Do you remember this duffel bag from our exhibition Thirty Years of Collecting: Treasures from Intrepid’s Collections? The bag, a standout object in that show, has a very delicate painting on the front depicting Intrepid, the “Setter of the Rising Sun.” We knew that the duffel bag was something special and needed extra care, and having it on display made this even more apparent.

We have a very limited conservation budget, and we knew that properly conserving the duffel bag would be expensive. Luckily, the Greater Hudson Heritage Network has grants specifically for conservation. We were thrilled to receive a grant in 2014, and we sent the duffel bag upstate to the Textile Conservation Workshop.

Conservators are a very unique and specialized group in the preservation field. In addition to getting their doctorates, they also have to do several years of apprenticeship before being allowed to practice independently. Conservators must have an extensive knowledge of chemistry so that they can predict how different materials will interact with one another. The goal of conservation is to get an artifact to the point where it will be stable in the long term. By contrast, the goal of restoration is to make an object look as it did when it was created. For example, our planes are restored as part of routine maintenance.