The condition of the Legion statue’s structure and surface presented interesting conservation challenges. First, the saint’s original sword, spurs, and elements of her horse’s trappings had been missing for decades. Though the sword had been replaced with an aluminum replica in the 1970s, the replica had blown off during a winter storm in 2017. This loss accelerated the need to fabricate more robust and accurate replacements for the sword and the sculpture’s other missing elements. In addition, the sculpture’s surface had not been maintained consistently over the years and now needed comprehensive treatment. Protective surface coatings and the original patina had degraded, leaving the surface uneven in appearance and unprotected from the elements.

In order to find an appropriate model to serve as a template for re-creating the sword and the other missing elements, I tracked down the five full-scale casts of the statue. The original cast from 1915 remains in Riverside Park in New York City. Three others stand in public sites in Gloucester, Massachusetts (where Hyatt lived and maintained a studio); Québec City, Québec, Canada; and Blois, France. As luck would have it, Blois is the hometown of Fine Arts Museums objects conservator Céline Chrétien, and her parents contributed images of the sculpture there. However, as the only version that retains its original sword, the New York casting was the best model for replicating the missing parts. Moreover, New York City has the most developed program and staff for the conservation and maintenance of its public sculptures, yielding the most resources and expertise for a productive collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums’ conservators.

I coordinated this collaboration with the New York City parks department’s director of art and antiquities, Jonathan Kuhn, and his team from the Citywide Monument Conservation Program. This was a complex process, both technically and logistically, particularly because the height and public setting of the New York original cast limited easy access to it. Indeed, the support and collaboration of the New York team was critical to the project. They helped arrange the necessary permits, get appropriate lift equipment in place, and identify people in New York to take the needed measurements and molds from the Riverside Park sculpture.

Particularly important to the conservation project was the work of John Saunders, a conservator with New York City’s Citywide Monument Conservation Program. Saunders acted as liaison between the New York and San Francisco teams, demonstrating the collaboration that is an important part of conservation work. Especially in objects conservation, the broadest and most varied conservation specialty, conservators routinely consult with colleagues on materials and techniques that are outside the scope of their individual specializations and experience. Saunders brought many kinds of valuable expertise to the project. Not surprisingly, in his time with the New York City parks department, Saunders has replaced many swords and developed techniques to make them more robust and securely attached than the originals. Through both conservation and his own artistic work as a metal sculptor, he is expert in a range of traditional casting and fabrication techniques as well as with the surface patination of metals.

Saunders made a preliminary visit to San Francisco to prepare for casting parts in bronze. On the visit, he tested the fit of a polymer cast from the molds taken of the New York sculpture. He took careful measurements for other elements, like the bridle and flat reins, that he would fabricate from flat bronze stock. Finally, he removed the last remnants of the aluminum sword and its attachment, then prepared the hilt to receive the new sword. Back in New York, Saunders fabricated the new bridle and straps and worked with a foundry in Brooklyn to cast the new sword and reins.

When Saunders returned to San Francisco with the replacement parts, scaffolding was erected around the sculpture. Saunders led the team of conservators Céline Chrétien and Jena Hirschbein and graduate intern Emily Rezes. They first used a combination of paint stripper and pressure washing to remove the deteriorated coatings from the sculpture’s surface.

After Saunders attached the newly fabricated parts, the conservators addressed the second issue: the statue’s surface patina. Historic outdoor bronze sculptures are finished with applied patinas. In patination, heat and acids are used to induce controlled chemical reactions with the metal to form thin corrosion layers on the surface.