Conservation Department

Before 1966, when a professional Conservation Lab was established, taking care of the Museum's burgeoning collections was a somewhat haphazard business. Some conservation was done by contract to outside firms, an early example being the restoration of Chinese frescoes in the 1920s. Curators and staff members in individual sections, as well as the Registrar's Office, had a hand in cleaning, cataloguing, and storing objects. In 1904, George Byron Gordon, Assistant Curator of the General Ethnology Section, had a fumigation chamber installed on the Museum grounds to treat organic materials. Museum artist Mary Louise Baker, who made detailed, annotated drawings of a number of artifacts, also did repair work. Paul Casci, a sculptor on staff at the Museum for 45 years, made repairs or restorations, as well as replicas and casts of objects. A. Frances Eyman, who became Keeper of the American Section in 1964, installed a thymol fumigation chamber ca. 1960. Conservation was also carried out in the field: Dr. Ellen Kohler, an original member of the Gordion Expedition team (and Museum Registrar from 1965 to 1977), ran the field laboratory at the site, where she conserved and catalogued thousands of excavated objects. A. Eric Parkinson, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Chemistry, worked at the Museum from 1946 to 1969, becoming Keeper of Collections in 1948. He attended lectures and visited conservation departments at several important art institutions to learn how they operated and the new treatment methods being used. In 1962 he joined the staff of the Museum's Applied Science Center for Archaeology (ASCA). After Dr. Rainey established the Conservation Laboratory in 1966, it was operated in conjunction with ASCA until 1969, when it became a separate department. Gayle Wever headed the lab from 1966 until 1971, when Virginia Greene took over. Both Wever and Greene received Diplomas in Conservation from the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. Records from the late 1960s on are largely maintained by the Conservation Lab. Virginia Greene's records are still unprocessed.

Early on, care of the University Museum's collections was a matter of concern, but there was no system for routine conservation in place. By the mid-20th century, the absence of trained conservators and climate-controlled storage were taking their toll. Several cautionary memos in the records call attention to the deteriorating conditions of a significant number of objects (see Geraldine Bruckner 1946, Carroll Young 1946, A.E. Parkinson 1948, and Nan Shaw 1966).

For the Museum, determining how objects were made and of what materials added greatly to the archaeological record, as well as pointing to appropriate methods of cleaning and restoring. Chemical or physical analyses of archaeological and ethnographic materials were commissioned by the Museum as early as 1929, when A.K. Graham of Penn's Chemistry Department analyzed a cosmetic residue from Nippur. Members of the public also contacted the Museum about identifying and preserving objects they owned. Thus, the earliest records consist of correspondence between the Museum and University administrators, outside firms who did analysis, fumigation, or restoration, and the general public. Eric Parkinson's correspondence, as well as his lab notes, reports and analyses, and lecture notes constitute the bulk of the collection. During the period covered, artifacts from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, China, Oceania, and South America were examined. Restorations or analyses of materials from both Museum expeditions and outside entities were undertaken; these included objects from the sites of Nippur, Ur, Hasanlu, Dendereh, Tepe Hissar, Tepe Gawra, Tell Billa, Beisan, Hotu, Gordion, Susa, Tikal, Cape Gelidonya, and Caracol.

Miscellaneous records relating to conservation treatment of Museum collections may be found in the records of curators of the sections.

A few records in the A. Eric Parkinson Series (several letters, including regarding the International Institute for the Conservation of Museum Objects, as well as news clippings) were donated by HHeidi Preisendanz, Parkinson's niece, in 2024.

Publication Information: University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives,

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• University of Pennsylvania. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• University of Pennsylvania MASCA