Museum conservators

For different types of collections, this balance is differently defined. For example paper conservation treatments commonly undertaken in the museum conservation laboratory would be impractical in a Hbrary archive having a far greater collection size. The use of treatments for mass paper quantities would be unacceptable in the art museum. Documents in archives and books in Hbraries serve a different goal from art objects in a museum. Their use value Hes primarily in their information rather than in an intrinsic esthetic value. Whereas optimal preservation of that information value requires preservation of the object itself, a copy or even a completely different format could serve the same purpose. 

This volume is the fifth in the Advances in Archaeological and Museum Science series by the Society for Archaeological Sciences (SAS). The piupose of this series is to provide siunmaries of advances in various topics in archaeometry, archaeological science, environmental archaeology, preservation technology, and museum conservation. 

The development of scientific procedures that are able to use very minute samples (a few micrograms), together with the increased availability of advanced analytical instrumentation, have led to great interest in the chemical study of materials used in cultural heritage. This has given rise to a sharp increase in research studies at the interface between art, archaeology, chemistry and the material sciences. As a result, successful multidisciplinary collaborations have flourished among researchers in museums, conservation institutions, universities and scientific laboratories. 

The Baltimore Museum of Art hosts the Cone collection including many works by Matisse. Bronze sculptures by Matisse were cast using different methods (lost wax and sand cast) and in different foundries. Ann Boulton of the Baltimore Museum of Art initiated a project aimed at determining whether or not different compositions of Matisse bronze sculptures could be correlated to different manufacturing techniques or locations. The project started while the author was a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, now Museum Conservation Institute, and involved other analytical techniques (12). The results presented here were obtained at the Field Museum of Natural History. 

I am grateful to Ann Boulton from the Baltimore Museum of Art for the samples from the Matisse bronze sculptures and to Jia-Sun Tsang from the Museum Conservation Institute for having involved me in the Matisse bronze sculpture project. 

Wolf, s. Texas Memorial Museum Conservation Notes. 1983, . 

DeMouthe, Jean Frances Natural materials sources, properties, and uses 1. Natural products - Conservation and restoration 2. Museum conservation methods I. Title 069.5 3... 

Because both the black and the green materials contain aluminum oxide or hydroxide, a cause for the black color must be found. The amorphous copper material that shows in the EDAX results but not on the XRD pattern may be this cause. A possible source of the black color in corroded bronze is suggested by Gettens (13) in his study of the corrosion of an ancient Chinese fragment. He attributes a black color in the corrosion layers to the presence of tenorite (CuO) and states that because it is so amorphous, it gives indistinct diffraction patterns or none at all. In a later paper Gettens (14) repeats his belief that the dark product in bronze corrosion is tenorite and stresses the need for further analysis. Plenderleith (15) agrees that the dark material in bronze corrosion is tenorite, but much debate continues as evidenced by a more recently published discussion between corrosion scientists and museum conservators (16). 

Director, Museum Conservation Institute, The Smithsonian Institution,... 

This is rather contra-intuitive. Museum conservators and designers are usually advised either to improve ventilation or to include adsorbent materials to remove volatile degradation products from the air space surrounding plastic objects during storage. This would accelerate the loss of plasticiser and thereby reduce the longevity of both new and deteriorated PVC objects. 

Museum Conservation of Wet Archaeological Wood. In 1951 the conservator at the National Museum of Denmark, Borje Brorson Christensen, published an article (2) about preservation of wooden objects found in peat bogs, in which he described the methods used to preserve that kind of material. By that time the drawbacks of the alum method, especially when glycerin was added, had began to show, and Christensen was working to find a suitable replacement for it. As PEG was not mentioned in his article. 

Story, K. O. Approaches to Pest Management in Museums Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC, 1985. 

Feller, R. L. (1978). Standards in the evaluation of thermoplastic resins. In 5th triennial meeting Zagreb, 1-8 October 1978 Preprints. International Council of Museums Conservation Committee. 78/16/4. 

Fromageot, D., Lemaire, J. (1987). Unreexamen deproprietes dedurabilit, des nylons solubles . In K. Grimstadt (Ed.), 8th Triennial Meeting, Sydney 1987 (Vol. 2, pp. 797-803). International Council of Museums - Conservation Committee. 

Identification of biomaterials in carved artwork (e.g., horn, hoof, and tortoiseshell) information of critical importance to art restorers and museum conservation scientists faced with the problem of conserving ill-restored items and the preservation of deteriorating material... 

Once a plan has been developed, regular practice drills should be held. These obviously should be scheduled when the museum is open to the public, as only when the public are present do a plan s inadequacies become obvious, and only during such drills can staff members develop the skills necessary to carry out a successful evacuation during a real emergency. For further information, see the COH data sheet Emergency Plans for Museum Conservation Laboratories , cited in the chapter bibliography. 

Museums - Security measures. 2. Museums -Safety measures. 3. Museum conservation methods. 

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