The Folly Cove Designers Collection: Preserving an Important Piece of American Textile History

FAIN: PG-51458-11

Cape Ann Museum, Inc. (Gloucester, MA 01930-5909)
Martha Oaks (Project Director: May 2010 to November 2012)

A preservation assessment of a collection of 800 block-print textile items, including table runners and wall paper, along with 45 artisan-carved linoleum blocks and other materials associated with the Folly Cove Designers, a group of women artists active in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the 1940s through 1960s.

The Cape Ann Museum seeks to hire a professional textiles preservation consultant to conduct an assessment of the Museum’s Folly Cove Designers Collection, the world’s largest body of work of these important American designers. The assessment will evaluate the physical collection and the current storage and housing conditions. Further, the assessment will be used to prepare recommendations for storing and displaying the collection, and to set priorities for conservation work. The preservation consultant will also conduct a workshop to expand the staff’s knowledge of methods and techniques of collections care; the workshop will assist staff in implementing the work of preserving the Folly Cove Designers Collection.