Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts

The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts was established in Philadelphia in 1977 by Marilyn Kemp Weidner. Its creation was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and reflected a growing preservation concern in the Mid-Atlantic region: large quantities of archival and artistic material on paper were deteriorating, while many collecting institutions lacked dedicated conservation facilities. From its beginning, CCAHA developed as a nonprofit specialist serving institutions rather than as a conventional commercial studio. Its central area of expertise became the conservation of paper-based objects, including prints, drawings, maps, posters, photographs, manuscripts, books, scrapbooks, historic wallpaper, parchment, and papyrus. This specialization allowed the center to address both the physical treatment of individual objects and the broader preservation needs of collections held by museums, libraries, archives, historical societies, and educational organizations. The center’s project work has covered a wide range of cultural materials. Examples include original lyric notebooks and scrapbooks associated with Bruce Springsteen, architectural drawings by Frank Lloyd Wright, John James Audubon’s Birds of America prints, Civil War muster rolls, and works connected with Degas, Matisse, and Picasso. These projects demonstrate the breadth of paper conservation, where treatment methods must respond to differences in paper composition, media, mounting, historical use, handling damage, and intended display. CCAHA expanded its role beyond treatment by offering preventive-conservation guidance and professional education. Its lectures, seminars, and workshops address disaster planning, collections care, records and archives management, and the handling of fragile materials. These programs are aimed at curators, archivists, librarians, collections managers, and other personnel responsible for collections, helping institutions improve preservation practices before objects require intensive treatment. Additional services have included digital imaging, conservation matting and framing, on-site consultations, emergency conservation services, disaster assistance, grant-writing support, and exhibition-planning advice. This combination makes the center both a treatment laboratory and a practical preservation resource for organizations managing collections with limited internal conservation capacity. A notable scholarly outcome occurred in 2014, when conservation work involving objects from the Barnes Foundation contributed to the recognition of two previously unknown Cézanne sketches. The case highlights how close technical examination can produce discoveries relevant to art history and attribution, in addition to stabilizing and preserving objects. CCAHA remains an active nonprofit conservation center headquartered in Philadelphia. Its service model combines specialized treatment of paper and related materials with consultation, emergency support, imaging, framing, education, and collection-care planning. Its national service reach and institutional focus have made it an important resource for the preservation of American cultural and documentary heritage.

• 2014

  Two previously unknown Cézanne sketches are identified

  [1]Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifactsen.wikipedia.org

  Conservation work connected with the Barnes Foundation contributed to the recognition of two previously unknown sketches by Paul Cézanne.

• 1977

  CCAHA is founded in Philadelphia

  [1]Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifactsen.wikipedia.org

  Marilyn Kemp Weidner founded the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, responding to widespread deterioration of paper materials in Mid-Atlantic collections.

CCAHA is positioned as a specialized nonprofit conservation and preservation partner for cultural, research, educational, and private collections. Its differentiators are expertise in paper-based materials, the ability to handle both artistic and documentary objects, institutional consulting and education, and support for emergency and preventive preservation needs.

• Conservation service

  Paper and works-on-paper conservation

  CCAHA treats a broad range of artistic and historic paper materials, including drawings, prints, maps, posters, historic wallpaper, manuscripts, and documentary records. Work is tailored to the object’s materials, condition, history, and intended use, with the goal of stabilizing and preserving it while retaining historical and aesthetic information.

• Conservation service

  Book, photograph, and manuscript conservation

  The center provides conservation expertise for bound volumes, photographs, scrapbooks, manuscripts, and related archival formats. These materials often require specialized approaches to bindings, photographic processes, paper structure, media, sewing, adhesives, and handling because their physical form and information-bearing surfaces are closely connected.

• Advisory and emergency service

  Collections care and emergency assistance

  CCAHA supports institutions through preventive collections-care advice, disaster planning, emergency conservation, and disaster assistance. The service area is intended to help organizations prepare for threats to collections and respond to damage affecting paper-based and related historic materials.

• Technical and presentation service

  Digital imaging, matting, and framing

  In addition to conservation treatment, CCAHA offers digital imaging and conservation-oriented matting and framing. These services can support documentation, access, exhibition, handling reduction, and the safe presentation of fragile works and historic artifacts.

• Education and training

  Professional preservation education

  CCAHA conducts lectures, seminars, and workshops for curators, archivists, librarians, collections managers, and other professionals. Topics include collections care, disaster preparedness, records and archives management, and the practical preservation of cultural materials.

1. 1Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifactsen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts official websiteccaha.org