Information for Curators and Conservators

This page was new on our Website as of September 22, 2004, and was revised March 28, 2006.

Our purpose here is to address issues of particular importance to professional readers who have conservation/restoration requirements and may not have considered professional resources available outside the institutional world.

Background

We established MacDowell Laboratories in January of 1970, with the purpose of developing new applications for modern technical materials in the conservation of objects, especially those fashioned of ceramic material.

In the early 1990's, we added the name MacDowell Restorations, as we felt it better described our actual field of endeavor. MacDowell Laboratories continues for R&D activities.

Having witnessed years of trials and tribulations of others in the field owing to the lack of predictable and high-quality materials and techniques for doing actual conservation work, and seeing that these methods were harmful to the objects (sanding, grinding, drilling, etc.) we knew that, given enough time and determination, far better methods would evolve.

At the very beginning, we joined the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC), shortly thereafter the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and, during the same time frame, the Washington Conservation Guild. We continue to be participants in the Conservation Dist List and are active in our never-ending quest for improvements to materials and methodology.

Much to the credit of other members, we have received substantial support for this project and shall be eternally grateful for the cooperation and openness of the individuals who were so vitally important to us in formulating methods which meet the ethical requirements of institutions and are commercially viable.

To the institutions that have supported our work over these many years by commissioning numbers of highly interesting conservation projects, we offer our heartfelt thanks.

And we are most grateful for the generous support and evaluation samples provided by so many adhesive, coatings and equipment manufacturers over these many years.

Please contact us (click the link in the left panel). We shall welcome an opportunity to collaborate with you on your next conservation project.

Sincerely yours,

Robert K. and Karin B. MacDowell

*In case you arrived on this page through an Internet search (possibly by using our name mis-spelled McDowell in the phrase McDowell Restorations or McDowell Laboratories), please click the following link to start at our main site:

MacDowell Restorations Home Page