Currently at the Memorial & Museum

Conservator Assists with Preservation of Historic Beam

January 30, 2009

Conservator Victoria Book was brought in to stabilize an exposed beam, which was left as it was on April 19, 1995, in the historic Journal Record building that houses the Memorial Museum. The beam, originally installed in the building in the 1920s, was covered in plaster and painted. After the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing damaged the building, the rough edges and broken plaster of the beam exemplified the damage the building sustained and survived.

The extreme amount of water that poured over the beam during a January 16 mechanical malfunction caused the plaster to begin to crack and fall and the paint to begin to peel. Book will be working with a variety of consolidants to stabilize the beam so that no further damage is done. She will use tools including spatulas and syringes to delicately seal the cracks and secure those pieces in danger of breaking or flaking away from the beam. The Memorial's goal is to preserve a specific moment in time, and to prevent future deterioration
of the beam.

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