Olympic Glory

Olympic Glory: Before & After 07/30/2012

By Camille Myers Breeze This week we introduce a new blog theme featuring before and after images and histories of textiles we are treating. Let us know what you think!

In one of the earliest MTS Blogs, Sarah Berlinger introduced readers to the Olympic uniform of hockey player Gordon Smith. Mr. Smith is an alumnus of Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, who are the owners of his prestigious garments. In the midst of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, we thought we'd show you the results of the conservation treatment.

Olympic coat before conservation.

The coat had a live infestation of webbing clothes moths. It was sent to Historic New England for fumigation.

The hat showed moisture damage and the silk bow had deteriorated.

Some highlights of this treatment include dying wool roving a matching shade of ecru and needle punching it to a cotton substrate. These patches were placed behind areas

of loss and lightly needle punched to the coat to integrate. Although visually continuous, these patches can be removed in the future if necessary.

Collar after restoration with needle-punched patches.

All of our display mounts were made of archival Ethafoam and polyester padding with a tan cotton/poly jersey as the show fabric. The deteriorated silk bow was removed from the hat and returned to the owner. A new bow was made from polyester ribbon (the cut edges were painted with archival adhesive to prevent unraveling.) One missing button was replaced with a similar button painted to match.

Replacement bow of a similar polyester ribbon. Photo courtesy of Middlesex School.

This project took a year to complete and was returned to Middlesex School in time to be displayed at the start of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. You can learn more about conservation of sports memorabilia in the conservation section of the web site.

Many thanks to Middlesex School, Historic New England and the entire MTS conservation team, especially Sarah Berlinger, Cara Jordan, and Courtney Jason.