Interviews

Well, this is day one of our sessions for the AIC oral history file. And the obvious thing to start with is where and when you were born. On a farm in Northern Jutland in Denmark. And do you want…

Well, this is day two, it’s July 17th, 1985, and this is an interview with Karen Finch. Actually, I wanted to pick up on what we were talking about yesterday, and the Royal School of Needlework. I was wondering if…

Where did we get to yesterday? Well, yesterday we got to when the committee was set up to get the palace. No, the committee was set up to get charitable status for a National Institute for Textile Conservation. That’s right,…

Well, this is our last session, and I’m going to change the subject from last week’s adventure on the roads, to the Centre’s moderate position on the use of adhesives. I was wondering how you felt, because in conferences, the…

In 1974 Rutherford John Gettens, one of America’s pioneer conservation scientists who worked at the original technical laboratory of the Fogg Art Museum, spoke at the American Institute for Conservation meetings in Cooperstown, New York: “To come to the point…

Today I thought we could talk about your education, and first of all I thought I’d ask you about your education in Jutland, from when you were a little girl. Well, my family have always been great believers in the…

So Karen in the last interview, you told us that it was the most marvellous experience to go to the Copenhagen Art school. Yes. Well I think I loved every minute of being there even though it was wartime and…

I wanted to ask you about the time you were at home with Katrina round about 1948, and you started working at home. Can you tell us about that? When Katrina was born I still wanted to be involved with…

So Karen, looking back on your long life, in Denmark and here, what would you say your greatest achievements have been? What are you most proud of? My daughter, because she is really wonderful. And also she married the nicest…

So tell us about the picture we’re looking at now. This is Meldgaard. Well yes, it’s been in the family for a while and as you can see I lived in the part of Jutland that’s known as moraine country….

This (Figure 1) is a dress that was made one of the winter afternoons that we sat round the dining room table. One of the maids did the embroidery and my aunt made it into a dress. I’m not sure…

So Katrina, can you tell us some of your earliest memories of your mother? Yes, I think so, I think so. I think that the first memory, and I think it is a real memory, is of when I was…