by the machine pictured below.

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

There were many different types of steam engines present, such as this portable Southern Cross steam engine (horse drawn).

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

Also included in the display were models of steam engines from the Powerhouse collection (A hand-made steam locomotive model made by A. Cardew. B2080 ).

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

and toys from a different era – cast lead farm animals

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

And shearing demonstrations powered by a tractor engine

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

 

Meet our Regional Services Team- Rebecca Pinchin and Joanne Delzoppo

Published by Melanie Pitkin 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photography by Powerhouse Museum © all rights reserved.

The Regional Services Program at the Powerhouse Museum provides programs and services to the people of New South Wales and beyond the borders of Sydney. These programs and services include access to our collections, expertise and resources for individuals and groups such as local museums, historical societies and libraries in rural and regional communities. The Program is managed by Rebecca Pinchin with assistance from a wide range of other Museum staff, including Project Manager, Joanne Delzoppo. In this post, we meet both Rebecca and Joanne and discover a little more about their positions and how they got there.

What is your role in the regional services program?

Rebecca: I seem to do a lot of talking! I manage the Museum’s relationships with regional organisations and I keep the memory of our dealings over time. I see myself as a bit of a ‘plant’ within the Museum because I can assist community groups on how to approach the Museum by interpreting and guiding them. It’s a matter of knowing what we can offer and matching that to their needs.
Joanne: I am working as a Project Manager assisting Rebecca to run the diverse programs in Regional Services. This includes working on large projects such as the Australian Dress Register or some of the many small and important programs such as organising internships for cultural workers located in the regions. Internships are an opportunity for professional development for regional paid and volunteer staff where we tailor a program for them offering exposure to museum practices, the opportunity to work on a project with Powerhouse staff or to learn a specialised skill.

How did you end up in this job?

Rebecca: I came from an education background – I trained in fine arts and worked as an art teacher. Before working at the Museum, I was coordinating an outreach program at Western Institute of TAFE, Dubbo, providing training to disadvantaged and isolated groups from Dubbo to Broken Hill. Prior to that I was Director of Dubbo Regional Art Gallery. This job brings the two streams together.
Joanne: After studying fillm and photography at University, I qualified as an art and photography teacher. I worked for a short time at Ariah Park Central School before taking a position as Exhibitions Curator at the Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery. This was a wonderful and fulfilling role that was hands on in exposing me to all aspects of putting exhibitions and programs together, as well as running a regional art gallery. I have worked as an Exhibitions Coordinator and now Project Manager at the Powerhouse Museum for 9 years. As well as Regional Services, I work on temporary exhibitions, permanent exhibitions and the travelling exhibition program.

Do you spend a lot of time travelling?

Rebecca: I usually send other people travelling! I do still travel quite a bit. It’s not until you visit a site that you can see what the issues are. It’s an essential part of the process. Museum staff have probably visited 60-70 places over the past year. Often the local people know the answer to a problem but they need the confidence. We can say you’re right on the right track. That’s about 75% of what we do. These are usually volunteer groups, often unfunded, using whatever support they can call on.
Joanne: As a Project Manager, we can do some travelling expecially with the travelling exhibition program. Lately, however, I have been organising others to travel to install a number of exhibitions including: Contemporary Japanese Fashion: The Gene Sherman Collection to Lake Macquarie, Ties with Tradition: Macedonian apron design to the University of Wollongong and a large loan of the Museum’s chairs to Bathurst Regional Art Gallery for their collaborative exhibitions Sit, Fold & Stack.

What’s a typical working day for you?

Rebecca: Curator Eva Czernis-Ryl and I went to the Riverina for the opening of an exhibition about a pastoral property by the Lockhart Historical Society. In our collection we have a silver Corinthian cup made in 1881 for a local horse race. We took the cup for the opening and it was on display for the weekend. Then we went to another local museum about 40kms down the road where the race club had been. We spoke to the ladies there and sparked their interest and now they’re finding out more about the racing club and we are helping with their collection.
Joanne: A typical day is working on schedules for various programs, talking about the Australian Dress Register website, organising an exhibition to visit a regional venue, moving crates that have just returned from a regional tour, chasing up copyright for an image we want to use in an exhibition, reviewing the exhibition design for the latest exhibition, talking to staff about the marketing campaign for a project, liasing with the many varied departments in the Museum to chase up issues or get them to assist with a project.

What aspect of the job do you enjoy most?

Rebecca: When you make something happen that otherwise wouldn’t, like getting the cup to Lockhart. It’s an A category object (high significance) and the standard response would be to say “no, it can’t travel”. But instead you look at the issues and work around them. It only works if you’ve got someone whose job it is to do that. It has a huge impact and people are so appreciative. We have ensured access to something that is special and part of their local history.
Joanne: The diversity of the projects I work on means I am always learning something. There is great satisfaction when a project is completed, whether it is large or small, or you have helped someone learn or complete something.

The Bayldon Collection at the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum

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Image courtesy of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum

For most of my adult life I had heard of all the things in my aunt’s possession.

Aunty Nan (Nancy Sewell nee Whaites) was a wealth of knowledge and loved to talk about her ancestors.

William Edward Bayldon who had been born in England was operating a chemist shop and owned farm land in Adelaide in 1840 when he married Eliza Leaman widow of James Birmingham Kelly.

James a ship’s surgeon and Eliza had arrived in Australia in 1838 on the Rajasthan but he died from TB in 1839.

After the birth of their first child Annie William moved his family back to England. A son was born on the voyage followed by four more girls and a son while working for the Luton Police. However he decided to move the family back to Australia and they arrived in Sydney in 1853 where William again had a chemist shop. Their last child Emily was born in 1855.

William then decided to move his family to Ulmarra on the Clarence where he purchased a considerable land holding where he and his sons bred cattle and horses.
In 1871 William was made a JP who travelled from Grafton to the Bellinger in this profession.

At some time he must have seen how good things were on the Bellinger so moved his family possessions and stock to an area that he called Boambie. Thus he was known as one of the first settlers in the area.

Emily went to Sydney to do her nurses training at the Lucy Osborne Hospital before she married widow Captain William John Whaites the first shipping pilot on the Nambucca. They had four sons and a daughter.

Image courtesy of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum

In 2005 Aunty Nan phoned me to ask if I would contact the Sawtell Museum in the hope they would like the portraits of William and Eliza Bayldon. Aunty Nan was giving up her home and going into care.

As there is no museum at Sawtell I contacted the Sawtell Historical Society who suggested I talk to the Bayldon Public School.

Mr Walsh the Principal was overjoyed at the request and suggested that they be presented by Nan at the school’s assembly. Aunty Nan was so thrilled that along with the portraits she gave a talk on the life of William and showed the students the silk top hat (stilled stored in its metal box) that he wore when he was a JP. The story went in the local paper.

Along with the portraits and the top hat Aunty Nan brought several dresses that had belonged to members of the Bayldon family for me to keep. One of the outfits was a three piece blue and silver striped skirt, jacket and bustle cover all edged with blue silk fringing which she told me had been a wedding outfit.

Image courtesy of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum

After her death in 2008 her daughter told me that after sorting through Nan’s possessions there were more clothes that she would bring up. I knew I had no where to store any more garments so I contacted the Coffs Harbour Museum in the hope they would like them. They were very pleased to get the clothes due to the significance of the name Bayldon in the local area.

The staff at the museum were overjoyed at the quality and variety of items in the collection which eventually numbered over 100 pieces. Each piece has been photographed and given an identification number. The Bayldon Collection as it is known contains underwear, accessories, bags, scarves blouses jackets and skirts and one of the most unique garments is a very simple grey and white striped cotton day dress trimmed in blue cotton. Most cotton garments were used as rags and it is rare to find a cotton dress in such good condition.

Image courtesy of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum

A display was held at the museum with media coverage informing everyone of the wonderful collection that had been donated by the descendants of the Bayldon family. The Bayldon Public School had successfully gazetted for a name change to the William Bayldon Public School loaned the portraits to be included in the display. The school had had the portraits restored and they hang proudly in the main building.

Image courtesy of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum

Since the first display there have been several pop up displays in which parts of the Bayldon Collection have been included. Two of which were bridal displays and the three piece wedding outfit drew quite a lot of attention especially because of the colour and condition.

Among other things from aunty Nan were photos which included one of Annie the eldest daughter of William and Eliza wearing the three piece wedding outfit.

All the clothes are now stored in archive quality boxes in the museum with acid free tissue paper separating the garments. The sleeves are padded with tissue and wherever there is a fold in the fabric a long sausage shape of tissue is placed to prevent damage.

Contributed by Cheryl Dal Pozzo, Coffs Harbour Regional Museum.

Cheryl Dal Pozzo has contributed five outstanding entries to the Australian Dress Register Project. Her entries focus on a collection of garments handed down to her by an Aunt, and she uses her examination of these garments to explore her family history and their contribution to and place in a wider historical context. In this blog she provides the back story to this amazing collection.