In 2017, the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded a highly competitive Museums for America program grant to Shelburne Museum. The proposed collections stewardship project involved hiring a textile conservator to treat and mount a group of 53 embroidered samplers, stabilize and prepare a group of 14 hooked rugs for exhibition, and conduct a condition survey of a collection of 184 commemorative handkerchiefs over a one-year period. IMLS funded only 23% of the applications submitted to this program in 2017, and of the five applications submitted from our brave little state, ours was the sole project to receive funding. We are honored that our project was among the 132 successful applications.

This spring, textile conservator Gennifer Majors joined our conservation lab to undertake this project. Gennifer hails originally from Arkansas and obtained her master’s degree in textile conservation from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She comes to Shelburne Museum having completed conservation fellowships and internships at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queens University. We are thrilled to have her with us!

NANCIE RAVENEL
Conservator