Well, as some of you may have noticed, there has not been a blog posted here for some weeks. I apologize for that, but I have a pretty good excuse. For the last four weeks, I have been overseeing the packing and moving of the museum’s entire book, archive, and artifact collection out of our longtime home at 1805 Pine Street and into storage in anticipation of our new museum at the First National Bank Building in 2010. It was an extremely difficult job, and one from which I gained a great deal of insight and knowledge.
I benefited from having an excellent crew from Artex Fine Arts Service, to whom I’m extremely grateful for their input, wisdom, and experience. Such an enormous job would not have gotten done without them.
There is an old army expression, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” It was certainly true during this move. Even the most fundamental of plans were inevitably disrupted by closed streets, crew illness (including a car accident), truck breakdowns, and other things too numerous to mention. The heat was often intense; the dust was thick, and the stairs plentiful.
The most challenging aspect of packing and moving any historical collection is that most of the work is custom designed and made right on the spot. From framed paintings and engravings of every size and shape, to uniforms, weapons, battle logs, sculptures, and nearly anything else you can imagine, it had to be packed and transported. Accomplishing this remarkable task requires an artist’s eye for detail, a delicate hand, a strong back, and an ability to improvise.
As shown above, some of the items in our collection needed extremely specialized care. Among the most delicate items in our collection are the leather items, such as sword belts, saddles, knapsacks, and scabbards. Leather is especially susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. Leather dries out over time and becomes extremely brittle. Moving these items in a safe manner is extremely difficult.
In the photograph at the top of the page, just a few of our leather items are shown as they were packed before they were shipped out of our museum. They were held in place with the clever use of foam and tie downs. It was very important that the leather be stabilized, but with minimal contact from the packing materials. Packed flat on a foam backing, and protected from dust and debris, these items were stable and safe for transport.
In the bottom photo, the Museum’s significant edged weapon collection sits packed and waiting to be loaded on the truck. While it may seem that swords made out of brass and steel would be less of a concern, they too required care and creativity to pack. First, we determined that the best method of storing these objects was in their own scabbards. This made sense for two reasons; first, the scabbard is the natural protective covering for the blade, and we determined that we could not come up with anything that would function better. Second, the blades of the swords in turn provide support for the scabbards. We found this to be a particularly appealing solution to the problem of the fragile nature of the leather scabbards. The swords are supported in two places, insulated against vibration, and again there was a significant effort made to keep the contact between the objects and the packing materials minimal.
One aspect of the move that was out of our control was the weather. While it was often very hot, the more problematic element, rain, was not an issue. We were able to move the materials outside to the waiting truck with no fear of them getting wet. Traffic proved to be a greater problem than the weather, as the city of Philadelphia saw fit to do road work on many of the streets around us. We had difficulty at times getting the truck in and out of Pine Street, and loading in the street was sometimes a tight fit, but it did provide us with the frequent sight of people straining their necks to see some of the amazing pieces that were being loaded. That made me smile many times.
We had some very interesting challenges getting some of the larger, heavier, or more awkward items packed and out of the Museum. I’ll be posting some blog entries on some of those challenges very soon. Stay tuned.
I benefited from having an excellent crew from Artex Fine Arts Service, to whom I’m extremely grateful for their input, wisdom, and experience. Such an enormous job would not have gotten done without them.
There is an old army expression, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” It was certainly true during this move. Even the most fundamental of plans were inevitably disrupted by closed streets, crew illness (including a car accident), truck breakdowns, and other things too numerous to mention. The heat was often intense; the dust was thick, and the stairs plentiful.
The most challenging aspect of packing and moving any historical collection is that most of the work is custom designed and made right on the spot. From framed paintings and engravings of every size and shape, to uniforms, weapons, battle logs, sculptures, and nearly anything else you can imagine, it had to be packed and transported. Accomplishing this remarkable task requires an artist’s eye for detail, a delicate hand, a strong back, and an ability to improvise.
As shown above, some of the items in our collection needed extremely specialized care. Among the most delicate items in our collection are the leather items, such as sword belts, saddles, knapsacks, and scabbards. Leather is especially susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. Leather dries out over time and becomes extremely brittle. Moving these items in a safe manner is extremely difficult.
In the photograph at the top of the page, just a few of our leather items are shown as they were packed before they were shipped out of our museum. They were held in place with the clever use of foam and tie downs. It was very important that the leather be stabilized, but with minimal contact from the packing materials. Packed flat on a foam backing, and protected from dust and debris, these items were stable and safe for transport.
In the bottom photo, the Museum’s significant edged weapon collection sits packed and waiting to be loaded on the truck. While it may seem that swords made out of brass and steel would be less of a concern, they too required care and creativity to pack. First, we determined that the best method of storing these objects was in their own scabbards. This made sense for two reasons; first, the scabbard is the natural protective covering for the blade, and we determined that we could not come up with anything that would function better. Second, the blades of the swords in turn provide support for the scabbards. We found this to be a particularly appealing solution to the problem of the fragile nature of the leather scabbards. The swords are supported in two places, insulated against vibration, and again there was a significant effort made to keep the contact between the objects and the packing materials minimal.
One aspect of the move that was out of our control was the weather. While it was often very hot, the more problematic element, rain, was not an issue. We were able to move the materials outside to the waiting truck with no fear of them getting wet. Traffic proved to be a greater problem than the weather, as the city of Philadelphia saw fit to do road work on many of the streets around us. We had difficulty at times getting the truck in and out of Pine Street, and loading in the street was sometimes a tight fit, but it did provide us with the frequent sight of people straining their necks to see some of the amazing pieces that were being loaded. That made me smile many times.
We had some very interesting challenges getting some of the larger, heavier, or more awkward items packed and out of the Museum. I’ll be posting some blog entries on some of those challenges very soon. Stay tuned.
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