Located on the Main Post of San Francisco's Presidio, the Walt Disney Family Museum tells Disney's story through interactive galleries, original artifacts, and more. On a day-to-day operational basis, one of the museum's biggest responsibilities is the proper preservation and safe display of thousands of priceless historical artifacts. To ensure that these pieces of history are properly protected and accurately preserved, the museum employs a conservation department specializing in material analysis, conservation treatments, preservation, and proper handling and display. One of the most critical tools utilized by this department for their work is a high-performance stereo microscope that allows the extremely precise viewing and analysis of both flat and dimensional objects. To learn more about the Olympus SZ61 microscope, visit: http://www.olympus-ims.com/en/microscope/sz61/

1. Preserving a Legend:
Industrial Microscopy and
Artifact Conservation at the
Walt Disney Family Museum

2. “Our department specializes in preserving all of the
objects we receive here that will become part of a
special exhibit or our permanent collection. What that
entails is examining these objects for long-term
stability, analyzing their deterioration or degradation,
and working with our registration department to create
proper storage housing for each object, ensuring a
stable environment for the object that will slow down or
inhibit any deterioration that may already be occurring.”
Tonja Morris
Objects Conservator
The Walt Disney Family Museum

3. Background
The 40,000-square-foot Walt
Disney Family Museum tells
Walt Disney’s story through
interactive galleries, original
artifacts, video screens, listening
stations, a Fantasia-themed
theater, and a 13-foot model
of Disneyland as Disney originally
envisioned it. One of the museum’s
biggest responsibilities is the proper preservation and safe display of
thousands of priceless historical artifacts—personal objects that belonged
to Disney and his family, pieces of animation art, original animation cels,
early examples of Disney merchandising, equipment used by Disney and
his team, and much more.
Exterior of The Walt Disney Family Museum, located on the Main
Post of San Francisco’s Presidio. (Photo courtesy of The Walt
Disney Family Museum.)

4. Background
To ensure that these pieces of history are properly
protected—and in many cases accurately
preserved—the museum employs
a conservation department specializing in
material analysis, conservation treatments,
preservation, and proper handling and display.
One of the most critical tools utilized by this
department for their work is an Olympus SZ61
stereo microscope that allows the precise viewing
and analysis of both flat and dimensional objects.
The compact Olympus SZ61 stereo microscope offers
a practical range of functions and delivers 3D images
with true color, high resolution, and no distortion.

5. Preservation
Process
“Our department specializes
in preserving all of the objects
we receive here that will become
part of a special exhibit or our
permanent collection,” said
Tonja Morris, objects conservator
at The Walt Disney Family Museum.
“What that entails is examining
these objects for long-term stability,
analyzing their deterioration or
degradation, and working with our registration department to create proper
storage housing for each object, ensuring a stable environment for the object
that will slow down or inhibit any deterioration that may already be occurring.”
The Walt Disney Family Museum includes a 13-foot model of
Disneyland as Walt Disney originally envisioned it. (Photo
courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum. All Disney
characters copyrighted by Disney.)

6. Preservation Process
“In relation to exhibition, we examine each object to see if it is stable enough to
go on public display,“ continued Morris. “If we determine that something is not,
then it’s our job to prepare the object for display in the museum. In the case of
animation art, for example, one of the common problems is that the animation
cels are made of materials that do not age well over time and may be buckling
or yellowing. If this is the case, we then have to determine if the animation cels
and their paint media would be able to withstand being on display without
suffering further deterioration.”

7. Preservation Process
Morris continued, “We use our Olympus SZ61 stereo microscope
to determine and characterize the paint layers on each cel, giving
ourselves a sense of exactly what is happening on a microscopic
level within these layers. Without magnification, these cels can often
appear completely stable. Under magnification, however, we may
notice small cracks or fissures beginning to appear within the paint
surfaces. From there, we can investigate where these cracks are
originating from and what we can do to stabilize the materials,
preventing further deterioration and ensuring long-term preservation.”

8. Damage
Treatment
Beyond discovering and assessing
object deterioration or damage,
the SZ61 microscope is also used
by Morris and her team to carry out
treatments that address said damage.
In the case of animation cels, paint
lifting and cracking that may be made
worse by room vibrations while on
display is improved by stabilizing the paint in question, a procedure that is done
under high magnification. “Working under the microscope, we carefully apply an
adhesive system, or consolidant, to damaged paint areas, filling in cracked and
damaged areas so they cannot worsen while on exhibit,” Morris explained.
Among the museum’s many features is a Fantasia-themed
theater. (Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum.
All Disney characters copyrighted by Disney.)

9. Damage Treatment
“This is an area of preservation that is greatly enhanced by microscope
usage—in the past, we had to take much more of a hands-off approach
to this type of conservation treatment as the naked eye does not afford
the level of precision needed to accurately apply our adhesive system,”
Morris continued. “The SZ61 also allows us to identify what is truly the
root cause of the damage we are seeing—or not seeing—without magnification,
allowing us to determine what is definitively our best
course of action in terms of conserving the item.”

10. Technique
Analysis
Another benefit to working with an
industrial microscope is that it gives
museum staff members a chance to
learn more about an artist’s technique
and the materials they worked with.
One example of this is when the
museum was examining a painting
by renowned Disney artist Mary Blair
(Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan,
Song of the South, Cinderella) prior
to an exhibit of her work.
The Walt Disney Family Museum Objects Conservator
Tonja Morris uses the Olympus SZ61 stereo microscope
to examine Alice falling down the rabbit hole, conceptual
artwork by renowned Disney artist Mary Blair. (Photo
courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum. All Disney
characters copyrighted by Disney.)

11. Technique Analysis
“While investigating the condition of one of Blair’s paintings, we were taking a
closer look at what appeared to be white paint strokes,” explained Morris.
“What we realized while looking at the strokes under high magnification,
however, was that they were not paint strokes at all but rather areas of the
painting that Blair had actually scratched out of the piece. Any areas
appearing to be white were not white paint but instead white ground layers
made visible by Blair scratching out the paint above. This is something we
never would have known without looking at her work under a microscope.”

12. Technique Analysis
Following this discovery, Morris and her team then took a closer look at some
of Blair’s other work, learning that this was a technique she applied to many
other paintings during a period of time in her work. “This type of insight really
gives us a chance to better understand an artist’s method,” Morris said.
“And the more we know about an artist, the better we can preserve their
work. In this case, we determined that what may have previously been thought
to be areas of damage were not damage at all but rather the
places where Blair placed the point of a hard tool to begin these scratches.”

13. Technique Analysis
The museum also uses the SZ61 to determine if and where an artist changed
their approach to a piece while working on it. “In the past, we would have had
no way of knowing if an artist may have changed their mind about something
midway through a piece,” said Morris. “Today, however, we have the power to
really determine the whole story of an artist’s approach. For example, if we see
an under layer of black paint beneath a layer of blue, this might indicate that
that portion of a painting was originally painted black, giving us an even
deeper look into that artist’s process and thinking.”

14. Examination of
3D Objects
Beyond two-dimensional objects,
the museum also uses its microscope
system for the examination of three-
dimensional pieces. “We use the SZ61
for a variety of dimensional objects,”
said Morris. “In the area of ceramics,
I’ve used it to assess the condition of
ceramics and their glazes as well as
identify whether different-colored glazes
are on top or below a clear glaze, if there
is a clear glaze over the ceramic, if glazed
surfaces are intact, and so on. We can also
use the SZ61 to take a magnified look at any cracks in a vessel, determining
how far they actually extend and to what extent they may worsen.”
The Olympus SZ61 allows the extremely precise
viewing and analysis of two-dimensional artwork
as well as three-dimensional pieces. (Photo courtesy
of The Walt Disney Family Museum. All Disney
characters copyrighted by Disney.)

15. Examination of 3D Objects
“Under normal light and without magnification, cracks in ceramics are not
always visible or may appear to be much less severe than they actually are,”
Morris continued. “As a conservator, I may need to be thinking about an object’s
structural stability before it goes on display—the SZ61 allows me to make the
most accurate assessment possible as far as whether a piece of art can be
safely displayed at our museum. It also allows me to make suggestions about
the most appropriate method of display or how an object display case should be
designed for maximum protection.”

16. Expanding the
Museum’s Capabilities
An exciting addition to the museum’s conservation
department, the Olympus SZ61 has greatly
enhanced preservation capabilities while allowing
staff members to perform a host of tasks that were
previously not possible. “In the past, if we had
preservation work that could not be properly done
without magnification, we would simply not do the
work rather than risk additional damage to an
object, which often resulted in us not being able
to display certain pieces,” explained Morris.
A close-up of Mary Blair’s Alice falling
down the rabbit hole conceptual artwork.
(Photo courtesy of the Walt Disney
Family Foundation. All Disney characters
copyrighted by Disney.)

17. Expanding the
Museum’s Capabilities
“One example of this is the stabilization of paint layers, which we can
now perform using the SZ61,” Morris said. “The key to successful
stabilization—which utilizes a consolidant to support damaged or
degraded areas—is to not add any material to or place anything over
original material if at all possible. Without proper magnification, this
type of work is simply not possible. Now, however, we use extremely
fine brushes or syringes under high magnification to carefully apply
very precise amounts of consolidant between paint layers. My goal is
to preserve anything original, fully maintaining the artist’s true intent.”

18. Expanding the
Museum’s Capabilities
“Morris continued, “With the SZ61, we are now able to get a close look at what
is actually happening as far as exactly where the consolidant is going or how
paint or other media is reacting to it. This allows us to know exactly how well
our treatment is performing and will continue to perform. In the past, we utilized
very minimal magnification, which did not allow even close to the level of
precision we now work with. In fact, what led us to obtain our SZ61 was an
important painting in our collection that needed a stabilization treatment that
we could not perform with our previous magnification system.”

19. Conclusion
“Because an object can look fine to the naked eye but in reality be suffering
major degradation—or vice versa—having the ability to examine every piece
that comes through the museum under high magnification has been an
invaluable addition to our department and the museum as a whole,” Morris
concluded. “Our general examination process has been greatly enhanced,
as has our own ability to know what to look for in a piece as far as its level
of degradation and what can be done to successfully preserve it.”

20. Conclusion
“We look forward to continuing to utilize the SZ61 not only in the conservation
lab but as a tool that can assist in other areas of the museum, including the
examination and monitoring of large exhibited objects and the creation of
effective display mounting systems based on careful consideration of object
condition and preservation parameters.”
Cofounded by Walt Disney’s daughter, the late Diane Disney Miller, and his grandson, Walter E. D. Miller, The Walt
Disney Family Museum is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Family Foundation, a nonprofit foundation.