It’s always thrilling to scrape away the covering of years and unveil more of what General Wallace’s surroundings looked like when he lived among them. The past weeks have offered exciting glimpses into both the interior and exterior of the General’s study, through the tireless work of some true professionals. […]
Study Restoration Project
33 posts
Exciting work continues here at the Study as our conservators, Brian Fick and Mary Yeager from Acanthus Arts in Indianapolis, uncover and restore more incredible decorative paint inside the historic building’s dome. Brian is spending his day 30 feet in the air, uncovering layer by layer of paint to get […]
Ella Kostanzer visited the General’s Study around 1900, and described, among other things, a scene on the domed ceiling that contained “implements of war”. Because she is the only one to recount this detail, staff and visitors alike have long hoped she was right but didn’t want to rely on […]
The end of the Study Restoration Project seems to be in sight! After months of weather delays, workers are installing the last of the copper. To make sure that the roof doesn’t leak, all the areas of the roof have to be cut and fastened exactly, from the curved corners […]
The construction crew has replaced the bucket lift they used in the fall with old-fashioned scaffolding. It looks like these final phases of the exterior Study Restoration Project will resemble when Lew Wallace first built it. I can just imagine him standing on the grounds, overseeing the final days of […]
The theme for the year is Agents of Deterioration, and believe it or not the Study roof has already begun to deteriorate! Not in the sense of leaking like a sieve the way it used to, but the shiny new copper has already begun to look not quite so new. […]
If you’ve visited the Study any time after 1976, you’ve seen the carpet covering the floor of the main room. Brightly colored and made to withstand a lot of foot traffic, the carpet made the room warmer and quieter but did not present an authentic appearance. In historic photos, we […]
…they would tell us what color they were originally! A grant from the Montgomery County Community Foundation has funded a paint analysis of the Study interior, and specialist Matthew Mosca flew in from Washington, DC, to peel back the layers of paint and tell us what the General’s Study looked […]
Restoration efforts are coming along nicely here at the Study! The striking copper finial that sits on top of the Study cupola has been chemically cleaned, polished and restored to its place of honor overlooking the Museum grounds. It was unclear at first whether the original finial, which had the […]
On a windy November day, bundled-up workers hammer the joints where the copper sheets meet the battens on the dome roof. After hammering the copper together, they will solder the joints to make them watertight. It’s a very time-consuming process! Meanwhile, more workers are lying down on the job to […]