2007 Grand Canyon History Symposium

Janet Balsom and Brynn Bender
Janet's work at GRCA began as a volunteer on the North Rim in the summer of 1981. She became a seasonal employee in 1982, and served as Park Archaeologist from 1984 until 1995. She now directs the cultural resource program as the Chief of Cultural Resources for Grand Canyon National Park. In this capacity, she oversees the museum collection, historic preservation program, archaeological and Indian consultation programs. She provides technical direction for cultural resource involvement related to federal environmental and preservation compliance, archaeological inventory and monitoring, and interpretation and preservation of historic resources. Janet received her Bachelor's in anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1980. She completed her Master's in anthropology at Arizona State University in 1984, which included a thesis on Grand Canyon archaeology. Janet has worked for various archeological consultants, including Arizona State University and the State of New York Archaeological Survey, along with an internship at the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office. In addition to her work with the National Park Service, she serves as a committee member on the Arizona State Historic Sites Review Committee and an advisory board member for the Grand Canyon Music Festival.

Brynn has been with the National Park Service as a conservator of cultural materials at the Western Archeological and Conservation Center in Tucson, for the past 5 years. She received her M.A. specializing in art conservation from the State University of New York College at Buffalo in 2000. Brynn has worked at the Museum of New Mexico, the National Museum of Ethnology in the Netherlands, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and for numerous private conservators. She began working with Grand Canyon National Park in 2003 to stabilize the historic river boat collection. This is one of the many projects that the park service's only western conservation lab is doing for museum collections in our national parks.

Presentation Abstract...

From Courtyard to Conservation: The Grand Canyon Historic Boat Conservation Project :   The historic Colorado River boat collection at Grand Canyon National Park contains a number of regionally significant boats which contribute to the river running history of the Colorado River. These boats had been deteriorating for more than thirty years due to environmentally uncontrolled display in the Park Headquarters courtyard exhibit area and storage in substandard wooden sheds. These boats, the earliest used in 1909, exhibit the story of their use in every scrape and scratch on their frames. These marks are part of their history, and stabilization and conservation of the physical remains of the boats is essential if we are to conserve these fragile and non-renewable resources as part of the legacy of the Colorado River.

This presentation will highlight the process the NPS has undertaken to research and document the boats and the conservation process that will allow these icons of river history to be on display again.