Care and Conservation

What is conservation? Answer - the opposite of restoration, which is returning an object to the way it looked when it was new. Museums have a responsibility to protect information about the full life of an artefact, so by wiping away all the dents, marks and scrapes, we could be destroying important clues as to how the object was used in the past. For example, if we 'restored' an archaeological object it would prevent us from carrying out scientific analysis in future because the residues of the past would no longer exist. The same goes for a vintage motorcar, by replacing all the parts we would eventually end up with a new car with nothing left of the original vehicle. So, conservation is stabilising an object so it doesn't deteriorate any further, which may be for the purpose of better storage or display.

At Hull Museums we always use qualified conservators to give advice or carry out work on our collections. Most conservators are specialists in a certain field, such as textiles, furniture, leather, or paintings. This work can be time consuming and costly so it is important for us to prioritise objects dependent on their importance.

Food and drink

Prevention is always better than cure, so we try and protect the collections by carrying out regular pest checks to make sure that our objects aren't being eaten by insects or rodents. This is the reason we ask visitors not to bring food and drink into our museums, as crumbs and sticky soft drinks will encourage pests into the buildings. If we do have events where food and drink is allowed we always confine it to certain areas away from the collections. Insects can have a devastating effect on collections if they take hold in a building, especially woodworm or clothes moths. Anyone who has had moths eat their best woollen jumper will know how destructive they can be.

What Causes Deterioration

Apart from pests, the condition of an object can deteriorate in a variety of ways:

Handling
Damage from UV light
Exposure to heat or damp
Changes in humidity

To prevent deterioration from the above we:

Carefully consider the consequences before picking up an object, to check for weak points
Lights are dimmed in galleries, or windows covered
Radiators are turned off near to where objects are displayed or stored
We continually check all areas for temperature and humidity to ensure these remain static

Materials

Knowing what an object is made of is essential to its long-term care. Different materials require specific environmental conditions to survive. That's why we have monitors to record temperature and humidity, and use humidifiers, de-humidifiers, or building management systems to control the environment. Some materials are also easily damaged by light, such as brightly coloured textiles or watercolour paintings. The following shows a selection of materials and their requirements:

Oil paintings - not too dry as the paint will crack. Not too damp or it will cause mould
Textiles - dry and cool as pests don't like these conditions
Metal - dry to prevent corrosion
Leather - needs some moisture in the air but not too wet as this will cause mould
Photographs and negatives - dry and very cold (sometimes they are even frozen!)
Paper - fairly dry, but not too much as it will become brittle

As you can see it is quite complicated, and made even more difficult when a variety of materials are stored or displayed in the same areas, or one object is made from a composite of materials. For example a horse drawn carriage usually has a textile interior, metal frame, wooden body and leather hood. In such cases we have to decide on which material is the most fragile and tailor the environment to suit.

If you would like to know more about conservation projects at Hull Museums, please go to 'What's New' above, or back to 'Behind the Scenes' and 'Adopt a Painting Scheme' or 'Collections Projects'.