Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Preservation Assistance Project

FAIN: PG-50377-08

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe, NM 87501-1826)
Barbara Buhler Lynes (Project Director: May 2007 to September 2009)

Hiring a photographic consultant to assess the preservation needs of 1,752 photographs dating from 1910 to the mid-1980s that were created by O'Keeffe or that document aspects of her work.

The Project is a general conservation assessment of a recently acquired collection of 1,752 photographs, many by 20th century masters such as Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, and Todd Webb, taken of Georgia O'Keeffe at various stages of her life. Many of the photographs are also by O'Keeffe, as well as of her, and document her use of photography to conceptualize her own work. The consultant will also assess the condition of the collection's environment and then submit a report to the Museum. In addition to the assessment, the project will involve the purchase and utilization of proper storage and preservation materials to house the collection, which will be carried out by the Museum's archivist. This collection was recently appraised at $15 million, and was the gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation (a completely separate entity) before it closed in March 2006.