LOWE_SOW.docx

Scope / Statement of Work (SOW) LOWE: Conserve High Priority Museum Objects for Exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park

PMIS 305451A

Table of Contents

1.0 Project Description / Summary

2.0 Objectives

3.0 Background

4.0 Specific Work / Tasks

5.0 Optional Work / Tasks

6.0 Government Furnished Equipment / Materials / Other

7.0 Special Conditions / Requirements

8.0 Place of Performance

9.0 Performance Period / Schedule Requirements

Scope / Statement of Work

Task Order / Project Title:

Conserve High Priority Museum Objects for Exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park

Park / Park Unit:

Lowell National Historical Park

1.0 PROJECT DESCRIPTION / SUMMARY:

This project will hire a professional conservator to provide stabilization, conservation treatment, and repair for six high priority objects. Four are signature park objects currently on exhibit: writer Jack Kerouac’s typewriter, mill girl turned writer Lucy Larcom’s portable desk, a toll sign for Lowell’s early transportation canal, and a 19th-century patent model loom symbolizing Lowell’s association with the textile industry in America. The other two objects, a trade sign and portrait of Irish immigrant Father John O’Brien, are associated with Father John’s Medicine, one of Lowell’s largest patent medicine companies founded in the mid-19th century.

All work will be performed in accordance with National Park Service and American Institute for Conservation standards. The conservator will conserve and stabilize the artifacts, and prepare Treatment Reports, including "before and after" digital photographs to illustrate the work.

2.0 OBJECTIVES:

2.1 The Historic Architecture, Conservation and Engineering Center (HACE) will hire a contract conservator to treat items as identified.

2.2 Contractor shall provide treatment proposals, treatment reports and surveys as needed by the government.

2.3 Contractor shall provide advice to the client on conservation issues (e.g., storage and exhibit questions, object condition observations, etc.) and participate in meetings as needed.

2.4 Contractor shall record and maintain records of treatments and surveys in conjunction with NPS guidelines/ protocols.

3.0 BACKGROUND:

Famed beat writer Jack Kerouac was born and raised in Lowell, MA, including graduation from Lowell High School across the street from Boott Mill. His parents were French immigrants from Canada. Kerouac used his typewriter to compose many of his early works in his first language, French, before their publication in English. Lowell hosts a yearly Kerouac conference in October, the month of his birth. The conference draws a large audience and 2022 is the centennial of Kerouac’s birth.

Lucy Larcom came to Lowell as a young girl and worked as a mill girl for ten years. During that time, she joined a literary circle and became a prominent writer of poems and articles for the journal The Lowell Offering produced and distributed by the Lowell mill girls.

The Pawtucket Canal toll sign is associated with the canal’s early history as the first transportation canal built and managed by the Proprietors of Locks and Canals (PLC) prior to its later life as a power canal. The sign displays toll rates for moving various goods along the canal. The PLC is one of the earliest corporations in America, incorporated in 1792, and still exists today albeit in diminished form.

The loom patent model is a scale model submitted as part of a patent application by a man from nearby Lawrence, MA. Dating to 1855, this is the earliest patent model in the park’s museum collection.

Patent medicine was an important secondary industry in Lowell and Father John’s medicine was one of the two leaders. Fr. John O’Brien, an immigrant trained in Ireland, was the pastor St. Patrick’s Church in the mid-19th century. He is credited with bringing a semblance of peace to a city with anti-Irish and anti-Catholic undercurrents and to the Irish community which was divided itself. Fr. John also inspired a local pharmacy to name their medicine and early advertising campaign after him because he successfully promoted it to his parish.

4.0 SPECIFIC WORK / TASKS:

Major Duties and Responsibilities of Contractor

4.1 Conservation Laboratory Responsibilities:

· The contractor will be responsible for performing a wide variety of conservation treatments, including difficult and complex technical analysis, testing, and treatment necessary to conserve objects of historic and artistic value.

· The contractor will examine objects to determine the nature and cause of deterioration, and tests and selects appropriate conservation techniques for treatment

· The contractor will develop treatments in consultation with the park curators regarding final appearance and intended use of the object, and provides written documentation for the examination and condition analysis phase, treatment proposal phase, and following approval of the object’s custodian (usually the park curator through the park Superintendent), the final treatment phase in a comprehensive dossier for each object treated in the conservation laboratory, with complete photographic documentation of the object before and after treatment, and during treatment, if warranted.

· The contractor will draw from professional experience and practical research in selecting professionally established treatment techniques, and in developing new treatment methodologies, including selection of conservation solvents, reagents, compounds, materials and application techniques. Treatment procedures often involve extremely delicate techniques requiring highly developed hand skills and mature professional judgement in determining the appropriate extent of intervention, and the desired final appearance of extremely valuable and irreplaceable objects.

· The contractor will make contacts with parks for treatment scheduling and proposal review, and to make recommendations concerning collection care in the realm of both preventive and remedial conservation. Contacts are also made with parks as a result of their requests for conservation information or services. Contacts with NPS and non-NPS conservators are usually for the purpose of information acquisition or exchange.

· The contractor will be responsible for compliance with all OSHA and NIOSH regulations in laboratory operations by all personnel working in the laboratory.

4.2 On-site treatment projects:

· The contractor will assess the condition and treatment needs of objects on-site and develop treatment proposals.

· The contractor will submit written treatment proposals to the curator/superintendent for approval.

· The contractor will identify and arrange for procurement and scheduled delivery of conservation supplies necessary for on-site treatments. On-site treatments are primarily, but not limited to, treatment of outdoor sculptures, treatment of architectural finishes or ornamentation, treatment of large-scale sculptural plaster casts, and treatment of objects too large or too fragile to be transported to the HACE/Collections laboratory.

4.3 The following items will be treated as part of this project:

5.0 OPTIONAL WORK / TASKS NOT ON PMIS:

N/A

6.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED EQUIPMENT / MATERIALS / OTHER:

All supplies necessary to execute the treatment of this project will be provided by the HACE Object Treatment Laboratory and are included in the project cost.

7.0 SPECIAL CONDITIONS / REQUIREMENTS:

7.1 Contractor to adhere to all OSHA procedures and guidelines while in HACE Laboratory.

7.2 Contractor will consult with HACE Project Inspector during the project to ensure treatments are done in a timely and efficient manner.

7.3 Contractor to adhere to all local ordinances, such as, allowable work time and noise ordinances.

8.0 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE:

Historic Architecture, Conservation and Engineering Center Object Treatment Laboratory in Lowell, MA.

9.0 PERFORMANCE PERIOD / SCHEDULE REQUIREMENTS:

52-week period of performance. Start date September 2022.

9.1 Time

Regular Hours: The contractor shall provide coverage at the specified government sites during the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M (core hours); Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

Overtime: Overtime will be authorized in emergency situations such as natural disasters and/or activation of the Northeast Region Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP). The COR will identify which tasks are necessary during this emergency and what personnel will be required to report to work or work additional hours.

Travel: Occasional travel is required to various sites in the Northeast Region.

9.2 Invoicing

Invoicing shall be in accordance with the DOI ELECTRONIC INVOICING Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements – Internet Payment Platform (IPP) (September 2011) – See Contract Administration Data (below) for the full clause. The Period of Performance (POP) for each invoice will be one calendar month based on actual hours worked, beginning with the start date of this contract. The contactor shall submit only one invoice per month. Timesheets will be verified by NPS Contracting Officers Representative monthly prior to payment.

9.3 Standards and References

· NPS standards and procedures will be made available upon task initiation.

· All work performed will be within the standards of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Code of Ethics and Guidelines

Jack Kerouac’s Typewriter

Patent Model image1.jpg image2.jpeg image3.jpeg