The Winterthur Library

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: Orraca, Jose

Title: Jose Orraca conservation papers

Dates: 1970-2005

Call No.: Col. 849

Acc. No.: 09x43, 12x9

Quantity: 88 boxes

Location: 502 D 1-2, E 1-4, F 1-2

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

José Hipolito Orraca y Perez was a conservator of photographs. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1938, where his father owned movie theaters, which perhaps contributed to Jose’s interest in photography. Orraca attended college in the United States. He was an apprentice in the paper conservation lab of the Library of Congress from 1968-1971, where he worked under conservator Marilyn Weidner. He began working on photos at the Library of Congress. He was asked by Georgia O’Keeffe to conserve some photos by Alfred Steiglitz. In the process, Orraca developed techniques of photo conservation now considered basic in the field. He then worked at the George Eastman House (the International Museum of Photography) in Rochester, New York. He taught in the art conservation program in Cooperstown, New York, and in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), where he developed the first graduate degree program in the conservation of photographs. Beginning in 1981, he devoted himself to his private practice, but continued to give lectures, seminars, and workshops. He was known for his process of image enhancement, or intensification, which brings back the image of faded photos.

Orraca was a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and the International Institute for Conservation (IIC). He served on several AIC committees. He was awarded the AIC’s Caroline and Sheldon Keck Award in 2000 and honorary membership in the organization in 2009. He was president of the Louis Pomerantz Institute for the Advancement of the Conservation of Artistic and Historic works from 1988-1989. He was a co-founder of Apoyo, the Association for the Preservation of the Cultural Patrimony of the Americas. He was editor of the newsletter Ojo from 1991-1993. Jose Orraca died on September 14, 2009.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

Papers and treatment reports of photo conservator José Orraca. The bulk of the collection is comprised of accession books, treatment reports, and slides of treatments. Treatment reports are filed in three different ways. Some are filed by client name, and others by accession number. A third group is labeled “Paid invoices”; these are grouped by year and usually include a copy of the treatment report. Only a partial index to the treatment reports is available. Almost all slides are filed by accession number. The slide collection also includes images of Orraca’s conservation lab, the Winterthur conservation lab, and some images which are not of conservation treatments. Of particular interest among these are slides of old photos of Puerto Rico.

Other files document Orraca’s teaching career and his involvement with organizations such as the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and APOYO. The collection includes copies of Ojo, a newsletter published by Orraca. The collection also includes information about workshops which Orraca held at his conservation studio in the years 1993-2005. Some papers and treatment reports written by students in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation are found. Correspondence files include both personal letters and business correspondence. Account books document income and expenses for 1983-1995. Unusual items in the collection include three photos of child laborers printed by Lewis Hine’s photo studio; several photos of English author D. H. Lawrence taken in New Mexico and Mexico; and a notebook and kit for making bromoil prints, acquired from the estate of Josef Breitenbach. A little correspondence with Georgia O’Keeffe is also in the collection. Some of Orraca's camera equipment is included.

ORGANIZATION

The files are arranged into three series:

I. General files;

II. Treatment reports; and

III. Photographs, slides, and camera equipment.

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

The materials are in English and Spanish.

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

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

PROVENANCE

Accession 09x43: gift of José Orraca.

Accession 12x9: gift of Sadako (Mrs. José) Orraca.

ACCESS POINTS

People:

Breitenbach, Josef, 1896-1984.

Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940.

Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930.

O’Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986.

Topics:

Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

Art restorers.

Conservation – Study and teaching.

Photographs – Conservation and restoration.

Photography.

Black and white photographs.
Daguerreotypes.

Photographic prints.

Slides.

Tintypes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 502 D 1-2, E 1-4, F 1-2

Series I: General Files

Box 1:

Folder 1: Alliance of Baptists

Folder 2: American Institute for Conservation (AIC)

Folder 3: AIC: Committee on Education Affairs

Folder 4: AIC: Photographic Materials Group

Folder 5: American Photographer: photographs and negatives used for article

Folder 6: American Studies Association

Folders 7-8: APOYO

[Association for the Preservation of the Cultural Patrimony of the Americas]

Folder 9: APOYO: newsletter

Folder 10: APOYO: seminar, 1993

Box 2:

Folder 1: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1986: seminar

Folder 2: Conservation and treatment forms

Folder 3: CIPP: survey questionnaire returns

Folder 4: Consultantships

Folder 5: Cooperstown Graduate Program

Folder 6: Correspondence, 1969-1979

[includes two cards commemorating the dedication of the Churchill Memorial and Library at Westminster College, Fulton, Mo., 1969]

Folder 7: Correspondence, 1980-1989

Folder 8: Correspondence, 1990-2000’s and undated

Box 3:

Folder 1: Dominican Republic

Folder 2: Flaherty Study Center

Folder 3: Futernick, Bob

Folder 4: George Eastman House (International Museum of Photography)

Folder 5: Goertz Lenses (trade catalog, ca.1906)

Folder 6: Holography conservation

Folder 7: International Institute for Conservation (ICC): application

Folder 8: Japanese paper: includes samples, bark, and leaves

Folder 9: Job applications (to work for Orraca)

Folder 10: Keck Award

Folders 11-12: Lecture notes [continues in next box]

Box 5:

Folder 1: Lecture notes on coatings [continued from previous box]

Folder 2: Library of Congress

Folder 3: Louis Pomerantz Institute

Folder 4: Mexico

Folder 5: Mixed media survey

Folder 6: Notes

Folder 8: Ojo [issues of this publication]

Folder 8: Ojo: Man Ray signatures

Folder 9: Ojo: number 1: mock-ups and rough drafts; notes and letters

Folder 10: Ojo: number 2 (March 1992): articles and letters

Folder 11: Ojo: number 2 (March 1992): notes

Folder 12: Ojo: summer issue, July 1992: articles and drafts

Folder 13: Ojo: number 3 [i.e. volume 2, no. 1, autumn 1992]: articles, drafts, etc.

Folder 14: Ojo: number 4 (spring 1993): articles, particularly a glossary

Box 5:

Folder 1: Ojo: number 4 (spring 1993): glossary terms

Folder 2: Ojo: number 5 (this issue apparently not published): glossary and a letter

Folder 3: O’Keeffe, Georgia: correspondence with and about her

Folder 4: Orraca, José: Letters

Folder 5: Orraca, José: Personal art collection

Folder 6: Orraca, José: Photographs

Folder 7: Orraca, José: Résumé and articles about him

Folder 8: Orraca, José: Stationery

Folder 9: Orraca, José: Talks given

Folder 10: Orraca, José: Workshop on mounting, 1993

Folder 11: Orraca, José: Workshop, 1994: scientific notes

Folder 12: Orraca, José: Workshop, 1995

Folder 13: Orraca, José: Workshop, 1996

Box 6:

Folder 1: Orraca, José: Workshop, 1997

Folder 2: Orraca, José: Workshop, 1998

Folder 3: Orraca, José: Workshop, 2000

Folder 4: Orraca, José: Workshop, 2001

Folder 5: Orraca, José: Workshop, 2003

Folder 6: Orraca, José: Workshop, 2005

Folder 7: Photos: Puerto Rico, Christmas, 1900 (original photo and copies)

Folder 8: Photos: unidentified

Folder 9: Photos: unidentified conservation lab

Folder 10: Photography: Administration of Photographic Collections (draft SAA document, with notes)

Folder 11: Photography: Analytical techniques

Folder 12: Photography: Cellulose diacetate; cellulose nitrate

Folder 13: Photography: Ferrotypes/tintypes (Griswold’s manual, 1866)

Folder 13: Photography: Manufacturers of equipment and film

Folder 14: Photography: Postcards

Folder 15: Pomerantz, Louis: draft of book about painting conservation

Folder 16: Puerto Rico

Box 7:

Folder 1: Research project about photographers

Folder 2: Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Folder 3: Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center

Folder 4: Seminar: Institute for Museums, History and Secondary Education, 1978

Folder 5: Seminar, proposed: notes, 1991

Folder 6: Seminars and lectures

Folder 7: Slides and slide sets (lists)

Folder 8: Students [interns]

Folder 9: Survey: Walker Evans photos

Folder 10: Teaching notes

Box 8:

Folder 1: Teaching notes: paper conservation

Folder 2: Training of photograph conservators

Folder 3: Venezuela

Folder 4: Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC)

Folder 5: WUDPAC: Christensen, Carol: paper and treatment reports (Edward Weston)

Folder 6: WUDPAC: Hamburg, Doris A.: paper and treatment reports (Diane Arbus)

Folder 7: WUDPAC: Photography block

Folder 8: WUDPAC: Student photographs

Folders 9-10: WUDPAC: Student papers

Box 9:

Folder 1: WUDPAC: Student papers

Folder 2: WUDPAC: Student papers: group papers

Folder 3: WUDPAC: Student treatment reports

Folder 4: WUDPAC: Teaching notes

[bound volume] Accounts, March 14, 1983-September 30, 1986;

Accounts, October 1, 1986-September 29, 1990

Box 10: account books and financial records

Accounts, October 1, 1990-December 30, 1995 (3 volumes)

Records of payments, 1981-1988 (certain clients only)

Records of payments, 1984 (certain clients only)

Financial journal, 1997-2002 (acc. 12x9)

Bills and deposits paid, 1986-1996 (acc. 09x43)

Receiving record slips, 2001-2006 (acc. 12x9)

Box 11: index cards

Two sets of bibliography cards

Rolodex cards

Two sets of cards about clients and treatments

Information cards

Box 12:

Outfit to make bromoil prints, used ca.1940-1950, plus a notebook labeled Photo-Vortrage. The notebook was purchased in Paris, but the notes are in German. Both the notebook and the note identifying the contents of this box are stamped “Estate of Josef Breitenbach.”

Series II: Treatment reports

Box 1: Accession books, 1981-2007

Box 2: Worksheets, 1981-1983