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Students work to restore art and artifacts on Gulf Coast
9:23 a.m., Aug. 24, 2006--Three University of Delaware students spent their summers in Mississippi helping to restore the past and preserve the future. When Hurricane Katrina's 175-mph winds caused widespread devastation to the central Gulf Coast states, Mississippians found that Beauvoir, the home and presidential library of Jefferson Davis, and the partially constructed Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art had been all but wiped out. Located in Biloxi a few blocks from the northern waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Davis mansion, the home of the only president of the Confederate States of America and one of the last Antebellum homes in the U.S., and library suffered heavy damage. Worst, the library's pavilion, the Hayes Cottage, soldier's home barracks replica and Confederate Soldier's Museum were totally destroyed. Just few miles from the Davis complex, the Ohr-O'Keefe Art Gallery, housing pottery by George Ohr and a collection of local African-American art, and several ancillary structures were leveled. To see the extent of the destruction to the Davis home and library, visit [www.beauvoir.org/index3.html]. An overview of the damage to the museum can be seen at [www.georgeohr.org/Before%20and%20After%20Katrina/launcher.html]. Lauren Horelick and Kimberly Crozier, both seniors in UD's art conservation program and Kathleen Payne, a Winterthur University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) graduate student, have been working in Jackson, Miss., as part of an emergency response team funded by two grants totaling $413,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional private and public support.
Undergraduates Crozier and Horelick worked alongside 12 art-conservation graduate students, including Payne, from programs throughout the United States. Under the direction of Catherine Williams, a private practice conservator from Austin, Texas, Crozier, Horelick and Payne were given several individual treatment projects to stabilize artifacts recovered from the two institutions. Most of the furniture and articles in the Davis home were damaged by wind and water. But, because the Ohr-O'Keefe had an emergency response plan in place, when officials there knew how intense the hurricane would be, the art that was to have been housed in the museum was put in temporary storage. Now, these pieces, especially the folk art and African objects, need more protective storage to remain intact until the museum is rebuilt and they can be put on display. Payne, Crozier and Horelick worked out of a storage facility in Jackson where the recovered Davis artifacts were housed. The Beauvior collection was divided into five categories: furniture, ceramics and decorative arts, weapons, textiles and papers and small finds (medals, flatware, razors, telescopes, Civil War-era camping tools and other incidental objects). Among the objects that Payne treated was a corroded pocket-sized copper alloy telescope, a stone and copper alloy oil lamp and the wooden portion of a marble tabletop. To see these objects before and after they were restored, visit [www.ischool.utexas.edu/~cochinea/gulfcoastrecovery/katie.html]. Crozier tackled mother-of-pearl handled butter knives corroded with iron oxides and iron chlorides with blades that were flaking due to corrosion of the iron under the plating, and restoration of the veneer on the curved leg of a pedestal card table. See examples at [www.ischool.utexas.edu/~cochinea/gulfcoastrecovery/kim.html].
The Ohr-O'Keefe objects needed a different kind of attention. Because the museum was totally destroyed and must be rebuilt, the Ohr pottery and African-American and folk art objects will remain in storage for some time, so, they must be warehoused in a manner that will keep them from being damaged during the extended period. Payne, Crozier and Horelick devised containers unique to each piece and designed specifically to keep the objects whole and undamaged until they can be put on display. To learn more about the Gulf Coast Recovery Project, visit [www.ischool.utexas.edu/~cochinea/gulfcoastrecovery/workshops.html]. Article by Barbara Garrison
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