Before and after treatment.
This patchwork of sixty-six cyanotypes of people,
animals and places in New York's Capital Region, was lined
with a satin weave fabric and attached to a board with
several rows of double-stick tape. The focus of the
treatment was to better preserve the patchwork.
The patchwork was vacuumed overall and stitching along the
perimeters was released to remove the backing fabric. An
overall cleaning was performed, and the patchwork was
carefully and slowly dampened to align and straighten areas
of the textile. A storage mount was constructed from
acid-free board with strips of 4-ply board hinged to the
four sides with linen tape. The textile was sandwiched
between an handling muslin sling and a layer of acid-free
tissue. The paper label of the image's identification was
encapsulated in a Mylar L-envelope.