Emerging Conservation Professional
Asst. Conservation Technician,
Costuming THE CROWN
Winterthur Museum, Library & Garden
Greenville, DE
In January of 2019, I spent my days and nights in the Textile Conservation Studio at Winterthur Museum preparing costumes for exhibition. The costumes from the Netflix Original television series, THE CROWN, came to the museum to be displayed in a year-long exhibition titled Costuming THE CROWN. Working closely with textile conservators Laura Mina, William Donnelly and Kate Sahmel, as well as with my fellow interns, I learned the ins and outs of preparing costumes for long-term display. By making petticoats and hoop skirts and sewing padding onto mannequins, I gained invaluable experience in the exhibition preparation process that will surely inform my future career in conservation.
My duties included:
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Processing new acquisitions
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Paging manuscript materials for researchers
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Preparing protective housing for fragile books
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Maintaining the stacks
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Preparing items for exhibition
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Monitoring the temperature and relative humidity in Special Collections spaces
Some of the skills I learned here include:
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Rare book and manuscript handling
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Matting and framing
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Exhibition Preparation
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Digitization of books and manuscript materials
