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Fort McHenry:
The figure of Orpheus by Charles Henry. Niehaus before the treatment |
Maintenance at Fort McHenry
April, 2002
In October 2000, McKay Lodge, Inc. completed the conservation work on the bronze and stone monuments at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland. The work was performed under the direction of Nancy Kurtz, Monuments Survey Administrator for the Maryland Historical Trust and the Maryland Military Monuments Commission. The largest of the monuments treated was the colossal figure of Orpheus, in bronze, by Charles Henry Niehaus. This monument was erected in 1922 in the memory of Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star Spangled Banner," as well as to the soldiers and sailors who participated in the Battle of North Point and the attach on Fort McHenry. Niehaus (1855-1935) was an extremely popular sculptor in the United States who sustained the interest in neoclassicism.
Work on the Orpheus monument entailed cleaning and removal of remnants of a pigmented coating on the bronze, repairs to the metal with phos-copper brazing alloy, hot waxing, and cleaning and re-pointing the stone base.
At the invititation of the National Park Service, conservator Thomas Podnar will work with a park officer in implementing the first annual maintenance of Orpheus in April 2002.
