New at Old York
Collections storage problems and solutions
By Tom Johnson
Curator of Collections
Pictured here is a small sampling of the more than 20,000 objects in Old York’s collection, many of which are exhibited in period-room displays. For more information about Old York’s new education and exhibition center, under construction adjacent to Jefferds’ Tavern, visit www.oldyork.org.
Courtesy photo
Old York is a museum particularly blessed with rich and varied collections. Even with 36 fully-furnished period room settings and five galleries spread among our eight museum buildings open to the public, we still have approximately 10,000 objects not on regular display that are preserved because of their historic or artistic importance. Many of these items are used by local and national scholars for study purposes and others are used to rotate displays in the museum buildings each year. Some are periodically lent for display in other museums throughout Maine and across the nation, as Old York is particularly noted as a repository for well-documented, colonial-era American artifacts.
Our central curatorial storage facility, the Harry Winebaum Center in York Beach, houses the major portion of objects held in storage. Although not regularly open to the public, the storage collections at Winebaum Center are always made available by appointment for Old York members and others.
A major segment of fragile items primarily held in storage is our noteworthy textile collection. This is particularly large and impressive, numbering almost 5,000 objects dating from the 17th through the 20th centuries. It encompasses clothing, domestic textiles, floor coverings, embroideries, flags, fashion accessories, footwear and, of course, the world-renowned 18th-century crewel work Bulman Bedhangings.
At any one time, less than 10 percent of this collection is on display, as textiles are rotated in our display rooms regularly to protect them from fading and deterioration. This leaves almost 4,500 pieces in storage, and in the recent past this collection has been divided among the Winebaum Center and spaces at the Emerson-Wilcox House and the Elizabeth Perkins House. The cramped areas in which they were kept limited use of the collection by scholars and other interested individuals. It was clearly a priority of the museum to provide this collection with appropriate, accessible and safe storage. In 2001-2002, we achieved that goal.
As part of the construction of the orientation center for Perkins House, the second floor of the barn and laundry wings were finished into new textile storage areas with complete year-round climate control. We moved a large portion of our textile collections from other locations to this newly arranged space at the Perkins House.
Today, we have embarked on a new goal: to build a space where we can present ongoing exhibitions of our collections. The new education and exhibition center under construction next to Jefferds' Tavern includes 1,100 square feet of exhibition space. This will give Old York a large gallery for changing displays for the first time, so residents and visitors to our community can enjoy more of our collections and see objects in different ways. We look forward to bringing more of these treasures out of hiding.
