History Restored: a Conversation with Christyl Cusworth, Annette Earling and Mark Sirak

In advance of the Semiquincentennial (250^th) anniversary of General Washington and the Continental Army’s historic crossing of the Delaware in 1776, Lambertville’s Christyl Cusworth (visit her website) has restored a lost masterpiece, a mural from 1921 depicting the crossing by George Matthews Harding, which will be featured in the new Washington Crossing State Park Museum and Visitor Center that is currently under construction. To learn more, we talked with Christyl, a renowned art conservator, Annette Earling, the executive director of the Washington Crossing Park Association (WCPA), and Mark Sirak, a Park historian who is a Resource Interpretive Specialist 3 with the New Jersey State Park Service.

Mark Sirak: The State of New Jersey is making many major improvements throughout Washington Crossing State Park—this is the most important transformation here since the Bicentennial. The Johnson Ferry House, the Stone Barn, the Bear Tavern and the Nelson House are all being renovated. The Nature Center is being refurbished. The Arboretum is being restored, thanks to the WCPA, which secured an endowment. We are upgrading historic masonry throughout the grounds and repaving roadways. Most significantly, we’re moving the museum into a wonderful new building closer to the Delaware River [read about the facility and its architecture here].

The new museum is planned to open before the crossing’s 250^th anniversary on December 25, 2026. It has been in the works for about 30 years. One of my predecessors, Kels Swan, was a driving force. The state-of-the-art facility will create much greater visitor experiences through a flex gallery, multimedia exhibits, and a unique theater. We are going to place visitors in the moment so that they understand what it felt like to the participants and how pivotal it was in American history. Children will love coming here. And the Harding mural will be showcased, thanks to the WCPA and Christyl.

Annette Earling: Pat Millen, a WCPA trustee, discovered the existence of this work in 2021—100 years after its creation by George Matthews Harding, the muralist and combat artist [read more on this Smithsonian webpage.]. The mural was for decades prominently displayed in what was initially the Taylor Opera House, Trenton’s first theater, founded by John Taylor, who invented Taylor Ham and renamed it “Pork Roll.” The building was restyled as a vaudeville and movie theater and later called the RKO International.

In 1969 the building was demolished to create a parking lot. Members of the American Association of Conservators and Restorers (AACR) prepared the Harding mural for storage: they coated it with homemade wheat paste and Japanese rice paper and rolled it onto a custom-made cylinder.

It was stored in the basement of Ringwood Manor. The plan was to retouch the painting and unveil it at the Washington Crossing State Park’s Museum and Visitors Center to be built in 1976 for the nation’s Bicentennial. However, when the center was ultimately completed, it was too small for the mural [it is about 15.5’ by 10’], and so the work was forgotten—until Pat Millen read about it while researching a book. From the beginning, this was an amazing project for the WCPA. As soon as we learned that this mural existed, we all insisted, “We have to restore it!” We quickly raised the funds for the moving, storage, restoration, and the framing, which is still to be arranged. And if we need to raise more, we will.

Christyl Cusworth: Restoring this remarkable artwork has taken about two years. There were some complications that we found: there had been old repairs; the paint layer was very dry and brittle; there were deformations caused by the bowing of the roller, around which the painting was rolled way too tightly. The original conservators had expected it to be rolled for just a few years.

Annette: When we brought out the cylinder from the Ringwood Manor basement, we had very low expectations. Honestly, we thought the mural would be damaged beyond repair. We couldn’t believe there was still a masterpiece that could be salvaged!

Mark: It was amazing the work was in as decent a shape as it could be.

Christyl: The painting was done on jute, a kind of burlap, which had gotten fragile with age.

Christyl: The sheer size of the work was a challenge. I had worked on other Harding war scenes before.

Mike Menche: How did you find Harding as a painter?

Christyl: His work has a certain, enjoyable “Bucks County impressionist” quality to it. He was a talented artist—he knew how to give a large-scale dramatic effect without being very detailed. I like the drama and tension he created.

Mike: For the inpainting, how do you match the paint?

Christyl: We first find the palette of the artist—Harding’s palette consisted of only five colors. We use those colors to match the paint, proceeding by trial and error. You do one dot at a time and wait for it to dry. If it dries the right color, then you’re good and you do it again. If it doesn’t match, you adjust.

Annette: When I first saw the newly restored mural, I had a very strong reaction, like the first time I saw the Leutze mural at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It delivers a real emotional impact! When our WCPA group viewed it, the Park historians debated about Harding’s details: the uniforms, the boats, the arms, and more. Judging by their discussion, the mural will be an excellent teaching tool.

Mike: What can you tell us about art conservation?

Christyl: Well, I am a professional associate of The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, which has a strict code of ethics about types of materials and contemporary museum practices. On its website, you can learn more and search for qualified professionals. I’ve worked on lots of paintings from this area—lots of Bucks County paintings. I have private clients in California, Texas, Massachusetts and elsewhere, and I work with many museums. I work almost exclusively with paintings. I will work on some objects, but only if they’re within the realm of materials I’m familiar with.

Mike: According to WCPA literature, this mural will add interest to the Swan Historical Foundation collection. Could you tell us more about that?

Mark: The collection is bequeathed to the Swan Historical Foundation, which loans it to the State of New Jersey. It was assembled by Kels Swan, who I mentioned earlier. Most of the collection is on view at the current Museum and Visitor Center. In keeping with contemporary museum practices and taking advantage of new museum storage technologies, at the new facility we will display fewer artifacts at a given time and strategically rotate in others.

Annette: The Swan Historical Foundation would like to create a book about important pieces of the collection. The WCPA is helping with that project.

Mike: Can you tell us more about the WCPA?

Annette: We are a support organization for Washington Crossing State Park [similar to the way the Lambertville Historical Society supports the operation of the James Wilson Marshall House Museum, which is owned by the State of New Jersey]. We don’t have our own office—we meet at the Titusville Presbyterian Church. We always welcome new members! WCPA was created in 2013. Our founding member was Bill Farkas, a friend to the park for a very long time. He was a wonderful person who left a generous bequest to the WCPA.

Years earlier there was a “friends of the park” group [as there were previous incarnations of the Lambertville Historical Society] in which my father, H. David Earling, participated. He was also the head of the State of New Jersey’s Bicentennial plans. Our family lived in Trenton. We had a lot of connections to the park—because of my father and his interest in the history, and because it was our backyard. We had a postage stamp property, so we would come here to fish and to run around. Many Lambertville homes have small properties, and I would encourage residents to use the Park, which has 1,300 contiguous acres plus other sections.

After the previous support group disbanded, the Park gradually lost funding and staff over the decades. At the Bicentennial, there were around 40 full-time employees: historians, maintenance workers, plumbers, electricians and arborists. Now there are less than 10. WCPA helps preserve our history and we do much more. We conduct events, activities and tours. We maintain an archive. The Park’s vast grounds require continual maintenance, as do the structures and buildings.

Mike: Are there any attractions that people might not know about?

Mark: There is the Amos Scudder tree, a White Oak planted in 1931 in honor of a First Hunterdon County Militiaman who was one of the guides for the army during the nighttime march to Trenton. The Honeyman Fountain, located on the canal bank, honors a reputed spy for the patriots. There is a really nice wildlife blind in the middle of the woods near the Nature Center. The John H.W. Simpson Observatory is operated by the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton, which hosts periodic viewings.

[Enjoy this Library of Congress blog post about the history of Washington Crossing State Park.]

Mike: Christyl, what can you tell us about your studio at 34 S. Main Street?

Christyl: It was built between 1910-1920. I was told it was a laundry, then a car dealership. Later it became a saddlery—its owners added the wood exterior to the original brick. The central interior wall was installed and removed and reinstalled over the years. It was an antique shop called The Drawing Room before we bought it in 2007 from Alex De Cima. We had bought our house in 1999 less than a block away on South Main Street.

[34-36 South Main Street was one lot for decades. In 1916 Edward Malloy opened at 36 South Main Street his tinsmithing and slating headquarters. In the 1920s and 1930s the building was home to Kilroy’s Garage, which sold Studebakers. Noel Cohen operated The Rodeo Shop in the 1950s and the 1960s, which later became Engle’s Saddlery.]

Mike: Where did you grow up?

Christyl: Outside of Freehold in the country.

Mike: Horses?

Christyl: Well, my sister had horses—I had a motorcycle and still do. I went to Trenton State College [it was renamed The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in 1996.] My friends and I used to come to Lambertville. We would go to the bookstore that was within The People’s Store, The Boat House, and The Swan Bar. I graduated in 1986 and worked as a carpenter and as a bronze caster. The art market crashed and I moved to New Orleans, where I apprenticed for four years with Shamil Salah, a well-known art conservator.

In 1995 I came back to this area, working out of a small space in Trenton. I kept getting more and more work from Lambertville art dealers and gallery owners like Charlie Buttaci [Union Gallery], Jimmy Alterman [Jim’s of Lambertville], and Roy Pedersen [Pedersen Gallery]. I moved my workspace from Trenton to New Hope, and then to The People’s Store on the third floor from 1998-2007. Then I bought the studio. I have now been in business for 30 years!

Mike: Annette and Mark, tell us about your ties to Lambertville.

Annette: My deep connection to Lambertville was through an ill-fated restaurant: Humble Café at 7 N. Main Street. We invested a lot and spent a year getting it fitted out with a kitchen, opened in early 2020 and had a great first two weeks, and then the pandemic hit. We stayed open for a year, but we couldn’t continue.

Mark: My family has had strong ties to Lambertville for almost 24 years. My wife, Jennifer Sirak, has worked at the Lambertville Free Public Library since 2001 and became the director in 2020. I student-taught at South Hunterdon Regional High School while pursuing my graduate degree at Rutgers, prior to moving into the museum field. Lambertville has been a part of our children’s lives since birth—from library “storytime” to sports. When we moved to West Amwell in 2009, the town and the surrounding area became an even larger part of our daily life.

Mike: Congratulations to the three of you on this extraordinary project! We always enjoy visiting the Park and we look forward to seeing George Harding’s mural when the new museum and visitor center opens in 2026.

Mark: I have worked at the Park in various roles since 1988 and moved into the museum about 21 years ago. I’ve seen a lot of changes—this transformation is exciting and special!