Collaborative Effort: Conservation Contributions to a Museum Exhibit – LIBRARIES

This fall, Northwestern University Libraries loaned 63 items to The Block Museum of Art to appear in the exhibition Dissident Sisters: Bev Grant and Feminist Activism, 1968-72. Displayed alongside The Block’s recent acquisition of 17 photographs by Bev Grant, a variety of posters, newspapers, political buttons and other archival ephemera were identified by Block curators in the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives to complement Grant’s photographs of radical political movements in and around New York City.

Once the Libraries receive a loan request from the museum, the chosen items are delivered to the conservation lab and staff conduct a condition survey. We note any issues that should be addressed prior to exhibition and make suggestions for safe display, including light level recommendations and ideas for supportive mounts. We photograph every item and perform conservation treatments as needed.

Most of the materials requested for Dissident Sisters required little to no treatment, but two were victims of well-meaning tape application. Adhesive tapes can cause long-term problems for paper materials. As the adhesives age, they stain the paper and create brittle edges that lead to tearing. They often obscure information and can be visually disfiguring. When possible, we remove tapes from collection materials.

For the National GI Week poster below, you can see in the first image that there are remnants of “scotch” tape on the corners of the poster. After using solvent vapor to soften the adhesive, I lifted the tape from the paper with a thin spatula and removed the remaining sticky adhesive residue with a rubber cement pick-up eraser.

Black and white poster with a photograph of soldiers at rest, wearing helmets and text at the bottom about bringing the soldiers home. There is tape on the 4 corners.

Black and white poster with a photograph of soldiers at rest, wearing helmets and text at the bottom about bringing the soldiers home.

National GI Week Poster, Before Treatment (left) and After Treatment (right)

The most complicated treatment I performed for this exhibit was reattching loose pages in Pearl Hirshfield’s journal. Pearl Hirshfield was a local artist and activist who compiled a portfolio of art prints to raise money for the Chicago Seven – defendants charged by the US Department of Justice with conspiracy and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The portfolio, titled Conspiracy, the Artist as Witness, contains prints by 13 artists, including Claes Oldenberg, Peter Saul, and Alexander Calder. Hirshfield’s journal records her notes on conversations with artists and the logistics of compiling the portfolio.

In the before treatment image (left), you can see that the pages of the planner have fallen out and multiple attempts have been made to tape it back together, but over time the adhesives have failed. To reattach the pages, I used a long fibered Japanese tissue paper coated with a thin layer of water-soluble paste.

Open pages of a journal showing handwriting in blue, red, and orange ink. The pages are falling out of the binding.

Open pages of a journal showing handwriting in blue, red, and orange ink

Pearl Hirshfield’s Journal, Before Treatment (left) and After Treatment (right)

Here are few more of my favorite pieces in the exhibit:

Posters printed by the Graphics Collective of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union posters are eye-catching, with their striking designs and vibrant colors. These were all in excellent condition and required no treatment.

A purple and black poster with a white background. The illustration shows 2 women, one with her arms and fists raised, with the text Cry Out above.

Poster with a yellow background, a red blob shape in the middle, with black text curved along the bottom.

“Cry Out” and “Outraged to be Denied an Abortion,” two posters printed by the Graphics Collective, Chicago Women’s Liberation Union

Newspapers from three different revolutionary groups – The Black Panthers, The Young Lords, and The Young Patriots – are also present in the exhibit. While I was paging through multiple issues of each paper to mend small tears, I was struck by the overlapping messages in the newspapers – a nice illustration of the solidarity between radical groups.

Cover of the Palante newspaper with a yellow background and black text and photos.

Cover of a Black Panther newspaper with a large photograph of Malcolm X that takes up most of the cover.

Page of a newspaper with a photograph of a man against a blue background and a poem.

From left to right, issues of Palante, The Black Panther, and The Patriot

Buttons. Because who doesn’t love a political button!

Light cream button with the text "Legalize Abortion" in black

A blue button with "Free Bobby" in black text and the panther symbol of the Black Panther Party in the middle of the words.

Yellow button with black text on it saying "Feminists Demand Immediate Withdrawal"

Detail of a button that shows a symbol for female with an = sign in the circle. The symbols are dark blue on a green background.

Political buttons

My very favorite thing about working on loan materials is getting to see them on display in the final exhibition. On September 27, a group of library staff visited Dissident Sisters to see our collection materials alongside Bev Grant’s photographs. The individual items take on new meaning when on display and though the messages throughout the exhibit are, unfortunately, still poignantly relevant today, I found the overall impact of the exhibition to be inspiring, a powerful illustration of people using art to make their voices heard.

Orange wall of the exhibit with the title and intro text. Title says "Dissident Sisters"

Book with handwritten text open in an exhibit case.

Frames items on the wall of the exhibit.

Images of Dissident Sisters exhibition