Hoosier Conservator

conservation at the crossroads

that stinks!

 Our manuscripts librarian called a few weeks ago and said, "I opened a box of photographs and it smells like mold." Just what every conservator loves to hear! The photographs, 12 oversized silver gelatin prints adhered to mat board, had clearly suffered from past water damage. The backing boards were stained, warpped, mold damaged (though no evidence of active mold, thank goodness), and had begun to detach from the photos. Worst of all - they smelled *terrible.* My goals for this treatment were to replace the acidic, damaged backing boards and to reduce the mildewy odor as much as possible. Removing the backing boards (in-progress photo here) and allowing the photos to air out under the fume hood for a few days did make them somewhat less stinky, but in an effort to get them smelling even fresher I've decided to try a baking soda chamber.  Sealing materials in an airtight container with an odor-absorbent (clay kitty litter and charcoal are other popular options) can be pretty effective; Parks Library Preservation had a great post a couple of months ago about successfully using Gonzo Odor Eliminator on a collection of smoky books. Since I had plenty of baking soda lying around, I figured I'd give that a whirl first.

I placed petri dishes full of baking soda in the bottom of a plastic storage bin, rested an egg crate on weights in the corners, and then stacked the photos, interleaved with sheets of Remay, on the egg crate. I snapped the lid shut and placed a few weights on top to make a little more airtight. I'll perform a "smell check" next week to see how things are progressing - though the stack of photos is pretty small, I have a feeling I may need to use a lot more baking soda for such a large container.

anniversary

Yesterday was my one-year job anniversary - I've officially survived 365 days of being a professional conservator!
 
A quick glance at the stats shows that my volunteers and I have treated and/or housed over 400 items this year. This number seems small when compared to the output of of labs at similarly sized institutions, but considering that everything is done in-house by myself or one of my two (excellent) volunteers, I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment. It's always nice to have lots of room to grow!
 
In addition to treatments, I've spent the year expanding our environmental monitoring program, assisting with exhibit prep and installation, responding to water and fire-related disasters, condition surveying various collections, ordering supplies and equipment for the lab, training volunteers, giving tours of the lab and answering a wide variety of preservation-related questions from the public, presenting at the Society of Indiana Archivists annual meeting, and  . . . whew.
 
 

splat

Bug_on_film

 

As I was inventorying a 1950s-era film about the Indiana State Fair this morning, I came across this little guy stuck to one of the frames. Considering its position in the middle of a tightly wound film pack and its very squished condition, my theory is that the bug crossed paths with the film the last time the film was projected.

And, yes, after carefully removing the bug, I stuck it between two pieces of Scotch tape so that I can look at it under a microscope later. Because that's how we conservators roll.

P.S. It's typically a very, very good idea to wear gloves when handling film and photographic materials to avoid marring the surface with your oily fingers. However, since cotton gloves have a tendency to snag on torn perforations or fragile splices, I often forgo gloves when reeling through film and just take care to keep my  fingers at the very edges, away from the image area.

shout-out

In the almost-a-year since I became director of a conservation program still in its infancy (ok, it’s probably a toddler at this point), the The E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory Repair and Enclosure Treatment Manual --created by my neighbors down the road at IU -- has become one of my essential go-to resources. Since my lab doesn’t have its own manual of in-house procedures yet, this clearly written, nicely illustrated set of instructions for a wide range of general collections repairs and enclosures has proven invaluable both as a training tool for my volunteers and as a refresher for me.

rest in peace

This piece on NPR yesterday combines two of my geekiest loves: space travel and preservation. (Don’t even ask how many times I’ve seen The Right Stuff or Apollo 13. The answer: Many.)

While it was interesting to hear about the specifics of what needs to happen to prepare the shuttle for exhibition, like removing toxic materials that could leak or off-gas and replacing the engines with replicas, what really caught my attention was the way the technicians talked about working on a shuttle bound for a museum rather than for space:

"Once it gets on display, it'll be lifeless. Right now it's still got some life in it. It'll be hard seeing them dead and gone, so to speak."  - Charles Bell, space shuttle technician

Are museums morgues - cold, dark storehouses for objects whose true purpose, whose “life,” is all used up? Is a space shuttle still a space shuttle if it never goes to space again? I don’t really think “conservator” is just another word for “mortician,” but I am fascinated by how people assign value and meaning to objects, what they see as the role(s) of museums (and other cultural heritage institutions), and their reactions to conservation efforts. Also, my grad school classmates and I totally used to joke about how clamshell boxes are like pretty little book coffins and that deacidfication & encapsulation can feel a lot like embalming.

go quake!

Richmondmap


Working just down the road from my alma mater has its perks: reminders of it pop up all over the place. This is a detail of a 1910 US Postal Service map of Wayne County, IN showing rural delivery routes. It’s part of a large collection of maps the library is in the process of making accessible through Indiana Memory, the state’s digital library. I’ve been cleaning, mending, and rehousing these maps in preparation for digitization and storage.