Virginia Whelan is a textile conservator and sole proprietor of Filaments Conservation Studio, based outside Philadelphia, PA. Drawing on her breadth of experience with American artifacts particularly of the 18th and 19th century, she will explain the methods she used to conserve two needlepoint samplers for the Jay Heritage Center - one dated 1854 and donated by descendants of John Jay, the other circa 1905 and donated by descendants of Warner Van Norden and Grace Talcott. She will then take questions from the audience as to how to preserve their own heirlooms and translate the family stories they tell in threaded imagery and patterns.

Virginia specializes in historic needlework and fine textiles offering consultations and treatments of a variety of textiles including samplers, silk-on-silk and painted silk embroideries, needlework and woolwork pictures, flags, and banners. She has provided technical examination and documentation for individual textiles and performs survey assessments of entire textile collections for cultural and educational institutions like the Barnes Foundation, The Wyeth Collection, and the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia. 

Recent clients and commissions include The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia where she was hired to stabilize and frame George Washington’s Commander-in-Chief 13-star silk flag. She is working with a team to prepare George Washington’s marquee for display when the museum opens in 2015. She is also a resource for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, in Hyde Park which is overseen by U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. There she is currently treating 3 significant textiles worn or owned by FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt.

She has lectured and published extensively on her work with historic textiles. 

Read more about her recent conservation of a flag that was "witness" to the Battle of Gettysburg!

http://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=foml

$15 per person; $10 Seniors