Our paper conservator recently finished rehousing materials from a new addition to the museum’s archival holdings of artists’ records.  Cincinnati artist Emma Bepler (1864-1947) studied at the Art Academy.  She was a skilled wood carver and painter and worked equally well in other media.  Her family kept sketches, ephemera and plant specimens that the artist collected.  The plant specimens, some dating to the 1880s, served as reference materials for her designs.  They were mounted to paper and arrived at the archives in a stack of loose sheets.  So that they can be safely handled and stored, our paper conservator put each specimen in a 4-ply, rag mat.  The new mats can be stacked in archival boxes without crushing the desiccated flowers and leaves.  This allows the plants to be examined without directly handling them or flexing the paper mounts.  The sketchbook and scrapbook that were part of the gift were placed in custom-made acid-free 4-flap folders.  Loose sketches were interleaved and placed in folders, and the entire collection can now be safely boxed together. 

On view in the Cincinnati Wing are some of Bepler’s carved furniture pieces. Some of the leaves and flowers that she preserved may have been used as inspiration for the decorative carvings on her monumental mantel piece or easel.  Thanks to the generosity of Emma Bepler’s family, the museum can share not only her finished artworks, but can also provide to scholars a glimpse of how she developed the designs that became part of her carvings and paintings.

loose sheets of pressed flowers:

matted specimen:

inside of mat showing paper corners holding sheet in place: