AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

When the H.L. Hunley submarine (1864) was rediscovered in Charleston Harbor and raised from submersion in 2000 it presented a great opportunity for underwater archeology and conservation efforts. The Warren Lasch Conservation Center (WLCC) was established to address the 3000 artifacts that were recovered from the submarine as well as the vessel itself. Included in the collection are the leather shoes of all eight crew members. The waterlogged shoes were first excavated, documented, and partially conserved from 2002 to 2004. In some instances, the artifacts were found completely encapsulated in concretion and required different mechanical and chemical techniques to free them. The majority of them exhibited iron staining due to thier proximity to the iron hull. They were treated to reduce the staining and with bulking agents to freeze-dry the leather.

After freeze-drying, the shoes were then left in storage for an extended period before the final phases of treatment involving reconstruction and the development of a plan for the storage and display of the shoes was revisited in 2022. The case of one particular pair of shoes, those belonging to crew member Wicks, presented a unique challenge for reconstruction as well as the opportunity to showcase conservation methods to future viewers. They were identified as brogan style half-boots, a common Civil War footwear for soldiers, although these were of a higher than standard quality with metal eyelets. A relatively large fragment of the upper of Wicks’ right shoe was never removed from the hard concretion in which it was discovered. The leather, metal eyelets and fragments of shoelace and textile were deemed too fragile to safely remove. This presented the opportunity to create a replica of that fragment to be either attached or presented with the rest of the artifact. The dimensions of the embedded fragment were carefully traced onto Mylar and then tests were performed to establish which materials would be most appropriate to replicate the various components of the fragment. The interior of the shoes were carefully measured in order to create custom supports that would allow them to be stored and displayed safely and effectively. It was then decided how best to associate the replicated fragment of Wicks’ right shoe with the original main portion given that there was no point of contact between the remaining leather on the shoe and the separate fragment. At the end of their reconstruction these shoes will be ready for display alongside many of the other artifacts from the Hunley submarine thereby contributing both to a better understanding of the historic vessel and the conservation efforts involved in presenting it to the public.