February 2010
Many of the thousands of visitors each year to the National Railway Museum would be surprised to learn that among its vast collections it holds a small treasure of stained glass, witness to a glorious era when railway companies used stained glass to decorate their boardrooms, offices and waiting rooms.
In the summer of 2009 a collaboration between the museum and the University of York allowed Nancy Georgi, stained glass conservator and postgraduate MA student in Stained Glass Conservation and Heritage Management, to thoroughly research, catalogue, report on condition, and conserve this unique collection. From collating data to tracking unrecorded historical conservation treatments and physically taking panels down for examination, Nancy went though this painstaking task with dedication and professionalism. The outcome of her research revealed and resolved problems related to inconsistent terminology, storage conditions, the agents of deterioration, and unknown manufacturing techniques. More used to the conservation of medieval stained glass, Nancy’s project at the NRM allowed her to work with more modern materials, including many Art Nouveau designs.