Abstract

The Hopewell Museum, located in the village of Hopewell, New Jersey, was established to preserve and display artifacts that "serve as an expression of village life in New Jersey and tell the story of Hopewell-area history from its pre-colonial beginnings to the present” . The Museum's collection is comprised of a wide range of materials, including a large and significant collection of 18th to 20th century garments and textiles. As part of the Museum's Reimagination project to celebrate its 100-year anniversary, the Museum will be renovating its building, which requires relocation of its entire collection to off-site storage. Over the last few years, the Museum's Board and volunteers have catalogued and packed the artifacts, art, and furniture collection for relocation. However, the garments and textiles were found to be infested and required specialized treatment. Under the guidance of a preventive conservator, a team of interns led by a graduate student from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), processed the collection: each piece was examined and documented; packaged for disinfestation by freezing; frozen; reexamined and cleaned after treatment; and rehoused for off-site storage. Once the museum renovation is complete, the garment and textile collections will be available for future research and exhibition to showcase fashion history within New Jersey and the local community.

About the Speaker

Binh-An Nguyen is a graduate fellow of the Winterthur Museum and University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) where she specializes in preventiveconservation. This program is a three-year masters program based at the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware where she will earn her M.S. in Art Conservation in 2026. Part of the program's curriculum involves summer internships where the fellows learn from conservators in the field to exercise and build upon the knowledge they have gained thus far in their studies. Thus, this brought her the opportunity to intern at the HopewellMuseum in 2024. What led her to pursue preventive conservation as her major was realizing that many of the aspects of the projects she enjoyed the most were deeply rooted in preventiveconservation. Additionally, she loves howpreventive conservation can often be a moreaccessible way for people to care for theirobjects andcollections. She looks forward tousing her skills tocontinue to help people care fortheircollections asbest as theycan. Binh-An earned her B.S. in Chemistry and Minor in Art History from Temple University and in her free time loves to knit, explore the local towns and visit museums.

Headshot: Courtesy, Nat Caccamo