Conservation Needs Assessment for Andalusia

FAIN: PG-50032-07

Flannery O'Connor - Andalusia Foundation (Milledgeville, GA 31059-0947)
Craig Ross Amason (Project Director: May 2006 to December 2007)

A preservation assessment of collections at Andalusia, the family farm where Flannery O'Connor lived for thirteen years, until her death in 1964. The ten-room house contains furniture, household accessories, photographs, and documents.

The foundation will contract with an AIC-certified objects conservator to conduct the assessment of the collections and the historic house environment in the main house at Andalusia, the home of American author Flannery O'Connor, located in Milledgeville, Georgia. The conservator will spend up to one week on-site, with secondary visits as necessary. She will document and photograph examples from each artifact category: textile, furniture, documents and paper, and ceramics. Over the intervening six months, she will develop a conservation plan for the Andalusia collection. This will include recommendations for environmental improvements and monitoring, preventive conservation measures, and a prioritized list for active artifact conservation. The conservator will recommend particular archival storage materials; funds left from the plan development portion of the project will be used to begin purchasing the requisite supplies to begin the preventive conservation portion of the plan.