While planning an exhibit on political activism from 1930 to the present, the Philadelphia Folklore Project discovered the Crawford Dining Room. The Crawfords, political activists in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, had used their dining room as a meeting place and office for people involved in the Civil Rights movement in Philadelphia. Over the years, the couple had turned the room into a large scrapbook exhibiting aunique collection of political memorabilia.

The collage, consisting of hundreds of posters, pamphlets and other ephemera covering more than 230 square feet of wall space, was adhered directly to the wallpaper in random, overlapping fashion. The CCAHA was hired for the challenging job of removing the collage in its entirety and preserving it in a manner that would allow the Philadelphia Folklore Project to recreate the Crawford dining room for its exhibit “Folk Arts of Social Change.”


The collage elements had been adhered directly to the wallpaper using polyvinylacetate emulsion (PVA), pressuresensitive tapes, pushpins and nails. Conservators at the CCAHA determined that the collage should be removed in small sections by wet treatment that would release the wall paper from the walls. The sections were covered with Mylar, then rolled off the wall onto large cardstock tubes to minimize creasing. After removal, the sections were taken to the lab at the CCAHA and immersed in water to remove the old wallpaper. These sections were thenair dried to reflatten them. Finally, in order to recreate the dining room walls, the collage sections were mounted onto large (48"x72") sheets of Artcare Archival Corrugate. This board featured all the attributes necessary to the appropriate remounting of the collage: its archival quality will ensure safe, long-term protection of the unique and irreplaceable collage; its rigidity will provide adequate support to the large collage sections and will withstand traveling and handling; and it is lightweight and easy to cut, enabling conservators to create the “jigsaw” edges needed to invisibly reassemble the collage sections.


The Crawford Dining Room collage, remounted on Artcare Archival Corrugate board, was exhibited in the “Folk Arts of Social Change” show and received excellent reviews. The Philadelphia Folklore Project is planning to put the panels on permanent exhibit once adequate display space is arranged. The Artcare Archival Corrugate board will provide long-term conservation protection to the diverse selection of paper artifacts that comprise the collage.”


Polyvinyl Acetate Emulsion (PVA) to adhere the collage elements to the wallpaper. Mylar used in sections to minimize creasing when rolling off of wall. Artcare™ Archival Corrugate to remount the collage and ensure long term protection of the piece

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