In the spirit of international collaboration and exchange of knowledge, preservation and conservation specialists at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives will be available to answer questions for Ask A Conservator Day on Friday, November 3, 2023, beginning at 6:00 am (Pacific Time) on social media. Three guest speakers will also give special presentations about conservation work virtually from 1:30 pm through 3:00 pm.
Ask us questions on Social Media
Join us from 6:00 am until 4:00 pm (PT) for a Hoover Library & Archives social media takeover. Tag us and use the hashtag #AskAConservator to ask any conservation-related questions of our Preservation/Conservation team. Check our social media feeds regularly for images and stories from our 2023 work with the collections.
Online Presentations
From 1:30 to 2:00 pm (PT): "The Stafford Album project" with Emma Ross Reuther
This remarkable photographic album documents the shift from feudal China into a Republic as well as the earliest ventures in color printing in that country. Along the way several forensic discoveries made the work even more exciting.
From 2:00 to 2:30 pm (PT): "Conserving my Noh Theatre sketchbook" with Laura Abada
When she brought her early 1900s, badly damaged sketchbook to #AskAConservator Day, last year, Laura didn’t anticipate she would be coached into conserving her book herself with the help of our conservators. The book is now finished. Share her journey.
From 2:30 to 3:00 pm (PT): "Conserving posters" with Laurent Cruveillier
After preparing the materials for the current poster exhibition at Hoover, our book & paper conservator reviews the characteristic damages that posters typically suffer, and shares some treatments performed in the lab.
Participant Bios
Laura Abada is the Development Database Administrator at the Hoover Institution. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art. After pursuing a career in arts education, as an art teacher as well as an artist in residence in museums, schools and art centers, she developed knowledge and competence in administrative coordination and database management, especially in the field of gifts administration, working with different charities and institutions such as the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Peninsula Volunteers, LifeMoves, and the Castilleja School before working at Hoover.
Laurent Cruveillier is the Hoover Institution Library & Archives book and paper conservator. Cruveillier holds a Master’s in Conservation with distinction from the University of the Arts London – Camberwell College. His conservation career included internships at the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Royal Collections at Windsor Castle. As the paper conservator at University College London in the Special Collections Department, Cruveillier trained interns from UCL and Conservation programs, preparing collections for digitization. He has taught graduate and PhD students and researcher handling courses focusing on collection care and access.
Emma Ross Reuther is an intern withthe Preservation team at Hoover Institution Library & Archives. After a BS in biology with a minor in chemistry from Texas A&M University, she attended art history, history of media and new media art, architecture, and landscape architecture courses at the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as studio art and cultural and physical anthropology courses at Brookhaven College to build up a knowledge base towards her objective to attend a conservation graduate program. She also gained professional experience through and internships with the Center for Art Conservation, Gawain Weaver Art Conservation, and Chrysalis Art Conservation.
