Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will conduct a detailed conservation survey of 7,500 photographs in the Gilman Collection of photography. With exceptional examples of 19th-century French, British, and American photographs, as well as stunning examples from the turn-of-the-century and modernist periods, this collection has played a central role in establishing photography's historical canon and has long set the standard for connoisseurship in the field. The project will allow for each photograph to be examined, documented for its current condition, and assessed for future conservation treatment or analysis; housed in a manner that allows for safe handling by museum curators, photographers, and technicians; and undergo treatment, if needed, to address any conditions that might be exacerbated by handling. This project will allow the museum to share these seminal works of art with its community.