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:         Fiske, Betty                           

Title:               Betty Fiske conservation papers

Dates:             1980-2008

Call No.:         Col. 882

Acc. No.:        11x14, 2017x79

Quantity:        8 boxes

Location:        505 D 3-4

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Betty J. Fiske was a paper conservator at Winterthur Museum.  She studied art, concentrating on printmaking, at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Otis Art Institute.  She worked as a printer, a printmaking instructor, and curator to the artist Robert Motherwell, prior to entering the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) in 1979, graduating in 1982.  She spent her third year internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she subsequently found full-time employment.  After ten years there, she returned to Winterthur as a paper conservator, retiring in 2008.  Ms. Fiske was particularly interested in Japanese prints.  She also did private conservation treatments and did conservation work for Princeton University Art Museum and the Historic Odessa Foundation.

 

Betty Fiske is a fellow of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), a member of the AIC Book and Paper Group, and a member of the Book and Paper Group of the Institute for Conservation.  She has served as a grant reviewer for several organizations, and has given papers and workshops in conservation, particularly in the conservation of Japanese woodblock prints.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Collection includes Betty Fiske’s private treatment reports, with photos; reports on treatments performed while in the WUDPAC program; and her second and third year internship portfolios (treatment reports and photos).  Most of the private treatment reports are filed by year, and there is no index to these.  Also included are interviews with the artist Robert Motherwell and the conservator Anne Clapp.   

 

Betty Fiske collaborated with other members of the Winterthur staff on fraktur research in preparation for an exhibit held in 2005.  Her files on this subject are in Series IV of the papers.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

The papers are arranged in four series: I. Treatment reports; II. Other papers; III. WUDPAC student projects; IV. files transferred from Paper Lab, chiefly on fraktur.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

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

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Acc. 11x14: Gift of Betty Fiske.

Acc. 2017x79: transferred from Paper Lab by Joan Irving.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Clapp, Anne F.

            Motherwell, Robert.

 

Topics:

            Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

            Art – Conservation and restoration.

Art restorers.

            Paper – Conservation and restoration.

            Fraktur art – Research.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 505 D 3-4

 

 

 

Series I: Treatment reports

 

 

Box 1: Private work, by year

 

Folders 1-9:     1982-1990 (one year per folder)        

 

 

Box 2: Private work, by year

 

Folders 1-12:   1991-2008

 

 

Box 3: Private work, by client name

 

Folder 1:          Acquavella Galleries, Inc.: Robert Motherwell collage, 1985

 

Folder 2:          American Craft Museum, 1982

 

Folder 3:          American Federation of Arts, 1982-1984

 

Folder 4:          Caramoor survey, 1983

 

Folder 5:          Chester County Historical Society (Penn.), 1994

 

Folder 6-7:      Citibank, 1988-1989

 

Folder 8:          Frishberg, Stephen H., 1986  

 

Folder 9:          La Guardia Archives, 1985

 

 

Box 4: Private work, by client name

 

Folder 1:          Library of Congress, 1999, 2001, 2003, treatment notes

 

Folder 2:          National Park Service: Japanese prints, 2003

 

Folder 3:          Newark Museum (N.J.), 1997

 

Folders 4-5:     New York Public Library, 1992

 

Folder 6:          Ossorio, Alfonso, 1987

 

Folder 7:          Pace/MacGill Gallery, 1984-1987

 

Folder 8:          Rosenbach Library, 1999

 

Folder 9:          Salm, Peter, 1986-1988

 

 

Box 5: Private work, by client name

 

Folder 1:          Wagstaff, Sam, 1982-1984

 

Folders 2-3:     Walters Art Gallery, 1991-1993        

 

Folder 4:          Private work: forms

 

Folder 5:          Photos: building plans

 

 

Series II: Other files

 

Box 6:

 

Folder 1:          AIC disaster workshop, Hillwood Museum, 1998, organized by Betty Fiske and Bert Marshall

 

Folder 2:          Baldwin, Ann: paper, “The Wayward Paper Object…” [reviewed by Fiske]

 

Folder 3:          Experiments: calcium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide

 

Folder 4:          Experiments: Daubigny crystals

 

Folder 5:          Experiments: foxing

 

Folder 6:          Experiments: paper expansion tests and miscellaneous experiments

 

Folder 7:          Fiske, Betty: “Survey of Curators’ Points of View on Disassembly of Photograph Albums”

 

Folder 8:          Loose notes and photo

 

Folder 9:          Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Folder 10:        Metropolitan Museum of Art: Japanese prints

 

Folder 11:        Metropolitan Museum of Art: treatments of photographs, 1981-1992 (folder 1 of 2; continues in next box)

 

 

Box 7:

 

Folder 1:          Metropolitan Museum of Art: treatments of photographs, 1981-1992 (folder 2 of 2; continued from previous box)

 

Folder 2:          Motherwell, Robert, 1980, 1990  (also includes an interview with Anne Clapp, 1977)

Series III: WUDPAC program files

 

Box 7:

 

Folders 3-5:     WUDPAC 2d Year Portfolio: Instructor: Anne Clapp          

 

Folder 6:          WUDPAC 2d Year Portfolio: Instructor: Jose Orraca (folder 1 of 2, continues in next box)

 

 

Box 8:

 

Folder 1:          WUDPAC 2d Year Portfolio: Instructor: Jose Orraca (folder 2 of 2, continued from previous box)

 

Folder 2-3:      WUDPAC 3d Year Internship: Portfolio

 

Folder 4:          WUDPAC treatments: appliqué on paper (profile figure of a man)

 

Folder 5:          WUDPAC treatments: CCAHA : maritime: pith

 

Folder 6:          WUDPAC treatments: Joshua Johnston: portrait of William Washington Black

 

Folder 7:          WUDPAC treatments: materials and photos from several treatments

 

Folder 8:          WUDPAC treatments: Pastel, from Rockwood Mansion

 

Folder 9:          WUDPAC treatments: St. Memin, from Winterthur

 

Folder 10:        WUDPAC treatments: second year portfolio

 

Folder 11:        WUDPAC treatments: third year internship: Popple map

Series IV: Paper lab files, chiefly on fraktur

 

Box 9:

 

Folder 1:          Fraktur: Artists

 

Folder 2:          Fraktur: Artists: David Bixler; Butter Valley artist; Isaac Gross; CM artist/Christian Mestel; Cross-legged Angel artist; Hanovertown artist

 

Folder 3:          Fraktur: Artists: Susanna Heebner; Johannes Krauss; Johann Heinrich Otto; Francis Portzline; John Spangenberg/Easton Bible artist; Christian Strenge; Conrad Trevits/Weak artist; Henry Young

 

Folder 4:          Fraktur: Bibliography

 

Folder 5:          Fraktur: Binder analysis

 

Folder 6:          Fraktur: Imagery and symbolism

 

Folder 7:          Fraktur: Media and techniques

 

Folder 8:          Fraktur: Pigments

 

Folder 9:          Fraktur: Pocket research

 

Folder 10:        Fraktur: research and articles

 

Folder 11:        Fraktur: Script

 

Folder 12:        Fraktur: Types

 

Folder 13:        Fraktur: Watermarks

 

 

Box 10:

 

Folder 1:          Fraktur: XRF analysis and RAMAN analysis

 

Folder 2:          “Making Fancy: The Materials of Pennsylvania German Fraktur”: exhibit labels and information

 

Folder 3:          Metamorphosis research

 

Folder 4:          Paint media: analysis