WINTERTHUR, DE.-Winterthur’s art conservation staff and the University of Delaware Art Conservation Department have joined the efforts to preserve cultural treasures damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Teams trained in the preservation of metals, paper, furniture, and other media have traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi, to assist their colleagues at the historic site, Beauvoir, and the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum with recovery efforts for objects impacted by the storm.

“The Winterthur community, along with the rest of the nation, has been deeply moved by the suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina,” said Leslie Greene Bowman, director and chief executive officer of Winterthur. “As an institution committed to preserving America’s cultural heritage, the Winterthur staff is dedicated to assisting our sister institutions in the recovery, stabilization, and treatment of their collections. We are honored to offer our time and expertise and plan to work with our sister museums for the months or years of recovery ahead.”

The first team of Winterthur volunteers carried out initial assessments, which will be followed by longer visits for more in-depth treatments. At the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum, which houses ceramics by George Ohr, the “mad potter of Biloxi,” as well as African American, Native American and contemporary arts, Winterthur volunteers have assisted with mold-damaged library materials and photographs at an off-site storage location. The salvaged books include African American history texts and hymnals. The volunteers also taught the staff to remove mold from contaminated paintings and sculpture.

At Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis and site of his library, Winterthur volunteers worked with the staff to establish emergency desalination and corrosion prevention methods for the historic artifacts scattered throughout the 52-acre campus. They also established emergency processing and housing procedures for the recovered artifacts, as well as reviewed storage conditions for library and archive collections.

Winterthur offers a Master’s degree in art conservation, in conjunction with the University of Delaware. The program educates and trains conservation professionals in the examination, analysis, stabilization, and treatment of art and artifacts and in general principles of collection care as well as provides a broad academic background in science and the humanities. The conservation program is one of only three full-time graduate programs of its kind in the country, and its graduates work at cultural institutions and other organizations throughout the world. In addition to their teaching duties, the conservators and scientists on the staff cares for the 85,000 objects in Winterthur’s museum.

Winterthur is coordinating its Katrina Recovery efforts with the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works and the Heritage Emergency National Task Force of Heritage Preservation.

Winterthur Museum & Country Estate—known worldwide for its preeminent collection of 85,000 American antiques; a naturalistic garden; and a library that is a research center for the study of American art and material culture—offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs, and activities throughout the year. USA Today recently named Winterthur as one of the country’s “10 great places of historic proportions” and Budget Travel called it “one of the 10 grandest mansions in America.”