Project Title: A Color-Filled History
BASIS Advisor: Dr. Ryan Grove
Internship Location: Library of Congress-Preservation Research & Testing Division
Onsite Mentor: Jamie Shetzline
Colored pigments are the base of most artistic materials. This makes them a significant piece in art conservation and restoration when trying to protect, fix, authenticate, date, or understand different pieces of art. In order to gain a better understanding of the materials in question, the Library of Congress has started an effort to describe and map the creation, sale, and use of different pigments over time. This project will attempt to complete one piece of this endeavor: the color yellow. It will focus on collecting data on a number of the pigments’ attributes, including physical and chemical characteristics, use, origin, and movement from historical accounts, reports, and scientific experiments. It will ultimately be compiled into a report and accompanying visuals that will provide a better understanding of the pigments and their history, and act as a guide for future studies.
My Posts
Week 10 – Final Presentation!
May 29, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! It’s the last time I’ll be saying that. Now my internship is over and my senior project is finished, so all that’s left is to share with you all my final presentation: That’s all I’ve got for this week. Thanks for joining me on this adventure, I hope you enjoyed […]
Week 10 – And Now, the End…
May 22, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! This week was bittersweet. Friday marks the end of my internship. I had a wonderful time working with everyone in the PRTD. I spent the week wrapping everything up for my internship, including but not limited to: writing a research paper about the work I did, giving my final presentation to the […]
Week 9 – Researching Recipes
May 15, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! Since I finished my pigment maps last week, I am now returning to their write-ups for the final step in my reports: collecting historical recipes. In most cases, pigment recipes will change over time, due to factors like the depletion or discovery of materials or progress in science. The former requires manufacturers […]
Week 8 – Making Maps and Traversing Tableau
May 08, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! As I have said before, one of my goals for my senior project is to create interactive maps of a pigment’s use over time for each of my five chosen pigments. These can be used to help researchers find hotspots of the pigment’s use and gain a better understanding of its origin […]
Week 7 – Observing Orpiment
May 01, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! I spent this week studying another toxic yellow pigment – orpiment. The use of orpiment began in antiquity, but it is interesting because it is one of the few yellow pigments that has (almost entirely) fallen out of use. This is, as you probably guessed, due to its toxic nature. When I […]
Week 6 – Looking At Lead Antimony Yellow
Apr 24, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! This week I continued my color research with lead-antimony yellow — more commonly known as Naples yellow. Naples yellow is one of the oldest synthetic pigments, with its use dating back to Ancient Egypt. It was initially used primarily in colored glass or glazes, but became a popular pigment for oil paint […]
Week 5 – Learning About Lead-tin Yellow
Apr 17, 2020
Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a good week. This week I continued my research into the history of pigment use with the color lead-tin yellow. There are actually two types of lead-tin yellow: lead-tin yellow type I ( Pb2SnO4 ) and lead-tin yellow type II ( Pb(Sn,Si)O3 ). The confusing thing is […]
Week 4 – Investigating Indian Yellow
Apr 10, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! I continued my research this week with a very similar process as last week, just with a new color. Once again, I was looking for the title, artist, pigment use, date of creation, and location of creation. As the name may suggest, the Indian yellow pigment was primarily made and used in […]
Week 3 – Collecting Chrome Yellow
Apr 03, 2020
Welcome back everyone! I’m back to my research this week. I’m starting to look at more specific dates and places that different pigments were used in history. The plan is to create a map of usage for each of the five pigments I mentioned last week, starting with chrome yellow. Right now that means sorting […]
Week 2 – Looking at the History
Mar 28, 2020
Hi everyone! I’ve gotten into a good routine with my teleworking now. I’ve spent most of the week researching once again, alternating between working on collecting information for the general pigment list I mentioned last week and taking notes and writing more detailed histories for each of the five pigments I chose. Those histories looked […]
Week 1.5 – Stuck at Home and Studying
Mar 20, 2020
Hello everyone and welcome back to my Senior Project blog! As you can probably guess, I don’t have anything super exciting to report for this week. I decided to not take off for Spring Break, but I’m still working from home, which means I’m mostly doing independent research. Most of my time this week was […]
Week 1 – Tours and Training
Mar 15, 2020
Welcome back, everyone! This first week has really flown by. My first week on-site was super busy, but I had a ton of fun. My first few days were spent doing the required training and getting no less than three different tours of the building and labs. I managed to get all of the basic […]
Introduction to a History of Color
Mar 08, 2020
Hello everyone! My name is Lieselotte Dubert and I would like to welcome you all to my Senior Project on the history of color! In the following weeks, I will embark on an in-depth study of the use of colored pigments in art. My interest in pigments came from my life-long love of art. I […]