The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, DE 19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Creator: Clapp, Anne F.

Title: Papers

Dates: 1950-1995

Call No.: Col. 589

Acc. No.: 00x132

Quantity: 11 boxes (5 linear feet)

Location: 505 B 2-3

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Anne Fanshawe Clapp was a paintings and paper conservator. She was born November 1, 1910, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Leonora Fanshawe and James Ford Clapp. Her father was an architect and her mother an artist, and she began painting in childhood. Ms. Clapp studied fine arts at Radcliffe College. In 1941, she enrolled in a course to prepare women to be aviation engineers’ assistants, studying aerodynamics, mechanical drawing, and advanced math. She worked in the patent office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but in 1946 took a job at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University because she wanted to combine her interests in art and science. At the Fogg, Ms. Clapp worked under Richard Buck and Minna Horowitz, learning how to treat oil paintings and paintings on wood panels. Later, she worked at the Worcester Art Museum, and there she studied paper conservation with George Stout.

From 1950 to 1954, Ms. Clapp worked at the Institute of Jamaica, first establishing a conservation laboratory and then working on the problems of the preservation of paintings and works of art on paper in a tropical climate. In 1954, she returned to the United States and opened a conservation lab at Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia. She treated paintings by Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and other noted early American artists, as well as analyzed paint in the historic buildings in the park. From 1959 or1960 until 1970, Ms. Clapp worked at the Intermuseum Conservation Association in Oberlin, Ohio, primarily treating paintings.

In 1970, Ms. Clapp came to Winterthur Museum as the Print and Paper Conservator; she retired in 1981. She cared for the museum and library collections and taught paper conservation to the fellows in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. The lectures for the first year students focused on preventive conservation, including the importance of proper housing and the effects of relative humidity and light on paper artifacts. The second year students documented and treated objects of all kinds, including watercolors, prints, collages, papyrus, architectural drawings, band boxes, and wallpaper. Ms. Clapp was very devoted to her students, interested in both their professional careers and their personal lives.

Ms. Clapp wrote Curatorial Care of Works of Art on Paper, which was first published in 1973. Later editions came out in 1974, 1978, and 1987. For about ten years after her retirement from her full-time position as a conservator, Ms. Clapp continued to work one day per week in the Downs Collection at Winterthur, doing conservation work on manuscripts. She also taught classes in paper conservation at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome and gave talks at various conferences. Moreover, she maintained her own private laboratory in her apartment, where she conserved paintings and paper for both individual clients and museums, working until the late 1990s. Anne Clapp died on May 11, 2000.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The papers reflect Anne Clapp’s professional life, particularly her private conservation practice and her teaching. The papers include her notes about items on which she performed conservation work, including slides of some of them; correspondence with colleagues and clients; information about the class in paper conservation which she taught for several years at ICCROM; notes which she collected over the years about the history of papermaking and conservation; and samples received from suppliers of conservation materials.

ORGANIZATION

The papers are grouped according to topic, although they are not arranged in formal series. Notes, slides, and other papers dealing with conservation treatments which she performed are in Boxes 1-5. Other papers related to her business, correspondence, papers related to professional organizations, and miscellaneous notes are in Boxes 5-7. Samples of conservation materials are in box 8. Boxes 9 and 10 contain note cards, the ones in Box 9 are about the history of papermaking, while those in Box 10 contain information on a variety of topics.

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

The materials are in English.

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

Collection is open to the public. Copyright restrictions may apply.

PROVENANCE

Gift from John Clapp, nephew of Anne F. Clapp.

ACCESS POINTS

Topics:

Art restorers.

Art - Conservation and restoration.

Painting - Conservation and restoration

Paper - Conservation and restoration.

Paper – Samples.

Winterthur Program in Art Conservation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 505 B 2-3

Box 1: Treatment notes

Box 2: Treatment slides and photographs

Box 3:

Folder 1: Work completed: A-Y, 1970s

Folder 2: Work completed: A-F, 1986-1995

Folder 3: Work completed: A-F, post-1990

Folder 4: Work completed: G-K

Folder 5: Work completed: L-N

Folder 6: Work completed: O-S

Folder 7: Work completed: T-Z

Folder 8: Work completed: Attix

Folder 9: Work completed: Brandywine River Museum

Box 4:

Folder 1: Work completed: Brokaw, H.P. and Tom

Folder 2: Work completed: Burroughs, Mr. and Mrs. Richard

Folder 3: Work completed: Carspecken-Scott Gallery

Folder 4: Work completed: Chadds Ford Gallery, B. Moore, director

Folder 5: Work completed: Chester County Historical Society

Folder 6: Work completed: Delaware Art Museum

Folder 7: Work completed: Delaware State Archives and State Museum

Folder 8: Work completed: Gordon, John

Folder 9: Work completed: Hewitt Maps of Jamaica

Folder 10: Work completed: Historical Society of Delaware

Folder 11: Work completed: Hotchkiss, Horace

Folder 12: Work completed: Independence National Historical Park

Folder 13: Work completed: Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Folder 14: Work completed: Mutual Assurance Society

Folder 15: Work completed: New Castle Historical Society

Folder 16: Work completed: Raley, Robert

Folder 17: Work completed: Rockwood Museum

Folder 18: Work completed: Shirley, Mrs. Carl

Folder 19: Work completed: The Station Gallery

Box 5:

Folder 1: Work completed: Taylor, John R.

Folder 2: Work completed: van Ravenswaay, Charles

Folder 3: Work completed: Woodlawn Trustees, Inc.

Folder 4: Objects not examined

Folder 5: Objects examined, treatment not authorized

Folder 6: Treatment authorized: pending or during treatment

Folder 7: Correspondence: A-D

Folder 8: Correspondence: E-L

Folder 9: Correspondence: M-Z

Folder 10: Correspondence: Chester County Historical Society

Folder 11: Correspondence: Nick Lyons Books, about publication of Curatorial Care of Works of Art on Paper

Folder 12: Correspondence: Schrock, Nancy Carlson

Folder 13: AIC (American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works)

Folder 14: Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies

Folder 15: CCCI (Canadian Conservation Institute)

Folder 16: ICCROM: Correspondence with Christine and Paul about paper course

Box 6:

Folder 1: ICCROM: Paper conservation, 1984

Folder 2: ICCROM: Paper course, 1985

Folder 3: ICCROM: 1985 meeting: handouts

Folder 4: ICCROM: Stanley-Price, N., correspondence with

Folder 5: Institute of Paper Chemistry: Seminar for Paper Conservators, Oct. 1971, part 1

Folder 6: Institute of Paper Chemistry: Seminar for Paper Conservators, Oct. 1971, part 2

Folder 7: Talks, paper critiques, and conferences actively participated in

Folder 8: Winterthur/ U.Del. program [WUDPAC]: conservation fellows and class content

Box 7:

Folder 1: “Bright ideas” (mostly exam questions)

Folder 2: Information on Textiles, part 1

Folder 3: Information on Textiles, part 2

Folder 4: Notes: lab notes, experiments and tests, acid tests, Stravinsky mss., ca.1963-ca.1971

Folder 5: Notes: trip arranged by M. Anderson to museums so I could sound out directors re: interest in a communal conservation lab, 1950

Folder 6: Tests: light tests to various materials

Folder 7: Tests: papers tested after treatment with the deacidification solution Wei To solution no. 2, April 1978

Folder 8: Tests: pH tests

Box 8:

Folder 1: Samples of paper and paper board, part 1

Folder 2: Samples of paper and paper board, part 2

Folder 3: Samples of paper and paper board, part 3

Folder 4: Samples of paper and paper board, part 4

Folder 5: Samples of synthetic materials

Box 9: Papermaking (including wallpaper), parchment, design materials: history

Box 10: Information notes