The Buffalo Bill Center of the West has an extraordinary collection of artifacts that fill five museums including paintings, leather fashion, tipis, chuckwagons, taxidermy, sculptures, and even a house! These artifacts are what tell the stories the museum reveals through exhibits. Have you ever imagined what museums would be like with broken artifacts or even how we would imagine history without these artifacts? There would only be stories left. Because these artifacts play a huge role in making our museum an authentic experience of the American West, we need a conservation team.
Walking into the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s conservation lair is an interesting experience. Artifacts, interns, and chief conservator Beverly Perkins work in a focused, almost silent, environment as they strive to piece together history. Although noise is permitted, most interns seem to be tuned into their iPods as they focus intently on ceramics, maps, lamp pieces, and other projects. The intense focus is obvious in this department as well as the personality and culture of the interns. They fortunately have the opportunity to work with Perkins in conserving pieces from the museums and learning from her expertise.
Much like CSI investigators, these conservators must use science and tools to restore artifacts without altering them too much. Detail becomes key as conservators examine and attempt to repair paramount pieces of famous collections. Sometimes you can consider their work to be more of a scientific process. A tool that has been used on some of the Center’s artwork is an XRF that can be used to determine which elements are in an object. It can detect elements such as copper, lead, cadmium, and calcium. The XRF might be used to look at the elements in paint and help determine if there are areas of restoration or even fakery. As an example, if there is cadmium orange paint on a Renaissance painting, this could be a problem because cadmium paint was adopted for use by artists in the 1950’s! Some of the interns’ projects at the Center are conserving fragmented ceramic pots by carefully piecing them together without altering the original piece, and recreating parts of lamps that have broken off by making molds of similar pieces. Another current project is paper conservation including maps, books, and atlases; also the cleaning of beadwork on various pieces from the Plains Indian Collection.
Although conservation of the Center’s collections is the primary goal, the conservation department embraces a three-fold mission: conservation of the Center’s collections, training new professionals, and statewide/regional training and support.
Interns are brought in every summer as part of the second mission and Perkins is dedicated to teaching them essential hands-on training. The internship program attracts a wide range of students from various places, including overseas, with different backgrounds and career paths. Through the conservation internships, Perkins can share her knowledge to help others go on to conserve in other areas and attend Master’s programs in conservation which require prior experience.
Perkins explains, “Conservation is one of the most sharing fields of endeavor. We share information with conservation colleagues, other museum professionals, and the public. Outreach is our mission.” The Center upholds its part in this by training interns and participating in Wyoming’s Statewide Connecting to Collections Project, which along with training at each symposium; plans for projects that will help alleviate problems faced by Wyoming’s collecting institutions. The Center’s Grants Administrator Lynn Pitet and Perkins continue to seek funding to carry out these projects.
Conservation at the Center is involved in research and discovery of how to care for and preserve important pieces of our history. Fortunately, they have also broadened their scope to benefit others who seek to do the same thing while still attending conferences to continue their education and keep up-to-date on the latest conservation processes.
For more information visit the Conservation section of our Web site.
Since 1917, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has been committed to the greatness and growth of the American West, keeping western experiences alive. The Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, weaves the varied threads of the western experience—history and myth, art and Native culture, firearms, and the nature and science of Yellowstone—into the rich panorama that is the American West.
For additional information, visit centerofthewest.org or the Center’s page on Facebook.