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Conservators survey Clowser Collection at Days Of ’76 Museum

 A team of conservators from across the country visited the Days of ’76 Museum last week as part of an initiative to provide proper care for the Clowser Collection.

Deborah Long, conservator from the Nebraska Historical Society’s Gerald Ford Conservation Center in Omaha, worked at the museum April 1 – 3 to conduct a detailed conservation survey on objects in the collection including the General Crook’s scout James Twiss’ jacket, firearms and weaponry, artifacts from Deadwood’s Chinatown, saddles and tack, pioneer household goods and furniture, mining equipment, furniture, sculptures, stuffed animal specimens and more. Long examined the artifacts and advise the museum board and staff on procedures necessary to stabilize and care for them, along with an estimated cost for that care.

The Days of ’76 Museum is engaged in a capital campaign to raise funds to build a new facility, launched with a gift of $3,000,000 from the City of Deadwood. The current museum building lacks features such as climate control which are necessary for the successful long-term care of fragile historic archives and artifacts. Without a new building with adequate security, pest management and storage systems as well as climate control, the museum’s collections would eventually deteriorate and be lost, according to a news release. 

Save the collections campaign

Parallel to the capital campaign to build a new museum is a campaign to preserve the museum’s collections: the Clowser Collection of Old West pioneer and American Indian artifacts and archives, a rodeo collection of photographs and rodeo memorabilia, a historic clothing collection, and over 50 horse drawn vehicles. The detailed conservation surveys that will be completed by the conservation team are the first step to properly process, preserve and prepare the collections for installation into the new museum building.

Conservators, trained in both scientific and artistic techniques, offer a specialized service critical to the care of museum collections. This conservation initiative is funded by a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, matched by a grant from the Bush Foundation of St. Paul. The Bush Foundation also provides funding for a storage facility where the collections will be worked on and stored during construction of the new museum. The storage facility is currently under construction.

KayKarol Horse Capture, collections specialist in Ethnographic materials, will visit the museum April 13 – 19, followed by textile conservator Martha Grimm and paintings conservator Randy Ash. Grimm will give a presentation to the public on Thursday, April 24.