At the Wadsworth Atheneum, they called it the Leak Tour, and sometimes the Horror Tour.

It wasn’t led by docents, but by the new director, Susan L. Talbott. In 2008, she guided board members and prospective donors through the many places where water was seeping into the exhibition galleries of the country’s oldest continuously operating art museum, founded in 1842.

“I was getting calls night after night, in the middle of the night, about the leaks,” said Ms. Talbott, who recalled the efforts made to move some of the 50,000 works in its fine arts collection to safer spots after each breach was discovered.