Historic Painted Theater Curtain Conservation
Throughout the second half of the 19th century, during an era when troops of vaudeville artists traveled from town to town performing, every small town in America had or wanted a stage. Located in grange halls and community theaters, the stages were typically draped with decorative, hand-painted, thematic curtains, ranging from “Grand Drapes” to small stage curtains and flats. One style of these stage curtains, known as advertising drapes, were paid for by selling advertising space to local businesses. Their ads were then incorporated into the perimeters of these drapes creating a border around a larger, central landscape. These drapes, constructed from inexpensive materials, were usually cotton and made quickly often using paint made on the spot from starch and pigments. Frequently signed by actors who performed with these as a backdrop, they are an important part of our artistic, theatrical heritage and local history.
Today, many of these have been stored badly, forgotten and lost from view. The paint remains water soluble and the fabric vulnerable to tears, grime, hanging weight and use. Following the lead of the Vermont Museum & Gallery Alliance Historic Painted Theater Curtain Project, a mission begun in 2003, we hope to locate and preserve New York State’s painted theater curtains as well. We have teamed with Rochester Institute of Technology’s undergraduate Preservation Science students who have volunteered to perform pigment sample analysis under the guidance of their instructor, Object Conservator, Elizabeth Goins. We completed the conservation of three of these curtains in 2008 and will continue to add post treatment images of these and others once re- installed, to this web gallery. Treatments may be undertaken on site or in our lab.
West Monroe Historical Society
The West Monroe Historical Society, through a grant awarded by the Cultural Project Grants using public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, contracted Westlake Conservators to repair and preserve a Theater Backdrop. It was owned by Grange #735 in West Monroe, New York, in the building where the WMHS is housed as a permanent artifact on display. The curtain is a hand painted advertisement of local businesses of the era by the Enkboll Scenic Company of Omaha, Nebraska between 1920 and 1930 done on cotton muslin.
The curtain may be seen at the West Monroe Historical Society located at 2355 State Route 49, West Monroe, New York. www.westmonroehistory.org
"It was a great pleasure to work with Susan Blakney and her staff at Westlake Conservators. The result of the preservation was truly beautiful. Their expertise, knowledge, and generosity is greatly appreciated in completing this long awaited project of the Society. Westlake Conservators are highly recommended by our organization." -Sharon Gearsbeck, Chairperson of Theater Backdrop Project. |
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Cayuga Owasco Lakes Historical Society
The below curtain was a gift from the Moravia Grange #952 to the Cayuga Owasco Lakes Historical Society, Moravia, NY when their building was sold in 2006. The curtain is now on display at Sylvan Masonic Lodge, Main Street, Moravia, NY. For more information on Cayuga Owasco Lakes Historical Society please visit: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycolhs/
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 post-treatment |
"Our Many thanks to the Lower Hudson Conference of Historical Agencies & Museums in association with the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) for their 2007 grant award for the treatment and preservation of the Moravia Grange Curtain and also to West Lake Conservators Ltd. for their wonderful conservation work and extra effort made on the restoration of this historical artifact." - Cayuga Owasco Lakes Historical Society |
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