Paper has long held a special kind of magic for Sarah Purnell. “I’ve always had an interest in drawing over painting. It has something to do with the materiality of paper, and the media that we apply to it,” she said. “A lot of art originates with a drawing—architecture, sculpture, painting. It’s the foundation of all art, in my eyes.”          

Originally from New Jersey, Purnell majored in fine art in college. “I loved working with my hands, I loved art and art history, and conservation felt like an awesome way to synthesize all those interests,” she said. Now a second-year paper major in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), Purnell's current project is an 1895 paper kite measuring roughly 11 by 14 inches from Korea’s Joseon dynasty, part of a collection donated to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  

“I’m excited because the kite is a composite object,” she said. “It’s not only made of paper, but also bamboo and adhesive and has a thread as a kite line.” The rectangular kite, colored gray-blue and red, has a decorative gold circle at the top that may be metal leaf—a substance she hopes to confirm. A “wind window” in the middle reveals the bamboo supports, or spars.

Purnell has enjoyed learning about the cultural and historical significance of kites like these, often flown on the Lunar New Year. “It’s tradition, based on some sources, to cut the kite line and to allow the kite to fly away, which brings good fortune,” she said. “But there’s also a legend that a Korean general once sent a kite into the sky carrying a lantern. His troops thought it was a rising star, and it boosted their morale.”

The treatment plan for the kite will be designed collaboratively with the Penn Museum and will involve addressing embedded grime with surface cleaning, “which will be challenging, because that paper is made of long fibers. It’s very soft and delicate,” she said. Purnell also plans to repair small tears with pulp fills. “I may do a little bit of humidification and flattening, because the kite has some creases and the edges are curling,” she added. And because one bamboo spar is missing a section, she expects to collaborate with WUDPAC’s Objects Lab to potentially recreate it.

Purnell's goal is to stabilize the kite to help it soar again—if not into the sky, then into a new life where it can be safely studied and admired.