The Getty Conservation Institute

Field Trip Report

By F. LeBlanc, Head, Field Projects

American Institute for Conservation of Historic

and Artistic Works (AIC) Annual Meeting
Minneapolis, MN, June 8 13, 2005

AIC Annual Meeting

brochure
AIC members are practicing conservators, conservation scientists, educators,
administrators, collections care professionals, technicians, and students; archivists,
curators, and other museum and library professionals; architects and art historians

The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

(AIC) is the national membership organization of conservation
professionals dedicated to preserving the art and historic artifacts of our
cultural heritage for future generations.

Hyatt hotel in Minneapolis,

venue for the AIC 2005
Annual Meeting

Hyatt hotel hall and AIC

reception desk at end

Singing the Blues on

Nicollet Mall during the hot
summer evenings
Minneapolis is a lively city
during the summer

Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas on conservation, AIC

advances the practice and promotes the importance of the preservation of
cultural property by coordinating the exchange of knowledge, research,
and publications. AIC's Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice defines
appropriate conduct for the field.
AIC conservation professionals combine unique skills in the arts and
sciences gained through study and training in art history, chemistry, studio
art, and related disciplines. They are experts in the conservation of
paintings, paper, books, photographs, textiles, decorative arts, sculpture,
and wooden artifacts as well as architectural, archaeological, natural
science, and ethnographic materials. 1717 K Street NW, Suite 200,
Washington, DC 20036-5346.
Tel. 202-452-9545; Email: info@aic-faic.org
The Architecture Specialty Group (ASG) was formed in 1988 and has over
200 members. The ASG's
primary goal is to ensure
the best possible care for
immovable cultural properties such as buildings, monuments, outdoor sculpture and heritage sites.
The care of these sites takes into consideration their special needs and
complex treatments.
At present, ASG concentrates its efforts on drawing together conservators
and historic preservation specialists at the specialty group session at AIC
annual meetings, and through other regional and interdisciplinary events.
In past years, sessions have coordinated with the overall AIC conference
theme, or concentrated on a single theme and frequently explore
collaborative efforts with other AIC specialty groups. Additional sessions

during annual meetings have included discussion groups on topics such

or "tips sessions", and opportunities for presenting student research. ASG
has also organized architectural walking tours at the annual meeting.
Members of the ASG are very active within the larger AIC organization
helping to organize the Annual Meeting, teaching workshops, and
participating on some of the national AIC Committees. The group also
tries to maintain a strong connection to allied organizations of the
architectural conservation specialty such as the U.S. National Committee
of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS), the
Association for Preservation Technology (APTI), the American Institute of
Architects (AIA), and the Preservation Trades Network (PTN).

AIC Annual Meeting

This years AIC Annual Meeting was held in Minneapolis, the City of
Lakes. The citys name is a combination of Minne, the Sioux word for
water, and polis, the Greek word for city. There probably has never
been a city more appropriately named, for within Minneapolis city limits lie
more than 22 lakes and lagoons.
Downtown Minneapolis turn
of the century architecture

Downtown Minneapolis2005

More than 450 participants were registered for the Annual Meeting that
lasted from June 8 to 13. This years theme was Documentation.
Documentation in conservation is interdisciplinary in its attempts to
categorize conditions, treatments, and site information. The advent of
database and digital technologies has forever changed the documentation
process. In 2005, the AIC annual meeting explored concerns that touch a
wide range of conservation disciplines.
Warehouse built in 1902
converted to offices

During the conference, I presented a paper on the GCIs RecorDIM

Initiative. I gave an overview of how it began, what international
organizations are involved and more importantly what Task Groups have
been created and are currently working to bridge some of the gaps
between users and providers of documentation that have been identified
during international workshops.

Warehouse District

Amel Chabbi, GCI intern

presented a poster on the
GCI documentation
Handbook

Amel Chabbi, 2005 GCI intern, presented a poster on the Handbook for
recording, documentation and information management of the built
cultural heritage. The Handbook is being prepared under the direction of
Rand Eppich, the publications Technical Editor. It will illustrate
documentation tools through case studies. The publication will focus on
mid-career architects, archaeologists, planners, and managers working in
conservation who need to identify and select documentation tools.

GCI Poster on Handbook

The GCI booth in the

exhibition hall was a busy
place

Alison Dalgity and Tim

Whalen discussing at the
GCI exhibition booth

GCI staff manned a booth offering information on AATA Online, GCI

publications, activities and programs.

Luke Swetland, GCI

The GCI booth at the AIC Exhibition Hall

From the GCI, also present or actively participating in the conference were
Mitchell Bishop, Alison Dalgity, Jim Druzik, Eric Hansen, Kari Johnson,
Jeff Levine, Luke Swetland, Cameron Trowbridge, Tim Whalen, and
Jackie Zak.
Also registered at the meeting were colleagues from the GRI, the Getty
Museum, Getty Publications and Getty Foundation.

Jeff Levine, GCI

Journal of the international

Association of Records
Managers and Archivists

Workshop:
Records Management For Conservation

Records Management for Conservation Workshop participants

The Instructor for this workshop was Mary Cooper, Information Services
Consultant and Author of Records and Information Management: Order
Out of Chaos and Records in Architectural Offices.
Once you have documented your work, where and how do you keep it?
For how long? Is it safe? Who has copies? Knowing the principles behind
appropriate records and information management is part of sound
conservation practice. With information in multiple formats, such as paper,
film, or digital, affording quick information retrieval and providing legal
protection has become even more important.

Mary Cooper, Principal,

Cooper Information,
Cambridge MA Workshop
Instructor

The participants were introduced to basic records management methods

and issues, and for those of us who were not familiar with it, to ARMA, the
international association for records managers and archivists and their
Journal entitled: The Information Management Journal.

Samples of ARMA
Publications

ARMA International is a not-for-profit association and the leading

authority on managing records and information paper and electronic.
The association was established in 1955. Its approximately 10,000
members include records managers, archivists, corporate librarians,
imaging specialists, legal professionals, IT managers, consultants, and
educators, all of whom work in a wide variety of industries, including
government, legal, healthcare, financial services, and petroleum in the
United States, Canada, and 30-plus other countries. For more information
consult their web site at http://www.arma.org
Following are a few interesting points discussed during the workshop.
What is the legal value of a digital image? Can it be considered as an
official record? The answer is yes if the chain of custody can be
established. For example, you take a digital picture showing the condition
of an art object before you ship it; when it is returned, it is damaged. The
digital image of its original condition can be used to establish its condition
prior to shipment if you can ascertain who took the picture and when, and
who kept the image without altering it while the object was away. Now, if
the integrity of the image itself is challenged, it is possible to ascertain its
authenticity by looking at the metadata stored in the image file. Thats a bit
complicated for everyday users, and it requires the help of a specialist.
In the private sector as well as with many other organizations cited during
the workshop, the responsibility of creating a project record for archival
purposes rests with the Project Manager. It is the PM who must decide
what to keep and what not to keep. Mary Cooper, who has many years of
experience, shared with us the lesson that if you want to keep everything,
you will drown or you will take the chance that at one point in time
someone in the organization will think that what you have left behind is
really too much material and it is not worth spending anyones time or
money to sort it out; and everything will be thrown away altogether.
Guidelines on what to keep and what to discard are available through
ARMA publications.
It is easier to define an archives structure if the original purpose of the
archive is clear to everyone in the organization. For instance,
Williamsburgs records archive was designed to support management
decisions; it is not primarily structured for researchers or for public access,
as are the archives of many public institutions. It may eventually serve
these purposes, but it is not structured to do so. Managers decide what to
keep or discard on the basis of this premise.

General Sessions

ARMA publications on
Information Management

General Sessions at the Hyatt hotel, Thursday June 9

The General Sessions lasted two days and covered a broad range of
documentation issues and records creation, management and keeping.
Following are some of the points I noted during the presentations.

Conservators create records that have value.

Documentation is an intrinsic part of the conservation process.
During the past ten years, there has been significant changes in the
way we create, use, manage and store the information we produce.
Photography was always an important part of the conservation
documentation process; our traditional way of documenting objects or
our work using film is now virtually over. Kodak and Agfa have
stopped the manufacturing of various types of film and discontinued
the production of slide projectors. There are currently only a handful of
laboratories across the US that can process slide film.
Standards concerning digital photography are being developed by
national and international organizations and should soon be broadly
applied. Remember that the first digital cameras for professionals only
appear fifteen years ago on the market and the ones for use by the
public only ten years ago. This is still a very young development.
Despite obstacles, we are solving documentation issues; access to
records has increased; we are close to finding solutions for the longterm conservation of our digital records; we will continue to prepare
records, but they will be better than the ones we prepared before.
Results from recent national surveys (15,000 institutions, in all States
and Territories) show that collections of paintings, photos and objects
in the US are not adequately protected.
Collections are generally held in inadequate storage.
Institutions lack emergency or disaster plans.
If they have such a plan, they lack staff training.
There is insufficient expertise in US institutions to care for collections.
70% of US institutions say they need staff training to protect and care
for collections.
Last year, 68% of American institutions have spent $3,000 or less for
the conservation of their collections.
Digital cameras spectral sensitivity is greater than film and a group of
conservator researchers is developing camera filters that will enable
conservators to easily capture ultraviolet, normal and near infrared
light.

I just had to put this one in!

Linnaea Dix Dawson,

Silverlake Conservation,
talked about low-tech
documentation for the
renovation work at the
Griffith Observatory in Los
Angeles

The Sony Cybershot camera night shot setting does not work with
flash... this was a design decision by Sony to prevent users from
shooting through clothing!!
Recording and documenting objects is done in different ways
according to the ultimate goal of the activity.
You can get a lot more out of your TIFF images if you learn a few of
the tips shared with us by Tim Vitale who is a professional
photographer who specialized in museum photography.
Digital offers many advantages over film: digital has a linear response
whereas film does not; it has low noise (film ratio is 1:10 and digital is
1:100) and has a large gamut; gray scale steps (film 80, digital 16 bits
is 65,000) etc.
Printing slightly alters the colors captured by the digital sensor
therefore, keeping the original TIFF image file is very important for
long-term color accuracy.

HERICARE http://193.175.110.9/hericare/english/hericare-database_erkl.htm

Judy Peters, University of

Pennsylvania, Architectural
Conservation Laboratory
and Research Center talked
about spatial
documentation

Jeremy Wells, Private

consultant, talked about
solutions for the long-term
preservation of digital
documentation.

Alison Dalgity and Jeff

Levine busy at the GCI
booth

Hericare supports the international exchange of information between

experts and facilitates the documentation of preservation projects.
Hericare offers easy access to new insights and practical information from
all lines of specialization in conservation-restoration. Hericare consists of
a documentation software and an online-database. With the help of the
documentation program hericare-docu a conservator can create
documentation records of his/her current preservation projects in a fast,
easy and inexpensive way.
Hericare-database (online) allows conservators to view reports of
conservation measures written by others and to exchange technical
experience with these authors. The online-database also offers you an
opportunity to publish your own work. The concept for hericare was
developed in the Hornemann Institute between 1999 and 2001. During the
development phase, experts working in the fields of conservation of
monuments and sites, database development, software ergonomics and
library systems supported the institute.
Automatic generation of conservation reports
CDS-D is a conservation report generator software designed to organize
information about description, condition, treatment, analysis, past
interventions,
photography,
and
preventive
conservation
recommendations. The program uses many types of automation to speed
data entry, while also conforming to your own preferences and specialty.
CDS-D serves as both a practical vehicle for conservation documentation,
and as a conceptual model. It provides an organized framework for
recording and reporting all phases of conservation, from examination, to
proposal, and final treatment. It produces reports for these phases
separately, or integrates information from all phases in a single
comprehensive report. CDS-D creates analytical reports and catalogs
digital and analog photography, always linking such records to the correct
context in the documentation. Additional information can be found at:
http://ConservationDataSystems.com

Opening Reception

The opening reception was held in the new wing of the Walker Art Center that opened
during April 2005

The Walker Art Center is internationally recognized as a leading venue for

the presentation of the art of our time. Housed in its newly expanded
facility designed by award-winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron,
the Walker offers exhibitions of modern and contemporary visual arts;
dance, music, and theater performances; film and video screenings;
lectures and discussions with todays leading artists, designers, and
critics; tours, classes, and workshops; and digital media projects that
expand the Walkers resources and reach.

The Architecture Specialty Group (ASG) met

for a one-day session on
Saturday, June 11. The
session was lead by
Dorothy S. Krotzer, Senior
Conservator,
Fairmount

The Walker Art Center

Park Historic Preservation Trust.

Contemporary art in the

museum

Kent Diebolt of Vertical Access LLC presented a recently developed

system for preparing architectural condition reports making use in the field
of digital tablets that run full versions of AutoCAD that incorporate
standardized conservation condition terminology. With the use of Canon
digital cameras that have remote capture systems, images taken in the
field are immediately hyper linked to xyz coordinates in the drawing.
Examples of this work can be consulted at: http://www.verticalaccess.com.
Linnaea Dix Dawson of Silverlake Conservation discussed the role of the
conservator in the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory renovation and
expansion project. In this case, the use of low-tech documentation
techniques was the answer to the challenges of documenting the
restoration work while helping the contractor and sub-contractors to do
better conservation work. The 83 million dollars restoration work began in
2002 and is scheduled to finish in May 2006. The tendering process
requested that the Contractor hire a professional conservator pre-qualified
on the Citys list.

Window in Walker Art

Center new wing

Minneapolis Sculpture
Garden near Spoonbridge
and Cherry

35mm slides, filed in three-ring binders, was the selected means for
documentation. They dont require any special training to consult and a
simple light table was available in the Contractors trailer to view the
documentation. This documentation was very useful. For example, the
main stairs had been dismantled by one sub-contractor and were to be reinstalled by a different one who benefited greatly by looking at the original
layout; when a water leak occurred, the slides were used to determine the
extent of damage; when came the time to reinstall the doors that had
been in storage for more than two years, the Contractor used the slides to

refresh his memory of what had been taken down and to program the reinstallation.
Dean K. Koga and Christopher J. Gembinski of Building Conservation
Associates talked about the maintenance work at New Yorks Grand
Central Terminal. Their main point was that it does not suffice to have a
good maintenance plan; it has to be implemented using a system that is
easy to use and efficient. An extensive maintenance plan for the Terminal
was prepared in 1999 (3 inches thick) but the computerized system to
implement it was so complicated that when the technicians that knew how
to operate it left, there was no one to continue its use and critical
maintenance tasks began to fall through the cracks. Koga and Gembinski
demonstrated how with the use of a simple calendar feature in File Maker
Pro v. 7.0 they were able to create a maintenance schedule that was
simple to use by the workers and easy to update by the managers.
Dorothy S. Krotzer,
Architecture Specialty
Group session organizer

Kent Diebolt of Vertical

Access LLC

Dean K. Koga and

Christopher Gembinski of
Building Conservation
Associates

Martin Perschler of HABS/HAER/HALS, National Park Service described

how historic monuments records were prepared in his agency until
recently. Architects would produce drawings made by hand;
photographers would produce images and historians would write historical
reports. All this data was brought together into binders that were then sent
to the Library of Congress. They constituted the official record. In 1999,
the decision was made to digitize the collection and make it available on
the web to the general public. A substantial backlog of files and
documents had been accumulated. Martin explained the major challenge
that his organization faced to migrate the collection from paper & film
support to a digitized archive.
Jeremy Wells, a private consultant, offered various options for the longterm conservation of digitized documentation. Concerning format of
digitized documents, he suggested that copies of the original documents
be kept in formats that are non-proprietary. For example, the Microsoft
Word (.doc) format is a proprietary format and the company has modified
it 23 times since its creation in 1980. The current version of Word does not
read several of the early versions of the software, and information
prepared by those versions cannot be accessed anymore. On the other
hand, the .txt format is non-proprietary and stands a chance of being
readable for a very long time. Jeremy suggested that if we use open file
formats that our data may survive much longer without having to be
migrated to other formats.
Concerning media, he gave the following longevity projections for
supports:
Floppy disks: 5 years
Magnetic tape: up to 20 years
Hard drives: up to 10 years
Zip disks: unknown
CD-R & DVDs: longevity depends on the dyes used to make them; Azo or
cyanide dyes: 2 to 10 years; Pthalicyanine dyes: decades.
Concerning equipment, it seems that tape reading equipment is the one
that is replaced the sooner and that CD & DVD drives stand a chance of
being around for quite a while because there are so many of them on the
market.

Martin Perschler,
HABS/HAER/HALS, National
Park Service

Solutions:
Migrate data at least every 5 to 10 years to new media and formats
Dont rely on tape backups for long-term storage
Use CDs & DVDs with Pthalocyanine dyes
Make multiple clones of critical data and store it in different locations

Minneapolis Becomes Part of the United States

Minneapolis panorama 1912

Father Louis Hennepin
(circa 1683)

Downtown Minneapolis skyline, June 2005

Minneapolis Hotel 1905

Minneapolis Station 1912

Downtown Minneapolis,
Nicollet Mall 2005

From the 1680s forward, the area to include Minneapolis was "on paper"
under the European rule of the countries of France, England, and Spain
until finally becoming a part of the United States of America in 1784.
France's occupation of the area came from the visit made by Father Louis
Hennepin in 1680. By the operation of the Franco-Spanish Treaty of 1762,
the area of Minnesota west of the Mississippi and south of the Hudson
Bay watershed passed from the dominion of France to that of Spain. For
the next 40 years it was under the proprietorship of Louisiana.
In 1803, after briefly returning to French control, these lands were
purchased from France and thereafter called the Louisiana Purchase (this
was the area west of the Mississippi including part of the area to become
Minneapolis). The area to the east of the Mississippi passed to England at
the close of the French and Indian War (1763). This area, including parts
of Minnesota (and Minneapolis), became part of the United States after
the War of Independence. When the United States accepted the Virginia
Colony's deed of cession (1783), the area became the (old) Northwest
Territory. Out of this area were later carved the states of Wisconsin,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and part of Minnesota.
To demonstrate the western reach of United States' power and the
northern reaches of the Louisiana Territory, the U.S. military established
Fort Snelling. The Fort Snelling site was formally acquired by Lieutenant
Zebulon M. Pike from some of the Dakota chiefs in 1805. The land Fort
Snelling encompassed took in nearly the complete area of present-day
Minneapolis and almost half of the present-day city of St. Paul. The
original Fort Snelling, headquartered at the junction of the Minnesota and
the Mississippi Rivers, was established in 1819 to meet the rapidly
changing conditions in the Northwest Territory. The first commanding
officer was Henry Leavenworth; Josiah Snelling replaced Leavenworth in
1820.
Dates and Events
1671
1680
1762

One of many Minneapolis

famous pedestrian elevated
walkways

France claims the interior of North America

Father Hennepin, while a captive of the Dakota, sees St. Anthony

Falls and names it after his patron saint.
France cedes North America west of the Mississippi to Spain.

10

1763
1783
1787
1803

France cedes North America east of the Mississippi, except New

Orleans, to England.
England recognizes United States sovereignty from the Atlantic to
the Mississippi River.
The area east of the Mississippi becomes part of the old
Northwest Territory.
Lands west of the Mississippi purchased from France (referred to
as the Louisiana Purchase).

11