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In 2007, the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center received a $400,000 matching grant from Save America's Treasures to restore rooms in Spiegel Grove, the Hayes home in Fremont, Ohio. ICA Textile Conservator Jane Hammond was asked to join a team selecting period-appropriate fabrics for the rooms, and conserving original materials.

One small component of the project is reupholstering two chairs. The chairs are different styles but had been refashioned with matching modern seat covers. After removing the contemporary materials, Hammond found the earlier fabric panels that were on the chairs during Hayes' lifetime. The older of the two still has its original rush-bottom seat under that fabric.

It is rare to find original cover fabric remaining on a chair seat of this period because of the long-standing tradition of reupholstery. In most cases a commercial upholsterer was used, who stripped the chair bare and disposed of unwanted older fabrics. Chair frames were also repaired using contemporary techniques and materials, rather than historically correct ones.

Upholstery conservation, on the other hand, promotes increased awareness of the importance and scarcity of original upholstery material, and aims to preserve existing evidence on the frame, including historic materials and techniques. Missing elements are replaced or rebuilt with new conservation-grade materials, using minimally intrusive and reversible techniques. When possible, alternative methods of reupholstering are applied to minimize or eliminate damage to the frame and retain original under-upholstery.

Hammond removed the more complete of the two original seat panels for photo documentation. She wet-cleaned it, realigning fibers and stabilizing tears. It was decided that high-resolution images would be used to reproduce the pattern digitally, because recreating the complex weave structure of the fabric would be prohibitively expensive. First2Print, a large-format fabric printing company in New York City, manufactured the textiles with which Jane recovered the chairs. They offer the appearance of the period textiles at a cost the Hayes Presidential Center could afford. Meanwhile, the original seat fabric of one chair has been covered with a protective overlay and retained, in place, as an historical document.