A panoramic photograph of UD summer school students visiting Longwood Gardens in 1925 is getting a face-lift and more, thanks to a graduate student in photograph conservation, Jae Mentzer. She is restoring and preserving the photograph for the University Archives.

There are more than 100 people, mostly women and probably Delaware teachers, pictured in the photograph, with then-University President Walter Hullihen seated on the grass in the foreground. The women are wearing cloche hats and the dropped waistline dresses favored in those days, while the men are wearing ties, and some carry hats.

The photograph was in poor condition--torn and stained, according to Mentzer. She cleaned the photograph, mended the tears with thin Japanese paper and did some in-painting. She put a window mat on the photograph before returning it to Archives.

"I used reversible materials so that if someone wants to work on the photograph in the future, my repairs can easily be undone," she says.

Like many freshmen, Mentzer came to UD six years ago with an undeclared major but with interests in studio art, science and elementary education.

"My adviser asked me if I had ever considered art conservation. I took one course and found this was what I wanted to do. I ended up with a double major in art conservation and art history and a minor in chemistry, which is useful for a conservator. I love what I'm doing and sometimes wonder where I'd be now if I had gone to another school," Mentzer says.

Upon graduation in 2001, Mentzer was accepted into the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, where she is specializing in photograph conservation.

"The University of Delaware is one of only three schools in the country with a graduate photograph conservation program, and our services are in demand," Debra Norris, chairperson of art conservation and a photograph conservator, says. "We work on photographs from a number of different sources--museums, the University Gallery, archives and privately owned collections."

Mentzer has a large portfolio of photograph projects she has worked on over the years, including an album featuring snapshots of the Beatles, 19th century African-American photographs she treated for mold and photographs by well-known artistic photographer Gertrude Käsebier, who died in 1934.

Her interest in elementary education also has played a role in her graduate studies. Mentzer is developing lesson plans related to conservation and the preservation of cultural property, which can be used in museums' educational programs for children. "Children are excited about conservation and what we do, and it is important that they learn to value their heritage," Mentzer says.

As a graduate student, Mentzer has opportunities to work at other institutions. Last summer, she worked for the Barnes Foundation Gallery in suburban Philadelphia. This summer, she is working at the University of New Mexico and plans to spend her final year in the program at the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.

--Sue Moncure