The Anton Rajer papers encompass Rajer's professional life as an art conservator and his role promoting art in Wisconsin, as well as his personal life through journals and correspondence. The collection as a whole includes considerable photographic and hand-drawn documentation, alongside textual documentation of projects. Images have not been separated from text as the connection between the two is so strong; researchers should expect to find all photographic and hand-drawn documentation in the same place as textual documentation. However, not all visual materials are dated, so the researcher will have to rely on context for dates. In some cases undated material has been combined; for example, a folder of photographic negatives documenting the treatment of the Wisconsin statue combines color and black-and-white negatives into one folder but does not clearly identify the dates of the negatives.
The collection is divided into 7 series: BIOGRAPHICAL; ART DIARIES; CORRESPONDENCE; CONSERVATION WORK; WISCONSIN STATE CAPITOL PROJECT; PUBLICATIONS AND LECTURES; and INTERNATIONAL WORK.
The BIOGRAPHICAL series includes material on Tony Rajer's personal and student life, including some student papers and transcripts, as well as sketches Tony did which are not part of his art diaries. This series also includes material on Rajer's work as a Red Cross volunteer following the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
The ART DIARIES series contains the combination sketchbook/diaries Tony Rajer kept throughout his life. These begin while he is in high school and include sketches by Rajer, some scrapbooking of material from events he attended, his impressions of other works of art and architecture, and his thoughts on art, society, and his own life. They include considerable detail about works of art he saw or conserved. As such, they are a good reference for understanding his view of art and society. This series also can provide context for some slides and photographs taken during his international travel. Of note is Diary 132, which was written on and around September 11, 2001, when Rajer was working in New York and volunteered with the Red Cross after the attack on the World Trade Center. There are several unnumbered diaries which have been placed chronologically within the series. There were no diaries numbered 92 and 119 at the time of processing the collection.
The CORRESPONDENCE series includes Tony Rajer's personal correspondence. Most of this correspondence was arranged by the archivist in chronological order, though a few folders represent particular collections of letters Rajer had separated. These include correspondence with his former teacher Caroline Keck, with his friend Bill Green, and a folder regarding lectures and presentations he delivered in or around 1991.
The CONSERVATION WORK series documents discrete projects undertaken by Tony Rajer, either for various museums earlier in his career, or for his own company, Fine Arts Conservation Services, for the majority of his career. This is the largest series in the collection. At its fullest, the documentation for a given project will include a conservation assessment, a treatment proposal, photographic documentation of the works before, during, and after treatment, and a conservation summary, as well as varied promotional or research materials. Most projects are represented by a subset of these document types, but few feature all of them. Some projects are represented only by photographic documentation, without any written explanation of what actions were taken.
This series also includes documentation collected by Tony Rajer during his time on the Historic Preservation Review Board, and also his role as Wisconsin Project Coordinator for the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) program. This latter program seeks to identify works of public sculpture, assess their conditions, and provide guidance for their preservation. The documentation in this series primarily consists of surveys filled out in communities throughout the state regarding what public art existed there, and some photographic documentation of the same. Tony subsequently drew on this material for his book Public Sculpture in Wisconsin: An Atlas of Outdoor Monuments, Memorials, and Masterpieces in the Badger State.
The WISCONSIN STATE CAPITOL PROJECT series documents Tony Rajer's work as chief conservator for the restoration of the Capitol building, from 1988 to 1994. It includes extensive documentation on different phases of the Capitol project, often with the same types of assessments and photographic or hand-drawn documentation found the in CONSERVATION WORK series. It includes some material about a dispute between Rajer and his employers regarding the restoration of the West Wing of the building. This series complements other documentation on the Capitol project, to be found in Capitol restoration project files, 1985-1990, 1999.
The PUBLICATIONS AND LECTURES series includes documentation for books or articles Rajer wrote, as well as some material on lectures he presented. Because he wrote many pieces on conservation for foreign audiences, this series includes several works in Spanish and Portuguese. Published copies of some of his books are included for reference.
The INTERNATIONAL WORK series documents Rajer's travels in other countries. Although some trips included personal visits, he often added a work component to a trip, such as a lecture presentation or a survey of an art site. For this reason, the archivist decided to include material on overseas trips even if it does not always include documentation on specific conservation projects. The best represented project is Rajer's work conserving the Panama Canal murals at the Administration building in Balboa Heights, Panama. The collection does not include much material on Rajer's work conserving Nek Chand's Rock Garden, a folk art site in Chandigarh, India, that was significant in Rajer's career from the late 1990s.
