Reunion Weekend and Conference
"Educated at Winterthur: A Half Century of Achievement"
September 21-22, 2001

The Winterthur Programs, '51 to '01: Are We There Yet?
by Charles F. Hummel (WPEAC '55)
(as presented on September 21, 2001)

(page 7) An unscientific survey of the card catalog of Winterthur's library, Winterthur Portfolio, the AIC Journal, AIC Newsletter, and Studies in Conservation revealed that graduates of the three programs have authored, co-authored or edited 303 books, catalogues of exhibitions, or collections of essays of more than 100 pages in length and at least 612 articles, booklets, brochures, catalogues, and book reviews of under 100 pages in length. I have no doubt that an exhaustive survey would double those figures. And my survey did not include the well over 375 theses and dissertations, of which many have been published and distributed by University Microfilms International. New and useful information is also promulgated by lectures and papers presented at forums, seminars, colloquia, and conferences. The roster of speakers at these events is invariably heavily represented by Winterthur/University of Delaware graduates. Academic and professional membership organizations benefit from the expertise of Winterthur graduates who serve as their officers or in key committees. For example, Debbie Hess Norris has served as President of AIC. Many WUDPAC graduates chair specialty groups of the same organization. The American Association of Museums, MAAM, and AAMD have benefited from graduates serving on their Councils and/or Boards. Many graduates of both programs have served as field reviewers for accreditation purposes. Granting agencies such as NEA, NEH, and IMLS have, or have had, graduates serving as reviewers or on panels. AASLH, CAA, American Ceramics Circle, Decorative Arts Trust, EAIA, Heritage Preservation, and the Pewter Collectors Society are only a few of the organizations for which graduates have been, or are, officers or committee members. Recently, the Art Conservation Program had the honor of being designated as an official project of the Save America's Treasure Program, a public-private partnership between the White House Millenium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A WUDPAC graduate is the lead conservator responsible for the eighteen-million-dollar project to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner. Another is responsible for treating the only surviving text of Archimedes' Methods of Mechanical Theories. In the early 1980s, WUDPAC graduate Richard Wolbers introduced alternative systems for the cleaning of painted surfaces, increasing a conservator's control over the cleaning process. Other WUDPAC graduates have been responsible for the preservation of the Declaration of Independence, multiple drafts of the U.S. Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Liberty Bell, the original Treaty of Paris, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and works of fine art ranging from Rembrandt to Jackson Pollock. WUDPAC Fellows, during their eight-week long summer work projects, have solved basic conservation problems relating to storage or collection care for hundreds of national and international institutions ranging from small historical societies with no paid staff to world-class organizations. This past summer, two-student teams were at the Paris Center for Research on the Conservation of Graphic Documents; the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museums in London, the Bundesdenkmalamt in Vienna, the Conservation Centre in Liverpool, and the Heritage Conservation Center in Singapore. At home, students worked at the Frick Collection, the Cloisters, Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts, Baltimore Museum of Art, National Park Service Center at Harpers Ferry, and the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. In recognition of its achievements since its inception in 1974, the University's Board of Trustees granted art conservation program activities departmental status in 1990. But there have also been collateral achievements as a result of these programs--the blood, sweat, and tears expended by the 637 graduates and approximately 60 students now in the pipeline. The Winterthur Program in Early American Culture was first in establishing the pattern of cooperation between a university and a museum for the purpose of training museum professionals. The Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation is the only one in the United States based in a museum, and it is the only program to train conservators of photography. This program helped to wean art conservation training away from sole reliance on apprenticeship to a concept of broad-based training including academic art history, technology, manual skill, scientific knowledge, and apprenticeship. All three programs have had a great influence on an increased emphasis on American arts in the United States and abroad.

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