When the New Brunswick Museum received one such memorial to three children lost in the 1870s, conservators faced unique challenges. Their delicate work not only restored this touching artifact but also uncovered the story of the Seymour family’s heartbreaking losses, bringing names and dignity back to these forgotten children.
A Victorian memorial wreath on exhibition at the Bonar Law site had suffered some disfiguring damage over the years. NB Heritage Branch asked the New Brunswick Museum for assistance with examining and stabilizing the object. Conservator Dee Stubbs-Lee took on the challenge! Images 1 and 2 show the memorial wreath in its damaged state before conservation treatment began.
The object appears to be a memorial to three siblings who had all died at a young age. It consists of a wreath of dried plant material, wax flowers and a typeset paper memorial card, as well as locks of the deceased children’s hair, all arranged within a round shadow box frame. The object exhibits damage consistent with the effects of exposure to fluctuating environmental conditions over many years. The challenge for the New Brunswick Museum was to try to help shed some light on the story of the family whose children are memorialized, and to stabilize the artifact so that it could continue to be exhibited and interpreted at the Bonar Law site.
The memorial wreath came to the New Brunswick Museum Conservation lab with a number of serious and challenging condition issues. Among these were years of dust and dirt that had made its way inside the shadow box, large cracks that had formed around the inside perimeter of the shadow box frame, loose nails, mold, badly deteriorating acidic paper, detached and broken wax flowers, other wax flowers that had melted and deformed, friable and fragile dried plant material, an entirely unstable secondary support made of layers of cardstock and newspaper to which the wreath components were stitched and which also formed the back of the frame assembly, and detached and tangled locks of hair from the children who were memorialized in the wreath. Image 3 shows the wreath removed from its frame during treatment, while Image 4 displays a detail of the mold growth on the frame interior.
Very little was known of the provenance of the mourning wreath from the Bonar Law site. The memorial card within the wreath lists the dates of death, age at death, and first name and middle initial of each of three young siblings (Henry, Edward, and Mary) who had all died in childhood, but does not include their family name. The death dates and ages were partially obscured by displaced pieces of the damaged wreath, but careful manipulation of the artifact at the New Brunswick Museum Conservation Lab revealed this additional information. New Brunswick Museum Curator Peter Larocque then researched provincial vital statistics records and was able to determine that these facts match the death records for the children of Joseph and Mary Crockett Seymour of Saint John. Peter was also able to estimate that the wreath was made in 1876 because a fourth child, Lillian, died in January of 1877. Heartbreakingly, yet another sibling, William John, passed away in 1885.
The conservation process began with careful disassembly and cleaning. Image 6 shows Conservator Dee Stubbs-Lee using a specialized vacuum cleaner to gently remove dust and mold spores from all components of the memorial wreath. She is wearing personal protective equipment and working in the fume hood due to the potential toxicity of the mold. Image 7 shows the interior components of the wreath after initial dry cleaning and separation of the detached and broken pieces.
One of the most delicate aspects of the conservation work involved the locks of hair from the three deceased children. Image 8 shows these locks tied around a wax rose petal, after initial cleaning and straightening. The conservator had to work with extreme care to preserve these intimate physical connections to the children.
The shadow box itself required significant treatment. Image 9 shows Conservator Dee Stubbs-Lee treating the mold growth on the interior of the shadow box frame, while Image 10 depicts her cleaning and polishing the exterior. Images 11 and 12 show a large crack on the shadow box interior before and after repair, demonstrating the transformation achieved through careful conservation work.
The shadow box was disassembled for treatment and closer examination, all of the component parts were meticulously dry cleaned with a specialized conservation vacuum, the mold growth was cleaned off of the interior of the shadow box frame with conservation sponges and solvents, the cracks on the interior of the shadow box were filled and inpainted, and the exterior of the shadow box was cleaned and polished.
Structural repairs were also essential to ensure the long-term stability of the artifact. Image 13 shows a side view of the inner frame assembly with extensive cracking that was causing multiple issues, while Image 14 shows the repairs in progress on the inner frame.
The conservation repairs of the interior lining of the shadow box frame (mold removal and the repair and inpainting of two large cracks) was completed with care. The outer frame was prepared for new hanging hardware and addition of a protective corrugated polyethylene board backing which would protect the object from physical damage from any impacts on the reverse side, provide better protection against the damaging effects of fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity, and provide better defense against dust, mold spores and insects.
The fragile original support under the wreath, which was made of deteriorating glued layers of paper and cardboard, was attached to a new archival quality matt board with “hinges” made of a very light but strong handmade Japanese paper attached to the artifact with wheat starch paste. Image 15 shows these Japanese paper hinges being applied to attach the cardboard support to a secondary support of archival matt board. Image 16 shows the wreath now attached to the secondary support of archival matt board, with paper hinge tabs visible around the edges that would be hidden once the frame was reassembled.
This new support layer allowed safer handling for the remaining fine repairs being made to the wax flowers. It also provided additional strength and environmental buffering capacity to the reassembled artifact, helping to ensure its long-term preservation. As with all conservation repairs at the museum, great care was taken to select materials that would not cause any harm to the artifact, each and every change made by the conservator was clearly identified and documented, and all of the conservation treatment work was done in a way that would remain permanently reversible should problems arise in the future.
The most exacting steps in the conservation treatment of the memorial wreath included the work done on the locks of hair from the deceased children and the repairs to the delicate wax flowers. Image 17 shows Conservator Dee Stubbs-Lee securing the locks of hair from the three deceased children into the original bow configuration around the wax rosebud using hair silk thread. Image 18 depicts her reattaching and repairing the dislocated and broken wax flower petals. Image 19 shows the completed repairs to the wax flowers and moss wreath, with the locks of the children’s hair reattached in its original position.
These repairs were executed under magnification using fine dental, surgical, and conservation tools (including a small tacking iron), dental wax and conservation adhesives. Steady hands and plenty of patience were important attributes for the museum conservator!
The final stage of the conservation treatment was the reframing of the wreath. Image 20 shows the wreath assembly on the new matt board support placed within the frame rebate from the underside, with the new metal brackets for attaching the rebate within the outer frame visible. Image 21 shows the new backing layers for the framed wreath constructed from Volara (a chemically stable, crosslinked polyethylene foam) and Coroplast (a chemically stable corrugated polypropylene board). These materials not only help protect the back of the wreath from damage but also act as buffering materials to help protect the artifact against damaging changes in temperature and relative humidity, and provide added protection against dust and insects.
Image 22 shows the back of the box shadow frame containing the conserved wreath, displaying the new backing and hanging hardware, while Image 23 shows the recto (front) side of the wreath after completion of the conservation treatment.
The whole conservation treatment process took several months, but resulted in a cleaner, safer, more aesthetically pleasing, and more stable artifact which was reinstalled at the Bonar Law site in Rexton, NB. Through this careful conservation work, not only was a significant Victorian artifact preserved, but the touching story of the Seymour family’s losses was brought back to light, allowing visitors to connect with this poignant piece of New Brunswick’s history.
