Over time, the St. Louis Scottish Rite collection was altered to solve the problem of warping boards that were rubbing. This was the same approach used by the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center as they made the argument in the May 5 online article, “After a great deal of deliberation, the rigging experts and the team decided to hang the historic drops using a modern webbing and pipe pocket configuration instead of the wooden battens. The approach would also allow for less stress to the drops, as the lightweight conduit in the pipe pockets would not weigh as heavily on their aging muslin.”
If the pipe is too light, it will not pull out the wrinkles and the scenery looks a fright.
Wooden battens remain the perfect solution as the weight remains evenly distributed along the bottom edge as the battens “clamp” the fabric and not pierce it. It is never a good decision to replace the wooden battens with pipe pockets. Warping boards are a common situation that is easily remedied; the order of the boards is swapped.
The Valley of St. Louis also encountered warping battens and selected to install pipe pockets during the 1970s. The pipe pockets that replaced the wooden battens failed, causing pipes to plummet to the stage floor. New pipe pockets were sewn onto the bottom and they also failed. The St. Louis Scottish Rite collection is one example and proof that attaching jute webbing and pipe pockets to historic scenery doesn’t work at all. Similarly to the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center, the Valley of St. Louis used thin conduit and reinforced the seams. Both failed. This has happened across the country as the battens are viewed as a liability and not an integral part of the original system, necessary for the longevity of each piece.
At the St. Louis Scottish Rite, approximately twenty-five percent of all the scenery was compromised and unable to be lowered to the stage floor. As the pipes were removed from ripping pockets, the loose curtains caught on neighboring lines being raised and lowered. Fortunately for me, there were a variety of rigging experts on hand during the USITT convention to offer advice and a helping hand.
When drops are narrowly spaced on 2-inch to 4-inch centers, the weight of a wooden batten that is clamped to the top and bottom of each scene is an essential part of the counterweight system. It is the perfect weight to safely pull out the wrinkles and effectively stretch the painted fabric. If wrinkles are visible, as it the case with the Fort Scott collection, the drops are not stretched because the weight at the bottom is too light. Insufficient weight promotes wrinkles and the drops are more likely to catch on neighboring lines.
Jute webbing also increases the likelihood of the fabric catching on a neighboring line as the top wooden batten no longer stretches the fabric taut and straight. On the top, jute webbing with grommets and tie lines were sewn along the edge of the thin old fabric. The May 5 MMHC online article also states “Rather than position them the standard 12 inches apart, grommets are placed six inch apart in the webbing to better distribute the hanging stress across the top.” It is not only about the stress and the placement of grommets. Tie lines running though the grommets and attaching the drop to a pipe have a tendency to shift over time causing the fabric to slightly bunch – like a shower curtain.
This problem was visible during the Singers in Accord Concert at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center during February 2017. Unlike ties lines and jute webbing, top wooden battens prevent any shifting from occurring. With wooden battens on the tops and the bottoms of each drop, it is impossible for the fabric to “bunch” and catch on neighboring lines.
A final point has to do with the bigger picture and the preservation of heritage. When pipe pockets and jute webbing replace the original wooden battens, the heritage is lost and the ability to appropriately display these artworks destroyed. We are no longer looking at a historic artifact. In the long run, it would have been cost-effective to digitally photograph each drop and hang printed replicas on new muslin instead of irreparably damaging the original artifacts. I compare the MMHC decision and the subsequent destruction of the Fort Scott scenery collection to the repurposing of any antique. The difference is that this was not a craft project that took an old book and transformed it into a keepsake box. The painted scenes now only remain as a shadow of history, failing to preserve any heritage.
This erasure of history at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center brings to mind the song “Every Day a Little Death” from “A Little Night Music.” As each drop is forever altered and history lost, there is a “little sting” in my heart and in my head.
“Every day a little sting
In the heart and in the head
Every move and every breath
And you hardly feel a thing
Brings a perfect little death”
To be continued…
