Relating to the issue of the use of reproductions and authenticity.  I put
together a symposium for the National Trust for Historic Preservation (U.S.)
entitled "Conservation  in Context;  Finding a Balance for the Historic House
Museum". In the symposium we discussed issues of context and the use of
reproductions among other topics.  We aimed to have a lot of interaction
between all participants at the symposium -- the participants included
curators, administrators, preservation architects (and other preservation
professionals), conservators, engineers, and educators, among others -- and
got it.  We also realized that there's a lot more thinking that needs to be
done in this area.  The papers from the symposium (case histories of the
different ways these issues have been addressed by four different sites), and
the synthesis of the discussions has been published by the National Trust and
was distributed to many, if not all, historic house museums in the U.S.  Of
particular interest, regarding this Museum-L query may be Karen Zukowski's
keynote address on context.  In it she creates an elegant image of context as
a spider's web.  Also of interest in for this query may be the case history
concerning the use of reproductions in the reinstallation of the
Gardner-Pingree House of the Peabody Museum- Essex Institute in Salem, Ma.

Further information on the symposium and the publication can be sought from
the National Trust in Washington (Department of Stewardship of Historic
Properties).  I'll be happy to discuss this further, either in this forum or
individually on e-mail or off-line.

Cheers:

Wendy Claire Jessup
President and Conservator
Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc.
210 Little Falls Street, Suite 203
Falls Church, VA 22046
(703) 532-0788
E-mail: TAZZRCAT@ AOL.COM