Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial Restoration

About

African American National Historic Site on the Boston Common – Boston, MA

2021

 

The memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) on the Boston Common consists of a large bronze relief approximately 11’-6” high by 14’ wide set within a stone surround. In 2020 to 2021, the National Park Service, the City of Boston, the Friends of the Public Garden, and the Museum of African American History coordinated a major restoration of the memorial. We were part of a team of conservators and specialists tasked with ensuring the safe restoration, deinstallation, transportation, and reinstallation of the bronze relief. Work was performed in the studio to restore structural damage to the bronze including the recreation of Shaw’s sword blade in PVC and to clean the bronze, renew the patina, and apply protective coatings of incralac and wax.