Preventive Conservation Measures for Historic Stained Glass Windows Collection

FAIN: PG-51071-10

Bosco-Milligan Foundation (Portland, OR 97214)
Catherine Galbraith (Project Director: May 2009 to December 2011)

Hiring a preservation consultant to design and construct shelving to house 236 historic stained glass windows. Materials for constructing the shelving will also be purchased. The windows were salvaged from 19th-century Portland area buildings that were demolished and are used in educational and public programming to demonstrate and study traditional building crafts, the art of local practitioners, and the architectural styles in Portland.

This project will provide proactive preventive conservation measures for one of the most fragile and vulnerable areas of the organization's collections--the relocation and rehousing of 236 historic stained glass windows. This is one of the highest priority recommendations in our 2008 CAP (Conservation Assessment Program.) The project will conserve the windows from structural damage including bowing, and exposure to present off-site storage conditions of inadequate security, temperature variations, and unstable racking, and rehouse them at the environmentally safe and secure Architectural Heritage Center.