Furthermore, to modern conservators, retouching has ethical considerations. Damage and ageing constitute part of an object’s history, and retouching can distort its context and meaning.

Cleveland inventor Garrett A. Morgan, a son of former slaves, had a gift for inventing life-saving devices, including firefighter gas masks and the precursors of modern traffic lights.

A decade earlier, he patented the first gas mask in response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed 146 garment workers, mostly young women, in New York City in 1911.