CONSERVATION ENDOWMENT
An anonymous donor generously stepped forward to establish a $400,000 restricted endowment fund for conservation. This fund was created in response to the needs and objectives identified in the Museum’s Long Range Conservation Initiative completed in 1999. This conservation initiative is based upon collection-wide surveys conducted by a team of conservators from the Williamstown Art Conservation Center and the Textile Conservation Workshop. Data derived from these assessments was used to inform and develop a ten-year schedule to address those areas of the permanent collection exhibiting the greatest need and historical importance.

Income generated from this restricted fund will consequently support the preservation and conservation of the permanent collection while eliminating the attendant costs from the Museum’s annual budget. As time goes by, the fund will grow as the collection grows, thereby ensuring a crucial source of dedicated income to secure the preservation of the objects in our care. More than foresight, this gift represents a bold and progressive step in preserving the legacy for many generations to come.

EXPANSION
The 1989 addition of the Education Wing transformed The Hyde into a modern museum complex. With it came secure, climate-controlled art storage, workshop space, and new public galleries to accommodate a growing permanent collection, an active exhibition schedule, and a variety of programs. Fourteen years later, however, the Museum’s success and continued growth revealed the limitations of the facility.

The art storage area was filled to capacity making it increasingly difficult to responsibly accept new gifts. In addition, one undersized (and over-utilized) space served for general storage, minor on-site conservation, the carpentry shop, and the loading dock’s receiving area combined. Moreover, given our lack of space the art studio often became a de facto general storage area as well, thus negatively impacting our educational and family programs.

Consequently, on December 11, 2002, the Museum broke ground to commence construction of a 6,600 square foot addition. The new space created a vital behind-the-scenes support center for the Museum’s public programming. Today, the expansion has more than doubled our art storage capacity; provided a dedicated fabrication shop to support an improved exhibition schedule; created a clean, secure collections management space; a general storage area to accommodate exhibition furniture and crates; and a secure, enclosed loading and receiving area to accept traveling exhibitions and loans. As a result, this expansion has enabled us to minimize, if not entirely eliminate, those disruptions that had accompanied the installation and de-installation of our exhibitions and thus compromised visitor experience.

Overcrowded conditions in the old art storage made it increasingly difficult to properly store and care for the paintings, works on paper, sculpture, furniture, textiles, ceramics, metals, and other objects that comprise the permanent collection. Incorporating additional storage space was critically important to insure the long-term preservation of the collection.

To further enhance the space and improve upon the environmental conditions and safety of art storage, new high-density storage systems are slated to be installed in both the new and old storage areas. State-of-the-art units designed by Biblio Design, Ltd. will include a mobile compact storage system, lateral painting racks, wall-mounted racks, and flat files. Modifications to the old art storage space will include a new storage system for rolled textiles and cases to protect the silver, pewter, and costume collections.

HISTORIC HYDE HOUSE
Hyde House is among the few surviving examples of American Renaissance architecture found in upstate New York. The prominent Boston architect Henry Forbes Bigelow (1867-1929) designed the two-and-a-half story Italian Renaissance-style villa between 1910 and 1912 to provide the ideal setting for Louis and Charlotte Hyde to display their growing collection of Old Master paintings and antique furnishings. Bigelow also designed the two homes adjacent to Hyde House, owned by Charlotte Hyde’s sisters. Together these three homes created a large family property of some ten acres integrated by similar building materials, façade lines, and landscape design by Brett & Hall who designed the grounds along the lines of an Italian villa. Located on the bluffs of the Hudson River, the homes overlooked the family’s paper industry, Finch, Pruyn and Company. Today, all three houses are owned by The Hyde Collection and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hyde House, the most ambitious of Bigelow’s Glens Falls commissions and the largest structure of the group, incorporates elements of the domestic villa architecture of Renaissance Florence evidenced by the restrained symmetry of the stucco façade, decorative balustrade, and ornamental coat of arms centered above the entablature. The Italian Renaissance character of the house, with its large well-lit interior atrium courtyard, loggias, galleria, and skylights, provided the suitable space for the developing Hyde art collection. This unusual integration of light, space, and privacy was conducive to the display and appreciation of great works of art.

The interiors of Hyde House epitomize the spirit of the American Renaissance. Like their contemporaries, the Hydes appropriated the culture of Europe through the accumulation of objects such as tapestries, antique furniture, and Old Master paintings. Hyde House is distinguished from other contemporary collections, such as The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and The Frick Collection, by its location in Glens Falls, New York, a small industrial city nestled at the foothills of the Adirondack mountains.

STUCCO
Hyde House, like many other houses built in America at the turn of the century, is actually a wood frame structure covered with stucco. While this kind of construction may have satisfied Louis and Charlotte Hyde in the short term, the house probably began to crack not long after it was built in 1912. The cracking and crazing of the stucco was not an immediate concern to the Hydes; after all, they employed a faux painter to simulate cracks on the inside courtyard stucco walls to give them a patina of age. However, with time, water entering the building through these cracks contributed to the failure of the stucco, and by 1990 the majority of the original stucco had been replaced.

To address the stucco problem the Museum hired nationally recognized Mesick-Cohen-Wilson-Baker Architects, a firm based in Albany, New York whose focus is historic preservation, to complete an Exterior Conditions Survey of Hyde House (1999). The architects concluded that the stucco’s failure was the result of a variety of forces working together and was exacerbated by the northeastern climate. The primary problem was thermal movement. Put simply, stucco expands and contracts as the outside temperature fluctuates. Because expansion joints had not yet been introduced in home construction when Hyde House was built, the hard stucco cracked between the windows and at the corners of the house. The expansion and contraction of the stucco was further intensified by the movement of the structure’s wood frame which fluctuated with changes in humidity. Moreover, the deterioration of the stucco had been worsened by the introduction of humidity necessary for the preservation of the artwork displayed in Hyde House.

An analysis of the stucco revealed that the first two layers of the original three-coat system were comprised of soft lime stucco (also called "rendering"). The final finish coat of stucco consisted of the much harder Portland cement. As humidity passed through the exterior walls it was trapped in the first two softer layers of lime. Small probes made into the exterior wall revealed that the water-saturated lime eventually leached out of the inner stucco layers causing the stucco to fail. In some cases, the stucco fell off the building in large sheets.

The restoration project sought to replicate the original finish of the house. Nothing can be done to alter the external temperature conditions, and the installation of a vapor barrier and insulation was not possible given the intricacies of the original wall construction assembly. From a preservationist’s perspective, the installation of unsightly expansion joints around the entire house is an anathema; therefore, the architects developed another method to address this problem.

Over the past several years there has been a rediscovery of the manufacturing and application techniques of low-temperature fired, high calcium, pure lime mortars. These mortars exhibit a high degree of both vapor permeability and annealing characteristics. There has been a recent emergence of pure lime-based mortars, stuccoes, and washes here in the United States, and it is very likely that the application of this kind of material has not been used on the exterior of any American building for over one hundred years. However, European conservators have developed, tested, and successfully applied lime stuccoes for over thirty years on their historic buildings using pure, high-calcium lime from St. Astier’s, France.

After consulting with building conservation experts at the Scottish Lime Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland, who determined it would be best to apply St. Astier’s high calcium lime stucco, rendering to the walls of Hyde House. The vapor permeability characteristics of this kind of stucco should alleviate the trapping of moisture in the stucco, and its annealing properties will assist in preventing thermal movement cracking. While the lime-based stucco is not necessarily a "cure-all", it will help extend the life of the stucco finish for generations to come.

Since there are precious few modern plasterers experienced in the application of pure lime stuccoes, the plasterers applying the stucco to Hyde House followed the guidance of Alex Hylands, an experienced plasterer and "renderer" from Scotland. Mr. Hylands instructed his American counterparts on how to properly mix, apply, and protect the surface of the stucco until it properly cured. Unlike Portland cement-based stucco, lime-based stucco must be kept damp and protected from the elements for at least thirty days before it can be exposed to the weather. Proper curing and a host of other concerns was the focus of Mr. Hylands’ training procedures, and now the American plasterers are experienced in this newly rediscovered material. We expect that other historic sites across the United States will benefit from this project as well.

FURNISHING PLAN
Furnishing Plans compile accurate information about a historic building and its contents and are used by museums nationwide. The Hyde Furnishing Plan is the chief document that guided the interior restoration of Hyde House and represents four years of intensive research. The Museum is in the unique position to retain almost all of its original contents; that is, furniture, upholstery fabrics, curtains, and rugs, as well as a distinguished collection of paintings, sculpture, and works on paper. Few museums can claim that their collections assembled by one family are so well preserved and documented. The interiors of Hyde House have been restored to reflect the time period from 1936 to 1959, an exciting era when the house was being transformed from Louis and Charlotte Hyde’s private residence into a public museum.

Utilizing the best conservators in the field, approximately twenty-seven pieces of furniture in the permanent collection received conservation treatment, while curtains, rugs, and upholstery fabrics were carefully recreated by the top suppliers known using original documents in the Museum’s collection. The furnishings were returned, room by room, to their Hyde-era location.

Mrs. Hyde’s bequest, established in 1952, made clear her intention that her home and its contents act as an enduring educational and cultural resource and that the art collection be displayed to foster enjoyment and promote study. The reinstallation of paintings and works on paper reflects her astute eye for collecting Old Master paintings, and nineteenth and early twentieth century European and American art. The newly restored rooms create a meaningful ensemble of fine and decorative arts fused together by decades of collecting, patronage, and family history.

Now, Hyde House has opened its doors to the brilliance of the past and the promise of a bright future. Carefully restored and thoughtfully preserved for generations to come, Hyde House will provide visitors with a more engaging and educational experience than ever before.

INTERIOR PAINT ANALYSIS
A first-time historic paint study of the interior walls, ceiling, and trim of each room in Hyde House was conducted by Susan L. Buck, Ph.D., conservator and paint analyst. Paint analysis is a widely used and highly instructive archeological tool in the field of historic preservation. It accurately identifies paint and varnishes on the interior surfaces of historic buildings such as Hyde House. One of the objectives of the Museum’s Furnishing Plan was to use the paint analysis to understand the evolution of the interior of the house and to accurately determine the appropriate color for the period of interpretation. Dr. Buck took forty-three paint samples from Hyde House for cross-section microscopy during her January 2002 site visit. She returned to her lab and cast the paint samples in resin, grinding and then polishing them to expose the cross-section. She then photographed the cast samples through a microscope. After close examination she identified the paint pigment and produced color matches utilizing a Minolta Chroma Meter to match the historic pigment to the closest Benjamin Moore commercial paint color swatches available.

The results of the analysis were published in Dr. Buck’s report, which reveals that there are at least five generations of paint in the areas sampled. One of the earliest dates to 1936, the year Mrs. Hyde hired interior decorator Anton Sattler of New York to apply canvas and then paint the interior walls, ceilings, and trim of her Glens Falls home. The 1936 palette differed considerably from the colors, which were applied years after Mrs. Hyde’s death, in 1970 and 1985, respectively. The house has been returned to its 1936 color scheme because it is the only fully documented interior painting campaign that dates to Mrs. Hyde’s lifetime and is, therefore, an indicator of her taste and preference for interior decoration.

UPHOLSTERY CONSERVATION
Of the twenty seven pieces of antique furniture slated for conservation treatment as part of the Furnishing Plan, the duchesse brisée, more commonly known as a chaise longue, received top priority due to its deteriorated condition. The upholstery fabric was weak and degraded, exhibiting large areas of loss and tears (Fig. 2). This object is closely associated with the Museum’s founder Charlotte Pruyn Hyde who, along with her husband Louis Hyde, purchased the chaise in 1913 from Aux Vieux Gobelins in Paris. Shortly thereafter their Parisian friend and antiques dealer Gaston Arnoux repaired and reupholstered the chair in green leather. Sometime in the 1930s Mrs. Hyde had the leather upholstery removed and the chaise re-covered in a rose-colored damask. At this time, she had the wooden surfaces painted a taupe color, which covered an earlier green paint.

Between 1936 and 1963, Mrs. Hyde used the chaise in her bedroom. It was positioned by the interior window overlooking the courtyard below from where she could view the art classes taking place in her home (Fig. 1). In 1959 an article on Hyde House appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, which described how this object was used. The reporter Ralph Knight stated, "Mrs. Hyde has a chaise longue in her bedroom beside one of the indoor windows overlooking the courtyard below. During uncounted hours she has sat there watching boys and girls and talent-maturing adults who, under the guidance of Curator Joseph J. Dodge, paint there among the paintings of geniuses."

To restore Mrs. Hyde’s chaise longue a damask by the Humphries Weaving Company, the only hand weavers of patterned silks in the British Isles was selected. The reproduction, an eighteenth-century floral design, the Small-Buxton Damask, is similar in scale, design motif, and fiber content to the original upholstery. The yarns were custom-dyed to match the original damask and the fabric was handwoven at the Humphries Mill in North Essex, England. Upholstery conservator Gwen Spicer returned the chaise longue to its Hyde-era presentation.

The upholstery fabric on the three French chairs was deteriorated to the point where it was no longer presentable (Fig. 2). To recapture the look and feel of the original lampas, the Museum worked with Scalamandré, a leading fabric house specializing in historic fabrics, to develop a reproduction of the original eighteenth-century textile. The artists at Scalamandré’s design studio have faithfully copied every minute detail of the original design from the delicate plumes of the foliage to the elaborate diamond-shaped scrollwork (Fig. 3). Upholstery conservator Elizabeth Lahikainen carefully applied the new fabric to these chairs, which have been reinstalled in their original location in the downstairs guest bedroom of Hyde House.

CURTAINS
Shortly after Hyde House was completed in 1912, Louis and Charlotte Hyde installed three pairs of early-nineteenth century French printed cotton (toile) curtains in the downstairs bedroom. Toile is a French term used to describe carefully drawn mythological, historic, or pastoral subjects printed on cotton in a single monochromatic color. These highly pictorial fabrics (similar to etchings) have been popular home furnishings since the late-eighteenth century. These window treatments remained in Hyde House until 1980 when they were removed due to their brittle and decayed condition. They were replaced with ivory-colored, commercial-grade curtains. The toile curtains were retired to the Museum’s textile storage area for study, and are evidence of the Hydes’ taste in eighteenth-century French furnishings.

To recreate the look and feel of the original curtains, the Museum worked with Brunschwig & Fils, a specialist in French fabrics, especially toile. It was decided to use one of their existing toiles known as Le Kakatoes rather than to reproduce the original design. The Brunschwig fabric was selected based on its similarity in scale and subject to the original. A sample of the Hydes’ curtain was sent for color matching, and after going back and forth with color trials and corrections, the fabric was dyed in France and shipped to the Museum. The construction of the curtains was replicated from the original set. The ball-fringe trim used on the original curtain was replicated and custom-dyed by Classic Revivals.