Betty Jones, 1979

The Harlem River (Rivershacks) was restored, more specifically relined, at the Fogg Art Museum or what is now the Straus Center for Conservation located in Cambridge, MA. A letter written by Ruth Massell Kozol to President Emerson, president of Wheaton College at the time, indicates that the painting was restored by renowned art conversator, Betty Jones in 1979. Jones relined the image right before  the painting came to Wheaton's permanent collection. In order to potentially garner answers of the the specific restoration done to the painting and who were the previous owners of the painting, I sent an email to the conversators at the Staus Center but was deemed unsuccessful. I looked in Betty Jones's obituary to see if it said anything about certain projects she had worked on, including potential information on Lawson's The Harlem River (Rivershacks). The obiturary stated nothing about the painting or her specific conservation projects in great detail. 

Image source: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2013/08/04/betty-jones-conservator-museum-fine-arts-harvard-fogg-museum/nVVRYv2vV3S2BCJOAP4xzM/story.html. accessed 21 April 2014

Text source: Kozol Massell, Ruth. Ruth Kozol to Alice F. Emerson. Norton, MA. 21 December 1979.

McKenna, Kathleen. "Betty Jones, 94; conservator of paintings at Fogg museum, MFA." Obituaries: The Boston Globe