Happenings Around the House: The White Gloves Gang

Members of the "white gloves gang" with the WWH staff and President Wilson!

Painting storage before
 the arrival of the volunteers.

On October 22nd, the President Woodrow Wilson House hosted five volunteers from the “White Gloves Gang.” Named after the white gloves that museum professionals wear when handling artifacts, members of the gang are museum professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines that volunteer their time  to assist with various museum projects. The service day is organized by the annual Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums Conference held this year in D.C. from October 22-24^th. The conference aims to bring together a wide variety of museum professionals to create a collective forum that allows for the sharing of ideas and continued improvement of the museum field. On the first day of the event, participants can choose to participate in a project at a local museum. Volunteers assigned to the President Woodrow Wilson House assisted the staff by helping renovate our painting storage closet.

Newly refinished shelving. 

Wilson House staff were excited to receive the extra helping hands and have been prepping all week for their arrival. Because the volunteers would only be at our site for one day, the staff needed to complete some preliminary work. On Monday, staff members removed all the paintings from the top and bottom shelves. The paintings were then cleaned and the old archival wrapping was discarded. They were then organized by size, to make it easier to return them to the shelves, and set aside. The shelves were then cleaned and prepped for the application of new archival material.

Some of the volunteers have fun while re-lining the shelves!

The volunteers wrap and catalog the many paintings. 

  On Wednesday, the Wilson House staff eagerly greeted the five volunteers and immediately put them to work. Two members of the “white gloves gang,” with experience in painting storage began relining the shelving units. The three other volunteers started cataloging and photographing all the paintings to make sure they were all accurately recorded in the museum’s inventory. Finally, the paintings were wrapped in archival material, to preserve their condition, and returned to the shelves.  

Volunteers re-shelve the paintings. 

The hard work done by the "white gloves gang" and the President Woodrow Wilson House staff will help to preserve the condition of these paintings for years to come! A big thank you to all our volunteers! 
-Madison Keller, Fall 2014 Intern 

WWH collections housekeeper Elena Popchock and a
                volunteer attach an inventory label to a painting.

Newly completed painting storage!

Newly completed painting storage!