Winterthur Museum Research Articles

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

Advances in Storing and Monitoring Mercury-tin Amalgam Mirrors

ABSTRACT Tin-mercury amalgam mirrors are ubiquitous amongst historical collections worldwide. They present potential human health risks as they degrade, releasing liquid mercury and mercury vapor. Over the last decade, care of degrading mirrors at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library has evolved to their present storage: removing dripping mirrors from exhibition and into a limited-access storage space. Using a Jerome Mercury sensor, various methods for storage were evaluated for the buildup of mercury vapor. Mercury vapor accumulated within a plastic bag surrounding a dripping mirror, informing an open-design tray storage solution. While these trays catch drips at the source, they are open to ambient air to allow small volumes of vapor to dissipate. Updated practices for mirror storage, monitoring, and maintenance prioritize staff safety and object preservation.

:The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsCarl R. Lounsbury, ed. The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History. Baltimore: Maryland Center for History and Culture, in association with Giles Ltd., 2021. 448 pp.; 400 color illustrations, notes, index. $89.95.Brigette JonesBrigette JonesBelle Meade Historic Site and Winery. Bridge Builders Historical Consulting, LLC Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 56, Number 2-3Summer/Autumn 2022 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/723105 Views: 4Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Editor’s Introduction

Previous articleNext article FreeEditor’s IntroductionCatharine Dann RoeberCatharine Dann Roeber Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreArchitecture often sparks strong opinions. Who has not glanced at a residence or entered a museum and felt either admiration (“I love that house!”) or dislike (“That place is SO ugly!”)? The livelihood of architectural historians, journalists, and reviewers of the built environment has long rested on their ability to evaluate buildings for professional and avocational readers alike. One thing is certain, though, opinions about a building’s success vary widely and often relate to perceptions about whether it expresses an “original” idea in wood, stone, glass, metal, and other materials. But what is original? Can repurposed design elements or architectural fabric count as something new? Does critical acclaim or functional utility even matter if the built environment satisfies its patrons?Articles in this issue of Winterthur Portfolio discuss two buildings, a little-known private home and a well-known museum, and the varied responses to the structures’ mimetic attributes. Amy D. Finstein’s “A Gropius-Breuer House like Notable Others: Consumerism, Copying, and Connoisseurship in an Unsung Commission” and Sandra Tomc’s “The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Venice Spectacle” highlight buildings that were, in their own ways, intentionally not “original” but rather demonstrated international design conversations in American settings. We see individuals ranging from a wealthy socialite to an up-and-coming doctor incorporating European references into their American buildings. By taking a closer look at these two projects and their patrons, the contexts for their creation, rather than value judgments such as original or derivative, take center stage.By highlighting the Abele House in Framingham, Massachusetts (1941), as an important material expression of midcentury consumer culture, Finstein counters critics’ and scholars’ dismissal of it as a not altogether successful mashup of famed architects’ Walter Gropius’s and Marcel Breuer’s own houses nearby. She argues that, for Abele, selecting elements from the architects’ previous projects and from other accessible references to the International style at the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair was the point. He could use his buying power to craft a version of a popular style and a status symbol for his family that made a modest design splash, if only on a local level.In contrast, Tomc suggests that dramatic impact, including Gardner’s staged greeting of her guests on the Music Room stairs during the museum’s opening, was part of her personal spectacle in Boston. This bit of Venice in Back Bay rested not only on architectural references to canals and palazzos but on installation of imported elements such as the balconied façades from the Ca’ d’Oro that set off the breathtaking beauty of the Gardner courtyard to this day. Tomc reads the Gardner Museum as a backdrop informed by romantic design ideas of Venice but also concealing the illicit origins of some of its priceless Venetian contents.In their close examination of these two spaces, Finstein and Tomc sharpen our understanding of different audiences’ varying reactions to these spaces. Abele’s “architectural quotation” failed to impress connoisseurs but provided pleasant memories for the Abele children while it introduced midcentury modern design into their neighborhood. Gardner created spectacle within a spectacle in her “architectural confection” that repurposed a sanitized Venice for tourists. The fact that Abele and Gardner chose not to create something entirely new uncovers realities about how Americans built personal visions of international design and consumed architecture in the early twentieth century.Whether you study architecture, objects, landscapes or other aspects of the material world, we encourage you to be in touch. We are continually seeking content from scholars at all stages in their careers and from folks within or outside of academia. We at Portfolio intend for our pages to provide a forum for rigorous discussion and thoughtful reconsideration of methodologies and practices related to material culture in the Americas, and we welcome manuscript submissions that engage with similarly essential and timely questions. We welcome conversations with any scholars and practitioners of material culture who are considering a submission. Please view our videos on submitting manuscripts and reviewing for the journal and contact managing editor Amy Earls ([email protected]) or visit https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/wp/instruct for more information. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 56, Number 1Spring 2022 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/723779 © 2022 The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

A Dentist’s Chair: For Practicality, Comfort, or Spectacle?

Abstract This essay focuses on a thirteen-inch-high reclining chair with a carved walnut frame, brass base, and emerald green velvet upholstery in the Winterthur Museum collection [1 and 2]. Created by Ira Salmon of Boston circa 1866, the chair is a patent model and part of Salmon’s efforts to win a professional reputation as a dentist early in his career. This essay documents the transformation of dentistry in America from an itinerant practice in the early republic to a professionalized career in the mid-nineteenth century. It offers evidence of how the material world of dentists changed when tools of the profession became standardized and mass produced. Developing technologies facilitated reclining chairs suited for newfangled operative techniques. The essay also focuses on a period that anticipates the development of germ theory in the early twentieth century and the sterilization of the dentist’s office. In this mid-nineteenth century moment, the aesthetics of dentist offices, and their chairs’ designs, bridge a divide between the traditional values associated with dentists and those ascribed to dentists today. The patent model demonstrates Salmon’s desire to appeal to his clients’ interest by capturing the dramatic potential of a dentist’s visit while satisfying their desire for comfort and expectation of skilful technique.

Cover

Next article FreeCoverFull TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreCover art: Two-Week Introduction to Practical Conservation program participants (from left: Matthew Fields, Devin Davis, and Julianna Ly) examining Tuskegee University Legacy Museum’s diorama The Landing of Slaves in Virginia, 1619, Winterthur painting conservation studio, summer 2017. (UDaily, University of Delaware; photo, Evan Krape.) Next article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 55, Number 1Spring 2021Enslavement and Its Legacies Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/717572 © 2021 by The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Thickness Measurements of Clear Coatings on Silver Objects using Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy

ABSTRACT Polymer films have been used extensively to coat heritage metal objects to provide protection against atmospheric oxidation and tarnish. Coating performance is directly proportional to coating thickness, but current methods used to measure coating thickness for quality control during treatment are qualitative at best. This paper demonstrates how fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) was used to accurately determine coating thicknesses on a number of nitrocellulose-coated silver objects at Winterthur Museum. FORS appears to be significantly more accurate than other common methods used to measure film thickness, such as magnetic/eddy current techniques, but is limited to transparent or semi-transparent coatings. FORS is a simple, accurate method for measuring the thickness of protective coatings on a wide range of cultural heritage metal objects.

Claggett: Newport's Illustrious Clockmakers. By Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, with an introduction by Dennis Carr. (Distributed by Yale University Press for Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and the Newport Historical Society, 2018. Pp. 272, 321 color and black and white ills. $65.00 cloth.)

<i>Claggett: Newport's Illustrious Clockmakers</i>. By Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, with an introduction by Dennis Carr. (Distributed by Yale University Press for Winterthur Museum, Garden &amp; Library and the Newport Historical Society, 2018. Pp. 272, 321 color and black and white ills. $65.00 cloth.)

From the Collection

A stoneware inkstand manufactured between 1829 and 1838 by potters Nathan Clark and Ethan Fox near the Hudson River in the town of Athens, New York, encodes a web of business connections tying the Clark family’s large, long-lived pottery to an expanding national market. This object in the Winterthur Museum collection and others of its type dating to the nineteenth century represent the importance of managing business relations over long distances in the early national economy, the legal responsibility for sound recordkeeping, and the challenges of making a living as a potter in the United States.

From the Collection

What do libraries and museums have in common? What sets them apart? Should rare books be treated primarily as text-based information sources or as material things with artifactual value? This case study of Memorial Library, a room in Winterthur Museum that houses a substantial book collection, lends historical nuance to these pressing questions facing library science and museum studies by examining the lives and legacies of Winterthur figures H. A. and H. F. du Pont through the lenses of the room, its books, and the history of du Pont family book and decorative art collecting.

Multi-instrumental approach with archival research to study the Norwich textile industry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: the example of a Norwich pattern book dated c. 1790\u20131793

Merchant-manufacturers in Norwich, a major centre for textile production in England, used pattern books and pattern cards containing swatches of worsted and worsted mixed with other yarns to facilitate sales and trade. Studying such well-preserved and dated materials provides valuable information that can translate into informed decisions for the care of Norwich textile collections. Using a Norwich pattern book from Winterthur Museum’s Special Collections dated c. 1790–1793, we report the first stage of a substantial study that combines spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques with archival research. A combination of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array (HPLC–PDA) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX) allowed for identification of characteristic mordants like iron and tin salts; and dyes, like quercitron, native to North America. In addition, a combination of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) allowed for partial identification of the glazed finish in some textiles as a natural gum. Setting the foundations for future conservation and conservation science work, our research contributes to the care of these important and beautiful textiles, by providing scientific evidence for humidity and/or light sensitive constituent materials.

Cover

Previous articleNext article FreeCoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreCover art: Detail of sketch, George Paulding Farnham for Tiffany and Company, New York, Orchid 18, “Odontoglossum cordatum [crossed out], Chysis Limminghi, Guatemala,” ca. 1890. Watercolor on paper. (© Tiffany and Company Archives, 2018. Not to be published or reproduced without prior permission. No permission for commercial use will be granted except by written license agreement.) Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 52, Number 4Winter 2018 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/703803 © 2018 by The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Designing a Path to an Economically, Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Plan for Accessible Storage at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library

Created by Henry Francis du Pont and opened to the public in 1951, Winterthur is a multifaceted institution with extensive research, educational and exhibit programming. Physically, it is a 1000-ac...

Julia Rose. Interpreting Difficult History at Museums and Historic Sites. American Association for State and Local History, Interpreting History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. 232 pp.; 8 black-and-white illustrations. $75.00.Avi Y. Decter. Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites. American Association for State and Local History, Interpreting History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. 248 pp.; 40

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsJulia Rose. Interpreting Difficult History at Museums and Historic Sites. American Association for State and Local History, Interpreting History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. 232 pp.; 8 black-and-white illustrations. $75.00. Avi Y. Decter. Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites. American Association for State and Local History, Interpreting History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. 248 pp.; 40 black-and-white illustrations. $80.00. Michelle Moon. Interpreting Food at Museums and Historic Sites. American Association for State and Local History, Interpreting History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015. 220 pp.; 17 black-and-white illustrations. $75.00. Joel Stone, ed. Interpreting Maritime History at Museums and Historic Sites. American Association for State and Local History, Interpreting History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017. 176 pp.; 42 black-and-white illustrations, $80.00.Dann J. BroyldDann J. BroyldCentral Connecticut State University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 52, Number 2-3Summer/Autumn 2018 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/700088 Views: 120Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Reflective and Reflexive Forms: Intimacy and Medium Specificity in British and American Sentimental Albums, 1800-1860

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh Short-Term Research Fellowship, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library Visiting Scholar Award, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University

Marguerite S. Shaffer and Phoebe S. K. Young, eds. Rendering Nature: Animals, Bodies, Places, Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 406 pp.; 54 black-and-white images, notes, index. $55.00.

Marguerite S. Shaffer and Phoebe S. K. Young, eds. <i>Rendering Nature: Animals, Bodies, Places, Politics</i>. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 406 pp.; 54 black-and-white images, notes, index. $55.00.

Arni Brownstone, ed. The Lienzo of Tlapiltepec: A Painted History from the Northern Mixteca. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press and Royal Ontario Museum, 2015. xxiv+190 pp.; 98 color illustrations, notes, index. $29.95 (paper).

Arni Brownstone, ed. <i>The Lienzo of Tlapiltepec: A Painted History from the Northern Mixteca</i>. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press and Royal Ontario Museum, 2015. xxiv+190 pp.; 98 color illustrations, notes, index. $29.95 (paper).

Books Received

Previous article FreeBooks ReceivedPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreEdgar Peters Bowron, ed. Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America. Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America. State College: Frick Collection and Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. 204 pp.; 15 black-and white and 43 color illustrations, notes, references, list of artists, index. $69.95.Simon J. Bronner and Joshua R. Brown, eds. Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017. 592 pp.; 102 black-and-white illustrations, 27 color plates, 7 tables, 1 map. $80.00.François Brunet, ed. Circulation. Terra Foundation Essays, vol. 3. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2017. 224 pp.; 58 color illustrations, notes. $24.95 (paper).Laurie J. Bryant. A Modest Homestead: Life in Small Adobe Homes in Salt Lake City, 1850–1897. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press and Utah State Historical Society, 2017. 296 pp.; 109 black-and-white photographs, 10 black-and-white drawings, 4 black-and-white maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 (paper).Gretchen Buggeln, Crispin Paine, and S. Brent Plate, eds. Religion in Museums: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 265 pp.; 33 black-and-white illustrations, notes, references, index. $26.95 (paper).Lydia Edwards. How to Read a Dress: A Guide to Changing Fashion from the 16th to the 20th Century. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 211 pp.; 200 color illustrations, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. $33.95 (paper).Kelly Erby. Restaurant Republic: The Rise of Public Dining in Boston. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016. 176 pp.; 32 black-and-white photographs, notes, index. $22.50 (paper).Jodi Kanter. Presidential Libraries as Performance: Curating American Character from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. Theater in the Americas. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016. 198 pp.; 17 black-and-white illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $35.00 (paper).Jeremy R. Kinney. Reinventing the Propeller: Aeronautical Specialty and the Triumph of the Modern Airplane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 368 pp.; 25 black-and-white illustrations, 4 tables, essay on sources, index. $120.00.Marsha MacDowell, Mary Worrall, Lynne Swanson, and Beth Donaldson. Quilts and Human Rights. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. 232 pp.; 105 color photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95 (paper).Susan E. Maycock and Charles M. Sullivan. Building Old Cambridge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016. 968 pp.; 703 black-and-white and 412 color illustrations, notes, bibliography, architects and builders index, street address index, general index. $49.95.Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims. Canoes: A Natural History in North America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016. 416 pp.; 95 black-and-white and 228 color plates, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.William Thomas Okie. The Georgia Peach: Culture, Agriculture, and Environment in the American South. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 303 pp.; 28 black-and-white illustrations, 7 tables, notes, index. $34.99.Jennifer L. Roberts, ed. Scale. Terra Foundation Essays, vol. 2. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2016. 256 pp.; 80 color illustrations, notes. $24.95 (paper). Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Winterthur Portfolio Volume 51, Number 1Spring 2017 Published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/694308 © 2017 by The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Dennis Carr. Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia. Boston: MFA Publications, 2015. 160 pp.; 86 color figures, notes, bibliography, index. $50.

Dennis Carr. <i>Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia</i>. Boston: MFA Publications, 2015. 160 pp.; 86 color figures, notes, bibliography, index. $50.