Date: August 5, 2008

Conservation of Art at Weir Farm National Historic Site

The National Park Service presents and exhibition of artwork from the collection including works by J. Alden Weir, his father Robert Walter Weir, Mahonri Young and Weir's daughters Caroline Weir Ely and Dorothy Weir Young.  The exhibition will be on display until February 1, 2009.

It is a little-known fact that the National Park Service manages the world’s largest system of museums with more than 115 million objects, documents, specimens, and images nationwide.  The items that make up the museum collection of a national park are uniquely important to the individual site and support its mission, mandates, history and themes.

Weir Farm National Historic Site has a collection of over 8,000 historic objects, 20,000 archeological objects, and 113 linear feet of archival material.  Among the park’s historic objects is a small, but treasured collection of artwork that has come to us through donation.  It is ironic that as the only park in the service dedicated to American painting, and one of only two devoted to the visual arts, Weir Farm National Historic Site is unable to purchase art with funds from its budget.  The period preceding its designation in 1990 was one of controversy over the use of federal money to acquire art.  It was expedient to write into the Congressional law that created the park that no federal funds would be used for this purpose.  Weir Farm National Historic Site can, however, purchase art with donated funds.

The preservation and protection of resources is a mandate of the National Park Service.  This responsibility applies to historic structures, cultural landscapes, and to its unique, irreplaceable museum collections.  Weir Farm National Historic Site is a place that has inspired the creation of art since 1882, when J. Alden Weir acquired the Branchville, Connecticut farm.  The artwork, especially that created by the artists who lived here, is exceptionally significant.  The art in this exhibition (with the exception of two archival purchases), came into the park’s collection through generous donations by Weir descendents, the Weir Farm Art Center, and Doris and Sperry Andrews.  As funding has become available, conservation of the artwork followed by conservation framing has taken place.  Each of the works exhibited here has been conserved and/or conservation framed within the past ten years.  It is our pleasure to present and share them with you, several for the first time.