Historic Hillsborough, New Hampshire
Home of the Hillsborough Historical Society
Cleaning & Stabilization Process
Mary Jo Davis, a professional conservator, technical assistants Wylie Garcia and Peter Isles, along with Chris Hadsel in April 2006 led a team-based approach to clean and stabilize the three curtains depicting Hillsborough. Hadsel and her work crew took down the “Grand Drape” in the Goshen Grange Hall and the other two curtains from their hiding places, and carefully walked them all across Route 10 to the Goshen Town Hall. Safely ensconced in a well-prepared area, they were unfurled and carefully laid out on tables cushioned with blankets in readiness for cleaning and repair.
Goshen and Hillsborough volunteers contributed many, many hours to this process. Besides the vested interest residents had to participate in their own town projects, it would have been nearly impossible for the individual communities to afford the cost of the stabilization without volunteer efforts.
Stabilizing curtains so that they could be displayed and appreciated anew involved cleaning both sides, mending, stabilizing the edges, removing the creases imparted from storage and animal hide glue, attaching a galvanized downspout roller, and sandwiching the top between two boards in order to give the curtains structural stability.
“The condition of the curtains was really very good, despite the fact that they’d been moved around quite a bit and certainly not coddled,” says Hadsel. “The colors were strong, not battered. These are great specimens, because they can be displayed.”
Numerous processes were employed over nearly two weeks to return the curtains to their original luster. First, volunteers used a soft brush to remove the dust accumulated from the years of storage. Then the professionals used a small eraser to remove blemishes. Specialized tack irons were required to remove glue and small paint splatters acquired during years of hanging in public spaces. Small holes were patched from the back with sticky tape, and more adhered to the sides to stabilize the thin, vulnerable muslin. Finally, the curtains were wrapped in Tyvek and labeled for storage.
Bea Jillette was particularly impressed with the touch up painting done by the work crew: “Mary Jo, Pete and Wylie did a bit of repainting to fill in missing areas on the folds. They took such care to mix the paint to get the color just right.”