Comprehensive Conservation Assessment of the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection

FAIN: PG-50733-10

President and Trustees of Bates College (Lewiston, ME 04240-6028)
William Low (Project Director: May 2009 to October 2011)

Hiring three conservators with experience in books and bound materials, works on paper, and objects to assess the work and collections of American modernist painter and writer Marsden Hartley.

The Bates College Museum of Art proposes to contract three conservators to conduct a comprehensive assessment of its Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection. This unique collection of Maine's most renowned artist comprises drawings, oil sketches, manuscripts, letters, poetry, photographs, studio objects, and Hartley's personal collection of art, photographs, jewelry, textiles, and ceramics. The collected works and effects of this leading American modernist have become increasingly important to the fields of art history and American studies and the collection's variety is part of what makes it interesting to a range of scholars. The proposed assessment will assist in ongoing efforts to preserve the collection, help to improve access to the collection and is one of the early steps necessary to prepare for the first comprehensive exhibition and publication of the Hartley collection.