There was a thread on the Registrar’s Committee of the American Association of Museum’s list serve this week about the Ideal Registration Kit. By the end of the week, the whole discussion had become rather punchy and the list had grown to … Continue reading
Tag Archives: conservation
On Thursday, February 7, I was invited to speak to the Washington Conservation Guild about the state of collection care. Regular readers will know that this is a topic about which I’m passionate. Preventive care maintains our tangible heritage. End … Continue reading
Who Makes Collections Care Happen? Easy. Technicians dust artwork. But that’s a little simplistic view of both the work of a valuable, skilled technician, and collections care. Conservators make collections care happen! They study scientific reasons for deterioration and design … Continue reading
It’s been a busy week. As the Chair of Alliance for Response NYC, I’ve been busy trying to connect affected institutions with helping hands, information, and people in the government who can answer their questions. Below are some sites and … Continue reading
Speaking as a museum professional and a living history practitioner, what a great project. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s web page, conservators and curators worked with Thomas John Bernard, a theatrical designer, to create gridded patterns of … Continue reading
Where there is space, there is dust. Over dust, visitors to our museum and I connect. Dust is an ongoing challenge for collection care staff. It gets on your cases. It gets on objects on open display, such as the … Continue reading
What is that box with all the dials sitting in the corner of the gallery? Chances are, it’s a hygrothermograph. It’s a device that tracks temperature and relative humidity over time. Museum staff use it to understand the environment in … Continue reading
It can be overwhelming. It can hurt your brain. But it can also help you understand your collection’s preservation needs like nothing else. Collections risk assessment. Ready? Collections risk assessment evaluates the impact of different specific risks on a collections unit. It’s … Continue reading
How to cover a 400 year old mattress? Comparing dusts vacuumed from a chair every three years to tell if it is deteriorating? Condition survey of a stone floor, tile by tile? A mummified rat from the attic? That’s a … Continue reading
I hear the occasional grumble. Why is that photo of that object so bad? Why isn’t there an online database? Why are only selected objects online? Why can’t museums get their acts together? I worked on a grant project for … Continue reading