AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

On October 10th, 2019, at 8:30am, I started my job as Natural History Conservator at the Yale Peabody Museum. That same day at 11 o’clock, I had a meeting on how to protect the Age of Reptiles and Age of Mammals murals by Rudolph Zallinger during construction. This need for conservation knowledge and expertise continued for the remainder of the project, which ended in the spring of 2024 with the reopening of the entire museum after four years of closure.

Work during construction involved liaising with construction workers, architects, and engineers, as well as with museum leadership and colleagues. The conservation staff consisted of only me and one fellow initially focused on moving collections (and later on, on treatment of Anthropology objects). Partnerships with other departments that were not able to carry out their normal duties due to the pandemic, as well as with museum assistants made the work manageable and delegation of tasks possible. During this time, my lab at the museum was demolished and I had to move all my operations to the Shared Conservation Lab at Yale’s West Campus, as well as to a small museum classroom that was not to be renovated until the new Conservation triage space was to be built. In addition, object lists were being completed and exhibit layouts were being held by Exhibits with curators and collection managers, and me.

In 2022, I was asked a crucial question: what do you need? Being alone at the time, I answered: interns. In November of that year, the museum hired for the first time two pre-program interns for one year (positions that were later on extended). Their job was to be trained in the treatment of objects and specimens, to work on their portfolios, to have the experience of being in a renovation, and to learn what it is like to work in a museum. With my team in place, we started the impossible task of condition reporting and treating hundreds to thousands of objects and specimens with ever-changing object lists and gallery priorities.

This renovation taught me many things. As a colleague, it taught me to anticipate the needs of others. As a liaison, it taught me to speak in many other languages to get points across and to make those working with me get a sense of belonging. As a manager, it taught me that the more involved my team is in every aspect of the project, the more they will understand the bigger picture. As a mentor, it taught me to prioritize the education of the interns over the goals of the project. As a conservator, it taught me that you can always do more, but you have to learn to stop.

The Yale Peabody Museum reopened its doors in the spring of 2024 with a newly renovated museum. Conservation was involved early enough in planning but being new, I had to build trust with every person at the museum. To this day, I continue to work on this.