Conservation Residency Program

The Conservation Residency Program at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center trains young conservators from all over the United States and the world. Many are completing their education in graduate programs in conservation. Other young conservators are gaining experience prior to entering a conservation programs. The residents function as part of the conservation staff during their tenure in Cody. They examine objects, write reports, and carry out treatments and individual projects such as collection condition surveys. The Chief Conservator works closely with the residents ensuring the quality of the training and the treatment of the collections.

This year's conservation interns gather around "The Plainsman" in front of the Historical Center. Buffalo Bill—Plainsman by Bob Scriver, 1976. Cast by Modern Art Foundry, New York. Bronze, 86.5 inches. 12.77

---

Interns: Summer 2011

Anna Graff

Anna Graff is from Sandy, Utah. She attended the University of Utah for a bachelor’s degree in French. She completed her master’s degree in Medieval History at University of Durham in England. Most recently, she attended City College of New York for conservation prerequisites in Art, Art History, and Chemistry.

---

Elsa Rosenfelder

Elsa Rosenfelder is from South Orange, New Jersey. She is senior at Valparaiso University with majors in Art History and Mathematics and a minor in Chemistry.

---

Helen Garvis

Helen Garvis is from Grove City, Pennsylvania. She graduated in 2011 from Nazareth College of Rochester, New York with a major in Art History and minors in Art Studio and Chemistry.

---

Margaret Bole

Margaret Bole is from Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from DePaul University in 2011 with a Major in Art History and a minor in Chemistry. She has previously interned with the Art Institute of Chicago in the Paper Conservation Lab, where she was working on a poster project.

---

Susanna Donovan

Susanna Donovan is from Cookeville, Tennessee. She just finished her second year at the University of Paris-Sorbonne where she is working toward her master's degree in Art Conservation, specializing in books and paper. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2009 with a double major in Art History and Romance Languages.

---

Chief Conservator Beverly Nadeen Perkins

Our conservation residency program is led by Beverly Nadeen Perkins. A graduate of the Cooperstown (now Buffalo) program in conservation, Perkins is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation and a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation. She is a certified AIC-CERT emergency responder for cultural institutions. She coordinated the AIC volunteer response to Hurricane Katrina, as well as participated on the ground in Mississippi and Louisiana after Katrina and most recently in Haiti. Perkins serves on the board of the Western Association for Art Conservation and the board of the Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums. She is currently the Chief Conservator at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and adjunct faculty in Art History at Northwest College. She served as the NEH Western Field Service Officer and as the coordinator of the IMLS Connecting to Collections Planning Project for Wyoming. Perkins has lectured extensively on disaster recovery for museum collections, collections care topics, and conservation issues. She has worked as a conservator for large institutions such as Winterthur Museum and the Brooklyn Museum and has carried out over fifty surveys of collecting institutions of all sizes. Beverly recently joined the board of Heritage Preservation, the Smithsonian Affiliate Advisory Committee, and the Buffalo Bill Art Show Committee.

---

We work hard and learn new skills during our internships here at the Historical Center—but have fun too. Here are our 2011 interns enjoying a little western-wear dress-up to soak up the Cody, Wyoming, atmosphere.

---

Past Interns: Summer 2010

Check out our Conservation Internship facebook page!

Gwenanne Edwards

Gwenanne inpainting a Navajo War Chief calendar from the Cody Firearms Museum.

Gwenanne Edwards is a graduate student in the Buffalo State Art Conservation program, focusing on paper conservation. he was previously a conservation technician at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, treating works of art on paper, books, and photographic materials. Gwenanne received her Bachelor's in Art Conservation and Art History at the University of Delaware. During her undergraduate studies, she spent a semester in Chile studying at the Museo Arqueológico San Miguel de Azapa, where she treated an Inka textile for exhibition. Her preprogram experience also includes conservation internships at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Carole Abercauph Painting Conservation Ltd., and a photograph conservation internship at the University of Delaware. While at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, she treated works of art on paper.

Evan Knight

Evan examining a color Woodblock Print by Yoshitoshi, 1880s.

Evan Knight received his M.S. in Information Studies with a Certificate of Advanced Study in conservation from the University of Texas. While at the Historical Center, he worked on movie posters (1930s), drawings from Cheyenne scouts (1895 – 1896), and a Japanese Woodblock color print (1880s). He then made his way to Washington, D.C., to start another internship at the Library of Congress. He has experience at both public and private labs in New York City and Austin. He also likes book conservation and scholarship in the book arts, and doesn't know exactly how it happened that he earned an undergraduate business degree from Washington University in St Louis. He has a modest little blog at http://diplomaticsbooks.wordpress.com/.

Jessica Cosmas

Jessica consolidating flaking paint.

Jessica Cosmas graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in spring 2011 with majors in Chemistry and History of Art. She hopes to enter a graduate program for Art Conservation. Conservation allows her to combine her passions. She is attracted to paintings conservation because she loves to paint with oils. Her time at the Historical Center expanded her interests to include objects (thanks to a Molesworth chandelier).

Kallie Holt

Kallie using solvent to remove adhesives from old repairs on a ceramic object.

Kallie Holt is a student at the University of Iowa, majoring in art history with minors in chemistry and museum studies. She volunteers at the University of Iowa Libraries preservation lab where she treats paper, wooden, and metal objects from area museums affected by the 2008 eastern Iowa flood. She spent a summer in Florence, Italy, learning painting conservation and treating state-owned oil paintings from local church collections. While at the  Historical Center, she treated a variety of objects including a Skokomish basket, works of art on paper, and two porcelain pieces.

Kathryn McKenzie

Kathryn examining an ink drawing on tracing paper.

Kathryn McKenzie graduated with a Bachelors in Classical Civilizations and Biology from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. She developed her passion for cultural objects when attending an archaeological program in Pompeii in summer 2006. In 2007, she enrolled in the University of Toronto Museum Studies Masters Program. She has previously interned at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu to work in the conservation and collections department, and has worked with local museums in her hometown of Alva, Oklahoma, to identify and address conservation concerns. At the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, she worked on ink drawings, a ceramic, and more.

Share