Abstract

Professionals in museums, archives, and libraries have a responsibility to maintain the quality of their collections so that the general public and scholars can enjoy and benefit from them. As such, any institution that holds, or displays objects for any period of time should have a curatorial plan in place that describes the necessary care, conservation, and preservation of those items. Without such a plan, museum professionals and their collections suffer. This thesis recognizes the importance of such documentation. In the absence of a curatorial care plan for the Wildenhain Ceramic Collection, I have created one. This collection is housed in the Wallace Center Archives at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Along with the curatorial care plan, a formalized method of condition reporting was created and implemented for the use in the collection. The Wildenhain Ceramic Collection consists of 330 pieces of contemporary ceramic work, from which a sample of forty pieces were used to assess the overall condition of the collection. After condition reporting and assessing the collection, I created a plan that provides an overview of the types of damage seen, ascribes possible causes, as well as makes recommendations on how to care for the collection. In addition, recommendations on storage and condition reporting are included.

Publication Date

5-21-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Undergraduate

Degree Name

Museum Studies (BS)

Advisor

Tina Lent

Advisor/Committee Member

Becky Simmons

Advisor/Committee Member

Juilee Decker

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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