Conservation & Preservation

By Ashley Wedge

Ashley Wedge and Drew Doebelin work on mold remediation. Cleaning Isaac Newton Sitton's desk from the Civil War Era.

This week I researched information about Callaway’s fire department and their history, as well as helping clean items while learning about mold remediation, and learned how to encapsulate documents.

Ashley Wedge learning how to clean documents from 1855.

I gathered photos and facts about the different fire departments, from horse-drawn wagons to the engines, and learned a little about how it was to fight fires in the 1800s. The tasks regarding the fire department research is to prepare for the 9/11 commemoration event the Historical Society is doing alongside Westminster College. I enjoyed learning about Callaway’s fire department to be able to display and honor them at this event. 

KCHS is partnering with Westminster College to honor the 25th Anniversary of 9/11.

I was very interested in learning about encapsulating documents, I thought the process would have been much more complicated, but after it was explained to me, I was thinking, “What else is next? This can’t be it”. But it was really interesting to learn how to preserve documents. 

While cleaning items, there was an old record player, which was very fascinating to look at and see all the different engravings it had.  

Ashley Wedge and Drew Deobelin clean an old Victor Talking Machine.