Polishing Liturgical Brass

 

Brass polishing kit, St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, November 2009

By Ellen Carrlee and Dave Harvey

This is the How-To Manual that accompanies the kit above that we made for the St. Nichlas Russian Orthodox Church in Juneau, Alaska.  In August 2009, the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC) held its annual conference in Juneau, and the church was the site of an “Angels” volunteer project described elsewhere in this weblog.  The brass polishing part of the project was organized and led by Dave Harvey, who has extensive experience caring for metals, dating back to his time working at Colonial Williamsburg.  The technique and kit are designed for items that are in active use.  If you have metals conservation needs or questions, Dave Harvey lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at: topladave@gmail.com

Three biggest rules:

1. Polishing is abrasive.  You are sanding off the surface of the metal.
2. Solvent fumes are serious
3. Getting well set up is half the battle.

BUYING SUPPLIES:

If you need to start from scratch for a large project, setting up a deluxe kit is around $500.  If you have a lot of this stuff lying around (table, fan, hairdryer, towels) you could put together a good kit for around $100.

2 plastic tubs ($11.22 Home Depot. Sterilite 66 quarts or 62 liters. )  Nest together.  Lidded ones are good because the tub can double as the storage container for the supply kit.  Size depends on how large your objects are.

Bucket ($4.47 Home Depot.  Helps with transporting hot water)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Teflon tools ($21.50 big, $19.50 small.  Talas www.talasonline.com) Non-abrasive special plastic for scraping off wax.

Wooden tools ($2.00 – $5.00 Fred Meyer.)  Bamboo skewers, popsicle sticks, toothpicks etc. Really helps with getting candle wax out of threads on screws.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Terry cloth rags ($13.97 for bag of 24 at Home Depot.  Large bags also sold at Costco.)  Other kinds of cotton rags like old bed sheets or cloth diapers are fine, too.  White cotton is the best.

Large bath towel Got an old one at home?  This is nice just to place on the table under the wash tubs.  (Any color is fine.)

Silver polishing brushes ($7.50 each Talas www.talasonline.com) Made of horsehair and very soft, for getting the polish off before waxing.

Nitrile gloves ($24.41 Fisher Scientific www.fishersci.com Box of 100 pairs)  Latex gloves from Costco are OK too, but some people develop an allergy to latex.

Acetone ($16.96 Home Depot one gallon) Used to remove lacquers and other coatings from the brass.  Also, after polishing and rinsing, acetone removes remaining residues and helps evaporate any water in crevices.

Hair dryer ($14.99 Fred Meyer) Used to help remove wax when submerging in hot water isn’t a good option.

Hot air gun ($29.50 Home Depot) Gets much hotter than the hair dryer and is used only to heat the metal gently before waxing.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Renaissance Wax ($21.00 Talas www.talasonline.com 200mL can) For protective waxing of the surface after it is clean.

Mylar ($53.50 for .005” thick 20” x 50 feet Talas www.talasonline.com) Polyester sheet film that can be cut into drip-catchers that are almost invisible.  When they get spattered with wax, they can be peeled off and replaced, saving you from having to polish as frequently.

Scissors ($10.00 Fred Meyer) For cutting the Mylar

Small mat knife or X-acto ($3.00 Home Depot)  For cutting the Mylar

Wright’s Copper Cream ($4.29 Fred Meyer) For polishing.  Avoid anything that has “ammonia” in the ingredients.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Jet-dry ($5.29 Fred Meyer) Contains non-ionic surfactant.  Any rinse aid that says “non-ionic surfactant” on the label is OK, but avoid dyes and perfumes.  This container has blue color in the plastic bottle but the liquid itself is clear.

6 foot folding table ($175 Costco) As a working space if you don’t already have one

Fan ($18.00 Fred Meyer) To help get rid of the fumes.

EXAMINATION

Brass is the name given for a metal alloy that is made mostly of copper but also includes zinc.  There may be small amounts of other metals present as well.  (Bronze is a copper alloy that includes tin.)

Brass is often polished with harsh abrasives that can leave scratches in the surface and residues that harm the brass over time.  Many commercial polishes contain ammonia as a cleaning and degreasing agent, but it also reacts with the copper.  If there is already tension in the metal, the ammonia can cause a phenomenon known as “stress corrosion cracking.”  This is well known among folks who repair clocks and watches because of the damage it causes to the gears.  If chemical residues are not well washed away, they continue to attack the metal after the polishing is done.  For things in everyday use with a limited life span, the aggression of these commercial products is fine.  For heirloom pieces, artwork, clocks, and museum items to be preserved for hundreds of years, more gentle techniques are needed.  Most metal polishes contain fine abrasives.  Pinkish or reddish polishes contain iron oxide, which is much too abrasive for shiny silver or brass.  Steel wool and naval jelly are too harsh as well.  The rule is to use the gentlest polish possible. Remember, polishing is essentially sandpapering.

Sadie Beck Ingalls and Lauren Horelick use a hair dryer to help remove candle waxThe unpolished underside does not need treatment if the surface is stable. Gentle washing was all that was needed for this side. Polishing removes surface metal and we don't want to remove any more metal than necessary.

Brass in need of polishing often has degraded lacquer (can appear as dark tarnish areas,) candle wax, dirt, and corrosion products on the surface, including greenish organometallic corrosion that is often due to the interaction of impurities in the candle wax with the brass.  The green is often copper sterates or copper oleates.  These are caused by organic acids in the oils of the waxes reacting with copper ions from the metals.

The cavity of this candleholder was filled with resin. We tested it and found it was not water-soluble and was safe to submerge in warm water for cleaning.

If the item is completely brass, you can follow the simple instructions below.  If it includes any other materials, such as wood, ivory, paint, and so on the technique is slightly different so as not to damage those parts.  For example, you should not submerge it in water.  For the votive table we polished, it had wood underneath and careful use of heat from a hair dryer (not a hot air gun, that would be too hot) helped loosen the wax.

The candleholder filled with resin has areas where the metal was very thin and cracked, so we polished very gently in those areas.

GETTING SET UP

Make a workspace with a large table covered with a large bath towel.  We used the gift shop area with a station for wet work and a separate station for waxing. There was a spot outside on the front porch for dirty acetone-soaked rags.  We set up the waxing station near the back door for ventilation.  Fumes from the acetone, polish, and wax can make the work unpleasant and make you feel really lousy.  Setting up a fan to blow the solvent fumes away from you is a good idea as well.  If you do feel lightheaded after doing this work, you probably had too much solvent exposure.  Your liver will be working hard to clear it out of your system, so be kind to your liver and avoid drinking alcohol that evening.

Using tags and a digital camera to label where all the pieces go.

If the brass item comes apart, like a candelabra or a votive table, you MUST document where all the parts and piece go so you can reassemble easily when you are done.  Photographing is helpful.  If you use a digital camera or even a cell phone camera, you don’t have to download the images, just use the playback on the camera to check and then delete the images later after the object is reassembled.  It can help to make tags or labels of where things go.  If possible, only remove a few at a time so they are easier to keep track of.

Hot water from the bathtub

Fill tub #1 (the wash water) halfway or a little more with tap water as hot as it can come out of the bathtub faucet . You only need to fill up the tub far enough to cover whatever it is you are polishing.   It helps to have two people to carry the tub. If you are on your own, use the bucket to carry hot water to the tub.  Add just enough non-ionic rinse (Jet Dry) so bubbles come up when you shake your fingers around in it.  Tub #1 will be for cleaning.  Keep the Teflon scrapers and some rags handy near this tub.

Fill tub #2 (the rinse water) the same way.  It will be for final rinsing after the brass is clean, right before waxing.  Keep the horsehair brushes and some rags handy near this tub.

Set the acetone container under the table with some rags handy. Do not use acetone or other chemicals around flame or sources of ignition, and do not smoke. If the fumes are annoying, you might want to do the acetone work near some ventilation.  You might want to have a big ziplock bag to use with towels that become too stinky so you can seal them up and set them aside, or even set them outside on the porch.  A fan might also be helpful, positioned to blow any acetone fumes away from you.  Acetone is the main ingredient in fingernail polish remover, and while there are many solvents that are much more toxic, some people are quite sensitive to acetone and it is smart to reduce exposure.  An open door or window can help, and in nice weather this activity might even take place outdoors.

Keeping stinky rags on the front porch

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

CLEANING

You have several weapons to combat the candle wax, stain and corrosion:

1. Hot water
2. Teflon or wooden tools
3. Polish
4. Acetone
5. Rags

Weapons to remove candle wax and corrosion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soak the brass parts in tub #1 of warm wash water to dissolve dirt and soften the wax.  Use the Teflon scrapers to loosen the warm candle wax and wipe it off the scraper onto a towel you keep handy.  You can scrape and dip repeatedly in the warm water to get the wax off, or even keep the piece immersed in the warm water while you work on it.  Once the candle wax starts getting sticky and goopy, it is time to get fresh hot water.  Wrapping the back end of a plastic pen in a rag and twisting into the candle hole helps clean it out.  Anything that is softer than the metal and won’t scratch the metal is generally OK as a tool.  Bamboo skewers (like those used for shish-ke-bobs,) toothpicks, and popsicle sticks are nice too.

Working in warm water to clean the brass

Using a Teflon tool to scrape off candle wax

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to remove the last bits of candle wax and the degraded lacquer, put a little acetone on a towel and rub it off.  Use the smallest amount possible.  Keep the lid on the acetone as much as you can and try to limit how many rags are being used, or else the fumes from the acetone will make your work unpleasant.  It is best to do this work in a well-ventilated place.

All this brown stuff will come off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rub a small amount of the polish onto the surface of the brass with the sponge that is included in the jar.  Rubbing the metal with the sponge ought to help remove most areas of stain. The gentle abrasion offered by a terrycloth rag with polish on it is helpful, too.  Polish seems to work a little better if it sits briefly on the surface.  Brownish tarnish areas will come off with enough rubbing.  The towel will have dark stain on it as you polish, and some of that is the metal itself, so the idea is NOT to polish until your rag comes up clean, but until the stain is gone.  Sometimes going back and forth between the acetone and the polish is helpful.

Applying the polish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you have cleaned it as well as you can, use the rinse water in tub #2 and the horsehair brushes to remove the polishing residues.  Dry the object with a clean cloth.  If there are two people working on the project, one person can be doing the dirty cleaning off of candle wax and using tub #1, and another person can be doing the less-dirty activities of rinsing at tub #2 and waxing.  If you are working by yourself, it is good to change your gloves before going to tub #2.  Otherwise your gloves might get candle wax and dirt residues on your freshly cleaned brass.

WAXING

Microcrystalline wax provides a layer of protection from dirt, wax, fingerprints, grease etc and will make your polishing job last longer.  The Renaissance wax is also a sacrificial layer that will take a lot of soiling with it when it is removed during the next polishing.  We use Renaissance microcrystalline wax because it is of known good quality, does not need to be pre-melted before use, and will not cause corrosion of the brass.  However, it does have solvents in it and you should take care with breathing it.  It is not a natural wax like the beeswax in the candles, it is a petroleum product.  Wipe down the brass with acetone on a clean rag just before waxing.  This will remove grease or fingerprints from the surface as well as help remove any water from crevices.  The cleaner the surface, the better the wax can form a good coating.

Acetone removes grease/residues and helps the last traces of water evaporate before waxing.

Pre-heat the brass piece you are working on evenly all over with the hot air gun.  Do the heating gradually over the whole piece, not just in one spot.  Do not touch the nozzle of the hot air gun or you could be burned.  Heating opens the pores of the metal and makes the wax flow on and penetrate the metal surface much better than if it were applied cold.  It is difficult to get the metal warm enough with a simple hair dryer.  When the metal gets almost too warm to touch with your fingers, like a hot muffin, it is ready.  Dab a little Renaissance Wax on a clean rag and then barely coat the surface of the brass.  Make sure there are no shiny spots left and the brass is completely coated. Remove the lid of the wax container only long enough to put some on a rag.  Apply it to the surface with one rag, and then right away take a second clean rag and buff like crazy.  Use a fingernail inside the cloth to get buildup of wax out from the small spaces and grooves.  It is a good idea to walk away from the waxy rag while you polish so you are not standing in the fumes.

Heat gun and wax

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you are done with the project, lay out all the used rags to let them air dry overnight.  Choose somewhere where no one will be, as it will get stinky from the fumes.  When they are dry, wash them with detergent like a normal load of laundry in the washer and dryer.  They will come out pretty clean and can be put back with the kit for future use.

Final buffing after the wax is applied.

WHAT NEXT?

Your polish job could last for years if you avoid handling the brass with bare hands and can keep candle wax drips off of it.  Wearing cotton or plastic gloves or even having a clean towel between your hand and the brass can prevent fingerprints that etch into the metal over time.

Fingerprints etching into the brass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are “Dripless” candles of higher purity that might cost more but cause less damage.  We made custom-fit layers of clear plastic Mylar film to act as drip guards for the candelabras and votive tables.  These are optional but might make your polishing job last longer.

Templates for making more plastic drip-guards for the candelabra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How long does it take and how many supplies are needed?  Well, 5 or 6 people (professional conservators) working for two days (about 14 hours) polished one large floor-standing candelabra, one large votive table with a great many candleholders, and another smaller votive table with only a few candleholders. They used up 1/10 bottle of Jet Dry, 1 ½  cans of polish, 2/3 can acetone and most of one can of wax.  A few months later, 3 people (two conservators and a volunteer) took 12 hours to polish the second floor-standing candelabra.  (The 21 little individual candleholders that unscrew from the candelabra took those 3 people 3 hours.)  They used 1/10 bottle Jet Dry, one can of polish, 1/3 can acetone, and ½ can of wax.

Aleut or Alutiiq “Child’s” Boots

Hello, I’m Lauren Anne Horelick, Ellen Carrlee’s third year intern from the UCLA/Getty Masters Conservation program in Archaeological and Ethnographic objects. Prior to my coming up here to work at the Alaska State Museum, Ellen had asked me if there were any types of objects that I wished to gain experience in examining and treating. My response was “any objects composed of gut or composite objects with fur.”  Gut material, or other inner skins such as esophagus, or bladder hold significant interest for me. I was delighted to arrive and have a box handed to me that enclosed two damaged boots made from an inner skin material.  Below is the written and photographic documentation, as well as the treatment that was carried out to stabilize these boots in preparation for travel and display at the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, Alaska.  The idea to turn this report into a blog was inspired by the rarity of these “child knee boots” which may be from the Aleut or Alutiq cultural groups. Due to the paucity of information about them, we hope that this blog entry will be of use to others who may have similar materials in their collections. 

SJ2008-6-1 A,B. Aleut or Alutiiq Boots. Before Treatment

Catalog No: SJ 2008-6-1a,b     Object:  Boots   Culture:  Aleut or Alutiiq  Boots 

Materials:Unidentified. Possibly sea lion esophagus membrane for the legging, and sealskin or commercially tanned leather for the vamp (based on similar objects). No materials analysis has been conducted at this time to confirm or suggest other possible material origin. 

Dimensions (see above image for letter designation): 

Boot A: H: 24 cm W: 5 cm D:  13 cm (boot A is 2 cm taller than B) 

Boot B: H: 22 cm W: 5 cm D: 13 cm 

Description: The object is a pair of “child-sized” boots with dark brown leather vamps, a yellow-colored hide sole, and a thin, opaque, papery yellow-colored material for the legging. It is not possible to distinguish the right boot from the left. Both side seams of each boot have the remains of coarse and kinky tufts of alternating red and blue wooly fibers, as well as regularly spaced small feathers. It is not unclear if the boots where used as footwear, as the size of the feet appear too small and narrow for a real fit. The boots may have been models or practice sewing pieces for girls or they may have been produced as souvenirs. 

Background Info: The boots were purchased in auction from a woman in Vacaville, CA for the Sheldon Jackson Museum (SJM) in Sitka, Alaska. Vacaville is about 3 hours from Ft. Ross, which was the Russian American outpost during the early 1800s, and now a historic park. Ft. Ross is significant for this objects attribution as Aleut/Alutiiq people helped establish the fort.  Curator Rosemary Carlton of SJM speculates, “… these small, fragile boots may have had their origins from some of those 19th century settlers. Unfortunately the seller knew nothing about the boots other than having purchased them at a church sale in Vacaville” (Carlton 2009). A second time frame for the boots is provided by Oakes and Riewe (2007) who indicate that the “Aleut, Alutiit and the Dena’ina had contact with the Russians by the late 1700’s,” and that the “boot style was probably introduced by the Europeans and may not have been worn prior to Russian contact.” 

  

Similar boots are in the collections of the Alaska State Museum (ASM) in Juneau, the National Museum of Finland, and the department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.  The collection dates of similar boots from these institutions span from 1854-1913. 

Figure 1:Left: ASM “Baby’s boots” II-F-53. Right: ASM “ Child’s knee boots” II-F-72. Images of the boots while on display at the Alaska State Museum 11.05.2009.

One pair of similar boots in the Alaska State Museum collections (II-F-53)[Figure 1] are described as “baby’s boots”, measuring 10.8 cm long, 2.5 cm wide and 14 cm high. The feet are incredibly narrow, and could not possibly fit the typical width of baby’s foot (the 7 lb newborn of the ASM conservator [Figure 2] had a foot width of 3.5cm and 7.5cm long.  At 2 years of age and walking well, his feet were 6.4cm wide and 14cm long.) 

Figure 2: Carson Carrlee at 2 years old showing us how wide his feet are. You can tell, he also thinks those boots are too narrow for his feet.

The boots in Figure 1 are described generally as sealskin, though the vamp (sides and top of the shoe), which encircles the feet, appears to be black-brown commercially processed leather with a glossy surface quality. The legging is opaque yellow with a visible grain pattern, indicating an inner skin that has an overall softness in quality. This legging material is attached to the top perimeter of vamp by very fine hand-sewn stitches resulting in tiny pleats occurring at random. The other pair of ASM boots (II-F-72), referred to as “child’s knee boots”, measuring 14cm long, 5.5 cm wide, and 27 cm high. These boots possess realistic proportions relating to children’s feet, and they appear to be made with identical materials as the previously described baby’s boots, showing an overall similarity in design and execution. When seen together, these two pairs of boots could be construed as a model pair next to the final product. Both of these boots have brown-black vamps, stitched to a skin of opaque yellow legging, and adorned at the top with a single strip of brown-black material sewn along the interior . The striking similarity between these rather rare boots may be attributed to their collection history. Both pairs are from the Samuel and Martha Applegate collection of Aleut materials dated 1881-1913, based on the period of time the family was in the Aleutian Islands for various business and professional ventures (ASM file 67-67). This collection time frame pushes the previously stated “early 1800’s” time frame given for the SJM boots, to possibly mid to late 1800’s. 

Figure 3: At right are the SJM Museum’s “Child’s knee boots” before treatment next to an image of the ASM’s pair of “Baby’s knee boots.”

What is most compelling in comparison to the SJM boots is the quality and shape of material used for the vamp of the boots, and the method of attachment to the legging material. Both the SJM and ASM boots show what appears to be very fine hand-stitched thread to connect commercially tanned leather to a traditionally used skin [Figure 3]. 

The boots from the Etholén collection of the National Museum of Finland are documented in a catalogue with the dimensions of height at 22 cm and the length of the foot at 16 cm [Figure 4]. 

Figure 4: Child’s boots in the Etholén collection of the National Museum of Finland. The boots are described as seal skin for the sturdy vamps, and sea lion esophagus membrane for the legging. Image: Varjola 1990: 233. Photo by Matti Huuhka, Museokuva.

The boots in figure 4 were collected circa 1854-62, which is a bit earlier than the ASM collection date, but still well within the range of late 1800’s. From the black and white image in the catalogue, these boots appear very similar to the ASM pairs with the same dark top border, light legging material, with tiny pleats resulting from fine stitching of the legging to the foot encircling vamp of the boot. The catalogue entry describes the materials for these “child’s boots” as seal skin for the sturdy vamps, and the legging of sea lion esophagus membrane (Varjola 1990). The description of the top border of the boots indicates the use of sealskin that at one time contained fur, but is now completely worn off (Varjola 1990). These boots are also described as having “narrow esophagus membrane piping painted red, green, and black” (Varjola 1990). 

The most striking similarity between the Etholén boots compared with the SJM’s pair can be seen in the quality of the legging material, though there is no painted surface on the SJM pair. The stitching technique and overall design and execution are very similar to both the ASM and the SJM boots. 

The Smithsonian’s Aleut and Alutiiq boots are much larger than the SJM’s pair of boots overall, and were not intended for children (or babies) as they are called either “man’s fancy knee-high boots”, or just “man’s knee boots” called sapuugan in the Aleut’s Unangam Tunuu language (www.alaska.si.edu) [Figure 5]. 

Figure 5: Smithsonian Museum collections of similar boots, possibly made with similar materials to ours though much larger. Left: man’s knee-high fancy boots from Aleutian Islands. Accessioned 1873. Right: man’s knee-high boots from Unalaska Island. Accessioned 1881. Images: www.alaska.si.edu.

The similarities in these larger boots, in comparison to the other collections, can be seen with the use of similar-looking materials such as the black-brown vamp, described in discussions with elders as commercially tanned leather. The vamps have a similar overall shape and attachment method to the legging material said to be either “seal throat”, sea lion esophagus membrane, or caribou skin, with the seams made waterproof by sewing with whale or caribou sinew (www.alaska.si.edu). It is interesting that there is no mention of sealskin, as in the examples from ASM. The soles of feet are described as either sea lion flipper or bearded seal skin (www.alaska.si.edu). The overall color scheme is similar to all of the other pairs of boots, with the dark vamps and the light yellow legging material. These boots also do not appear to have a painted surface. 

An engaging detail can been seen in the pair of Smithsonian’s boots (seen at right) showing short colorful fibrous tufts protruding from the side seam along with what appears to be the remains of feathers, or long wispy fibers of some type. This arrangement of short tufts of fibers (and possibly feathers) is identical to the seam design on the SJM boots, as well as on a rare example of boots collected from the Athabascan Dena’ina in 1855 and now in the collection of the National Museum of Finland, Museum of Cultures [Figure 6]. The Dena’ina live in Cook inlet and the surrounding land northwest of the Aluiit, and Northeast of the Aleut (Oakes and Riewe 2007). 

Figure 6: A pair of boots collected from Dena’ina in 1855 in the collection of the National Museum of Finland, Museum of Cultures. Note the small tufts of red fibers emerging from the seams. Images Oakes and Riewe 2007.

Materials and Technology 

  

SJ2008 A-B Before Treatment.

The legging material is matte, opaque, and has a soft, somewhat flexible paper-like quality with approximately 1 mm thickness overall. The exterior of the legging material has a regular, striated, vertically occurring feature that appears, at first glance, as previously creased or folded material. Under the binocular microscope, the legging also shows fine, incised-looking lines that run close together. Under magnification it is not possible to detect a follicle pattern on the exterior or interior of the legging material. On the interior of the legging there are randomly disbursed black filiform features (fine, wispy, threadlike undulose strands) [Figure 7]. These features are characteristic of an inner skin, or gut material, though the exact animal and previous function of the inner skin is undetermined. 

Figure 7:Detail of the inside of the legging showing filiform features characteristic of gut.

Along areas of breaks in the legging material the cross-sections reveal a white and densely compact fibrous material [Figure 8]. The numerous deep and shallow creases along with the amount of dirt accumulation throughout the legging complicates observation of the legging’s micro-features. 

Figure 8: Detail of a cross-section break edge showing white fibrous material.

The legging material appears to be manufactured by using two separate, front and hind strips, sewn together at the sides to form a column shape. The seam sewing is not visible from the exterior of the boots, but can seen along the interior occurring as a tiny overlapped band that has been whip-stitched, possibly with sinew. The seams coincide with a thin (2mm) strip of welting of a brown skin colored material. The welting encloses decorative additions of short tufts of red and blue fibers, along with small, semi-plume feathers spaced at regular intervals. The seams are placed roughly in line with where the ankle would be. 

The top seam at the opening of the boots is folded towards the interior, and a (5mm) band of skin material, pigmented green, is sewn just below the perimeter of the top lip [Figure 9]. It appears as though feathers and more tufts of colored fibers were held in place by this band, which is stitched with a wool-like thread that is now faded blue-green. The tufts occur in dense clusters of blue and red fibers that have a kinky quality. 

Figure 9: Pigmented green band of skin around the top perimeter of the boot.

The tufts have a pattern going up the seam, where at the first cluster shows the red tuft surrounded by blue, and then the pattern is reversed in the next grouping. The semi-plume feathers are consistently located in the center of the tufts grouping (where they are still present) [Figure 10]. 

Figure 10: Detail of the side of the seam where there are feathers and alternating tufts fibers.

The feet appear to have been made from one piece of an overall dark brown-colored material to form the vamp (sides and top of the shoe), which encircle the feet. The vamp has a visible grain pattern throughout [Figure 11]. The vamps may be commercially processed leather, as there is a lack of hair follicles and the vamps possess a slight luster in areas lacking abrasion. The deterioration of in the surface flakes, with slightly powdery material beneath is reminiscent of red rot seen on vegetable tanned leather, but not similar enough to suggest red rot as the mechanism with confidence. 

Figure 11: Photomicrograph at 10x magnification of the material used for the foot. Apparent in this image is a clear grain pattern with no hair follicles present.

The lack of hair follicles observable on the vamp may have to do with the processing of the skin, the species of animal, or the location from where the skin was taken. The legging material is slightly pleated at the area where it is sewn around the top perimeter of the vamp. These stitches may be made from sinew and are visible from the outside of the vamp and appear in short, angled lengths that are close together. 

The soles of the feet are made from a tough and inflexible dark-ochre colored hide material that has been stitched around the bottom perimeter of the feet. The stitching is not visible from the exterior of the boot. 

Condition: 

Please see condition maps for measurements and specific locations [Figure 12]. 

Figure 12: Condition maps of the boots before treatment. Click on image to see it larger.

  

Both pairs of boots are in poor condition with several disfiguring compound tears, heavily creased material, tiny holes, soiling, deformation, and scattered areas of missing decoration. The boots do not appear to be able to stand on their own and generally look misshapen due to the extent of the tearing and crumpling to the material. Both boots have strong creases up the front and back resulting in a flattened appearance. The legging material is heavily creased throughout, but does not appear to be brittle and has retained flexibility. The legging material on both pairs of boots is an overall cream to yellow-ochre color with pronounced darker patches, particularly in deeply creased areas. Both boots have scattered areas of abrasion revealing a white material, which may reflect the original color of the boots. 

Both boots overall have a fine layer of a sooty and greasy-looking black dirt. Areas of pronounced dirt accumulation can be seen in the numerous deep and shallow creases throughout the boots, and within the small holes present at the top of the boots, as well as collected within the tiny feathers. 

These “child-sized” boots may have been displayed hanging on a wall with the toes facing inward. Evidence for this observation can be seen in the amount of discoloration, either due to soiling or light damage, or both to the surfaces of only one side of each boot. Further evidence to suggest this can be seen with the amount of missing fringe decoration along the sides and tops of one side of each boot. 

Past interventions, presumably to provide inner support to the boots, can be seen by additions of bundled stockings (possibly Nylon) and commercial wrapping paper (with a holly motif). Although this material has most likely helped to reduce some of creasing and exaggerated deformation, it has altered the orientation of boot A from upright to a slight diagonal position, which is strangely enhanced by this boot being 2 cm taller than boot B.  It is also possible that the action of adding the less than ideal inner stuffing caused the splits seen throughout the boots. The creasing seen throughout most likely contributed to the weakening of the fibers of the legging material. Thereby the action of possibly overzealous stuffing may have caused these already weakened areas to split.  Both boots have also been previously “mended” with a clear pressure sensitive tape. 

Boot A: Specifics of condition 

The legging is torn directly above the vamp of boot A in a horizontally oriented tear running from the opposing side seams of the boot. This tear is located approximately 1 cm above the foot. Many smaller longitudinally oriented tears accompany this area of damage. The nylon-stocking bundle is currently bulging out the torn flaps of the legging material in this location, and forcing the orientation of the legging to a diagonal [Figure 13]. Two other horizontally oriented tears are present towards the top of the boot. A vertical tear is present on the back of the boot above the heel. 

Figure 13: Detail of boot A with stocking ( possibly nylon) pressing out torn flaps of skin material.

There are additions of a clear pressure sensitive tape visible on the interior of the boot’s opening, presumably to act as mends to the localized tears. The tape does not appear to be well adhered to the surface and is coming loose at several corners. The adhesive surface of the tape does not appear to have attached skin material. 

Many pin- sized and smaller holes are present on the top of the boot. Some of these holes appear to have the burr facing outward, suggesting puncturing possibly from past display methods where a pin or tack could have been used from the inside to secure the boots. Other small holes are less regular in size and have the appearance of being burnt or brown colored at the edges. These holes may be the result of insect grazing followed by dirt accumulation. 

The vamp and sole of the boot appears to be in very good structural condition and is intact with no significant tears, losses or abrasions. The bottom of the foot however, is misshapen in a slightly convex form. 

Boot B: Specifics of condition 

The top of the legging is distorted and flattened overall. In particular the opening is flattened shut.  There are small horizontal tears located towards the back of the legging. 

The legging material has multiple tears and losses. One vertically oriented tear is present at the front bottom of the legging material. This tear coincides with creased skin material. Two other tears are to the right and left of this central area of damage. The top front of the legging material has a large horizontally oriented C-shaped tear, with the torn material in folded inward. 

Along the back crease of the boot, beginning near the heel, there is a vertically oriented tear that had been “mended” with two pieces of clear pressure sensitive tape, which has failed exposing more of the nylon stocking. The tape appears well adhered in some locations though it is coming loose around the edges. Towards the opening of the boot, on the back, is another tear coinciding with creases. 

There are several small holes similar to those on boot A in location, distribution, and size. 

The vamp and sole of the boot are in fair structural condition with no significant tears, or losses. The top center of the vamp is heavily abraded and the material on the back of the heel shows some degree of delamination [Figure 14]. Tiny bits of this brown material have become dislodged providing some “self-sample” for potential analysis. 

Figure 14: Back of boot B detail of the vamp showing the present condition of the leather.

The top decorative bands of the boots, as well as the side seams have a few remaining tufts of red and blue fibers. The feathers are largely missing on one side of each of the boots and are not present along the top decorative band. 

Boot B- has a small splash of light blue paint along the back of the legging material that coincides with a crease and a tear in the material. 

Treatment Proposal: 

1. Descriptive and photographic documentation of the object.
2. Remove the interior stockings and paper.
3. Remove the clear pressure sensitive tape from locations of tears.
4. Reduce the amount of surface soiling first by light vacuuming with a soft brush.  If this procedure does not appear to have reduced the amount of loose and ingrained dirt a secondary method such as soot sponge or groom stick will be used. The surface cleaning will aim for an overall even appearance and will not attempt to make the boots look new.  Surface cleaning will help to facilitate proposed consecutive conservation treatment steps such as humidification (to reshape) and mending with an aqueous adhesive (removal of dirt will promote a better bonding surface).
5. Localized humidification to reduce the amount of creases, bends, and folds.
6. Mend tears with an appropriate adhesive in combination with a backing tissue of an appropriate weight and flexibility. The choice of an adhesive will be informed by the results of mock-ups on similar weight and textured material.
7. Consolidate the flaking leather, most likely with Klucel-G in a dilute solution to allow penetration into the leather.
8. Create interior stuffed Tyvek support for the boots to prevent further deformation of the shape.
9. Create a supportive blue board tray and box for the object during transit to the Sheldon Jackson Museum, in Sitka, Alaska.

10.  Digitally document the condition of the object after treatment. 

Treatment: 

1. Removed the inner stuffing from the boots. The stuffing appeared to be two different types of stockings (possibly Nylon). Three stockings were wedged into the bottom of boot A. Boot B contained only one thicker type of stocking along with a small wooden stick, resembling a used matchstick.
2. Tweezers were used to mechanically remove the clear pressure sensitive tape from the interior and exterior surfaces of the boots. Ethanol on a small-tipped brush was introduced to the tape in locations where adhesion was pronounced in order to release the bond. A cotton swab with ethanol was used to reduce adhesive residue remaining on the skin.
3. Light vacuuming with a soft brush followed by surface cleaning with latex-free cosmetic make-up wedges (Swisspers brand) was used to reduce loose soiling from the interior and exterior of the boots.

The makeup sponges picked up dense and greasy black dirt resembling fine particles of soot.  Soot sponges were also tried, but no soiling resulted on the surface of the sponge. This may have to do with the large pores of the sponge and the relative size of the dirt particles on the boots. 

After exhausting dry cleaning methods, aqueous cleaning began experimentally with distilled water on cotton swabs. Initially this did not appear to be an effective method, producing very minimal soiling on the swab. Perhaps this was due to a lack of applied pressure. However, after the boots were humidified (step 6) the use of a cotton swab and distilled water removed a significant amount of dirt. A 16-ounce can was eventually filled with completely blackened swabs after both boots were surface cleaned along the interior and exterior. 

It is possible that the process of humidification swelled and loosened the dirt from the surface of the legging material. Humidity may have also relaxed the fibers sufficiently to release the soiling. The cleaning appeared to bring a more luminous quality to the boots with an overall brighter yellow color [Figure 15]. 

Figure 15 : Boot B during surface cleaning. In this image only the top half of the boot has been cleaned revealing a luminous and light yellow material.

1. Toluene was used to flush soiling from the feathers. This was done by placing each feather onto strips of blotter paper held away from the body of the boot while solvent was introduced via a small brush. A second piece of blotter was placed on top of the feathers. A dark black material resulted on the blotter, and the process was repeated until staining ceased.  This was done with the objects in the fume hood where the action of the airflow helped in volatizing the solvent while separating the stuck-together barbules. This process of solvent introduction and blotting was repeated until the blotter paper appeared to be unsoiled.
2. Ethafoam was carved to approximate the shape of the leg’s interior. A thin layer of foam and Tyvek was then wrapped around, and tucked into a slit made in the Ethafoam to provide a smooth, inert, and structural form for the boots.
3. The boots were humidified first by placing them individually in plastic bags with distilled water and an environmental logger to record the RH. The first attempts at humidification were not successful, as the RH did not reach above 61.88% over a period of 4 hours.

A custom built Plexi Glass humidity chamber measuring 33 x 24 x 18 inches was used to encourage better overall humidification of the boots. The humidity chamber has a perforated metal rack on which on the boots could rest, while underneath the rack rested bowls of water and dampened blotter paper. A data logger was also placed within the chamber so the RH could be monitored. The legging material was significantly more malleable after being humidified for six hours while the RH steadily increased from 52%-94%. While the boots were flexible from overall humidification, and the rigid inner forms were placed within. Padded mini clothespins attached to the openings of the boots were suspended from a board to hold up the creased material and help the boot accept a vertical position. This maneuvering was needed to help bring complex tears into alignment [Figure 16]. 

Figure 16: Boot B inside of the humidity chamber. The little clips at the top of the boot are are suspended from threads individually tied to a board held above the boot by the Ethafoam planks. At the time we though it was very Macgyver, and seamed to be doing the trick of of convincing the legging material to go into alignment.

1. Japanese tissue was toned to match the overall color of the boots with Liquitex acrylic paints.
2. Adhesive mends were made with a paste of 5% methyl cellulose and Jade in a 3:1 ratio (respectively). These adhesives were mixed to a toothpaste consistency on a watch glass plate. New batches of the adhesive mixture were made for every mend, because the mixture became slightly gunny and less desirable to work with when allowed to sit for more then about five minutes. The mixture was brush applied in a thin layer to the toned Japanese tissue.
3. Through experimentation a method was established whereby the tissue mends could be applied to complex tears in hard to reach areas. At this phase in the treatment, damp cleaning also provided an opportunity for localized humidification and re-shaping followed by tear mending. Cleaning in localized areas of heavily creased and distorted material enabled re-shaping by holding the softened material in the desired conformation with gentle pressure applied through blotter paper with fingers for about 1-2 minutes.

Pre-feathered and toned tissue, without adhesive, could be slid in-between tears and positioned on a piece of silicone release Mylar. The flexibility of the torn legging material provided openings to apply the adhesive in a thin film with a small brush onto the positioned tissue. Gentle pressure was applied to the legging material through silicone release Mylar and blotter paper until a bond was formed between the legging material and the adhesive mend. The strength of each mend was tested the following day by gently pulling with tweezers. Completely flat mends were not always possible due to the dimensionality of the legging material, particularly in the pleats where the legging joined the vamp. In these instances mends were made in adjacent areas to tears and losses thereby preventing further tearing while compensating for losses [Figure 17]. 

Figure 17 : At right, the back of boot A where there are compound tears with an area of loss. At left. the after treatment image of the mended area with toned Japanese tissue that also served as a loss compensation material. This fill was later toned further to match the surrounding area per the request of the curator.

10.  Liquitex acrylic paints were used to further tone along areas of loss compensation on the back of boot B as per the request of the curator (Rosemary Carleton) [Figure 18-19]. 

Figure 18 : At right, boot B after the pressure sensitive tape had been removed from the creased and split back of the boot. At left, boot B after the toned Japanese tissue was used to fill and mend tears and area of loss. As the request of the curator the lighter areas of yellow were toned further to match the surrounding area ( see image below for final result).

Figure 19: After treatment image of the back of boot B. Here all of the fills are further toned. It is possible to see the areas of fill with close observation.

11.  The drip of blue paint on the back of boot B was mechanically removed with a scalpel under magnification. 

12.  The boots were re-housed in an archival box with customized supports to prevent excessive movement. 

13.  Digital documentation of the condition of the boots was taken after treatment. 

Figure 20: Before and after treatment images of the boots.

Rationale: 

Adhesive selection: 

The qualities of an appropriate adhesive for the repairs on this object include: appropriate strength, good long term aging properties, pH neutral, flexibility to allow movement of the material, reversibility, and not stain or otherwise alter the quality of the skin. 

Adhesives were tested on butcher paper that had been distressed by soaking, crumpling, and kicking around the wet gravely surface of the Alaska State Museum’s parking lot. Paper is very chemically different to skin, however replica material was not an available option (in part because the material of the boots could not be identified) and the distressed paper appeared to possess handling properties similar to the skin on the boots. The paper was torn with straight and complex tears to simulate the damage that appeared on the boots. Various adhesives were tested with Goldbeaters skin, and Japanese tissue carriers to accomplish the mends. 

Heat activated adhesive films such as BEVA or films of Lascaux 498 HV presented logistical problems due to the shape of the boots and the locations of the tears; therefore these types of adhesives were not included in the testing. The adhesive selected was chosen after empirically testing the following solutions: 

a)     40 % PVA-AYAT in 50/50 ethanol: acetone 

b)    20% PVA-AYAT in acetone 

c)     5% Methyl Cellulose in distilled water 

d)    5% Methyl Cellulose in distilled water and Jade in 1:3 proportions. 

Results: The main problem with the PVA solutions was in handling properties and drying time. The combination of methyl cellulose and Jade had the best handling properties for this particular application and had a longer drying time, which originally was sought after. A longer working time was originally desired because it first appeared that the mends would require a fair bit of complicated positioning. However, in the end a simpler method was devised. The Japanese tissue allowed for the edges of pre-cut shapes to be feathered and therefore it allowed for more places of adhesive contact with out lying, in-tact material. While Goldbeaters skin is typically the preferred choice of a mending substrate on skins, due to its similarity in overall features, its edges cannot be feathered and its translucency would have been lost in use as only tear mending material. 

The leather vamps of the boots were not consolidated as originally planned. This is because the Klucel-G, the consolidant selected and most commonly recommended, appeared to darken the leather to an unacceptable degree. The material appears to loosen with handling and excessive movement. If handled, stored, and exhibited with care, the boot vamps should not shed flaking material. 

Consultation:  

Steve Henrikson (9.1.2009): The boots may have been made for tourist trade and the vamp may be from an acquired trade item as it has the appearance of industrial processing and surface treatment. 

Analysis: 

Samples of material from the vamps that were loose and had become detached were collected in a polyethylene bag for analysis to try to determine a tanning process. The samples were sent to chemist Tami Lasseter Clair at Portland State University. 

  

Supplies: 

Blotter paper: An acid free, 100% cotton paper. Available through Talas and Museum Services Corporation. 

Cosmetic sponges: Polyurethane foam latex-free Swisspers brand makeup sponges. Available locally at drug stores.  

Ethafoam: a registered trademark for low-density polyethylene foam that has a closed cell structure. (http://cameo.mfa.org) Available through Talas, and Museum Services Corporation. 

Jade 403: An aqueous adhesive emulsion containing ethylene vinyl acetate (20/80) copolymer. (Talas #TAD007002. http://talasonline.com) 

Japanese Tissue: a strong, hand-made paper composed of long bast fibers (http://cameo.mfa.org). Available through Talas, and Fine Art paper stores. 

Klucel G: Non-ionic adhesive (hydroxypropylcellulose) Soluble in water and alcohol and mixes well with hot waxes.  Thermoplastic, flexible, and dries clear.  Available from Talas, 568 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.  1-212-219-0770. 

Liquitex Acrylic paints: Acrylic water–emulsion paint. Available at art supply stores. 

Silicone release Mylar: Polyethylene terephthalate. A registered trademark of a series of optically clear, colorless, thermoplastic polyester films. (http://cameo.mfa.org). Available through Talas. 

Methyl Cellulose: cellulose ether that forms a highly viscous colloidal solution in cold water (http://cameo.mfa.org).Available through Talas. 

Soot sponge: A natural vulcanized rubber sponge used to remove dust, soot, and odors. Dry cleaning sponges statically collect and retain small particles. Available at most hardware or craft stores and through University Products, www.archivalsuppliers.com 

  

Tyvek: a non-woven spun bonded polyethylene fabric (http://cameo.mfa.org). Available through Talas, and Museum Services Corporation. 

References: 

Carlton, Rosemary 2009 Aleut/Alutiiq Boots; Sheldon Jackson Museum, Artifact of the Month for October. On line press release, State of Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. http://www.museums.state.ak.us/documents/sjm/artifacts/oct_2009.pdf 

Cruickshank, Philippa 1987  The Conservation of a Model Eskimo Kayak Involving the Treatment of Gut.  Leather Conservation News 4(1): 1-12. 

Oakes, Jill and Riewe 2007  Alaska Eskimo Footwear. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks. 

www.alaska.si.edu 

  

  

 

ID of Alaskan furs intro

Elk

Caribou

Working on a project right now to come up with a reference key for Alaskan furs.  Got the idea when I began working on a child’s parka made of a baby caribou, with some trim that seems like mink and a sunburst ruff that appears to be wolf and wolverine.  Also tried to pin down whether some fur tufts on a gut hat were wool or baby seal and it turns out they are probably cotton!  Certain things about the pelt, such as length and density of guard hairs, plushness of the underfur, markings,  etc are visible to the naked eye.  But another realm of information is available by examining the hairs under the polarized light microscope.  The appearance (or absence) of the medulla, the medullary index, the cuticular scale pattern and changes in these things along the length of the hair are quite interesting.  I am not yet sure if I will be able to pinpoint certain similar animals, like caribou from moose or mink from marten, but it might be possible.  And there is considerable information about what range each animal has and which cultures tend to utilize them.  The beauty of this project is that the animals used are finite.  I’m making a list of them, and have samples of about half so far.  I’m not sure the right way to disseminate this information once it is gathered.  I like the peer review process offered by publications like JAIC, but a website would really allow the most extensive use of images, which are really helpful.  I have a wonderful Olympus BX51 PLM, but need to get a camera for it to start building up a library of images.  I’ve mentioned the project to the 4 major US grad programs and might take on an intern this summer to push the project to the next level.

Arsenic Testing step by step

 I used to follow the arsenic test described in Odegaard, Carroll and Zimmt’s “Material Characterization Tests for Objects of Art and Archaeology.”  I also happen to be married to one of the authors.  He told me Cathy Hawks had a cleaner method that he was excited about, and when she came to consult on the natural history collection at the Alaska State Museum, I was eager to see it.  She demonstrated it for us, and later Scott and I tested several taxidermy specimens using both methods.  Our verdict was that Cathy’s way was every bit as effective, and made less hazardous waste.  With hundreds of specimens to test, I dove in and made a few minor workflow discoveries which I’ll share here.

SAMPLING

1. Run 10 at a time, not only do you avoid accumulating too much hazardous waste that way, but you don’t bite off more than you can easily process.  

2. I’ve been using cheap plastic test tubes, bought in bulk from Fisher Scientific, and when I sample I use two swabs, each one going over the entire specimen in all the likely spots.  Break off the swab ends, put them both directly into the tube.  No intermediate ziplock bag to label and throw away.

3. Take your “known negative” sample right there with the same distilled water so you can have lots of confidence in your negative.

 

Prepping for arsenic test

 

PREPPING THE TEST

1. Cut up Parafilm to make lids for the test tubes.  The Parafilm I’ve got has squares printed on it and cutting them in quarters is perfect.

2. Put on gloves.  The mercury bromide test papers are not healthy.

3. Cut up test papers in 1/8 pieces…four strips lengthwise and then each in half.  Then snip a slit in the end and fold to make a little propeller-like thingy that will prevent the strip from falling into the tube.  I call these “helicopters” and I make a bunch ahead of time and keep them in a beaker with a watchglass for a lid.

4. Use one empty test tube as a model to make all the lids you need using the squares of Parafilm you’ve cut, slit with scalpel, insert a “helicopter” into each one.

5. Set your tubes in a rack in the fume hood, set the little lids in front of each

6. Make a reporting sheet for your results

7. Tape down plain paper strips to the rack to keep it clean. Remove the topmost sample swab from each beaker using a straight-beaked tweezers and set it on the paper right in front of the tube it came from.  Make sure other swab is fuzz-down in the tube.  In this way, you’ve got a backup swab but you’re being super efficient about making not making more mess and labels.

8. Run your known negative and a known positive EVERY time to give confidence in results.  I’ve been saving the spare swab from strongly positive specimens to use as my known positive in future tests.

9.  Have all reagents ready to go.  The reaction makes a gas as soon as all the components come together, and that is what the test paper is sensitive to.  You’ve got to have all your ducks in a row to get that lid on quickly.  The acid dropper that came with the acid in the Merckoquant test kit is annoying. Remove it with straight beaked tweezers, slowly using one beak to lift gently around all sides.  I use plastic pipettes for the acid and base and little glass beakers to hold them when not in use.  Acids and bases scare me, so I have a fanatical little routine of diluting and rinsing and throwing away the pipettes after a few rounds of testing. 

 

Ready to run

 

TESTING

10. Put on goggles

11. Put 2 drops KOH in each tube  Leave tubes in rack while doing this.  We got our 1 molar solution made up by the local pharmacist.  NOTE: this version of the test DOES NOT WORK if you don’t use the KOH.  This is a major difference between the Hawks method and Odegaard et al.

12. Add 7 drops HCl to each tube. Keep careful track when reloading the dropper if you run out partway through counting your drops. Leave tubes in rack while doing this. 

13. Hold the rack with one hand and gently rattle tubes in the holes with the other.  This just makes me feel secure that all the liquids are getting on the swab OK.

14. Lift out each tube and add scoop (approx 0.5g) of zinc dust.  I find the coordination works better if you are trying to bring two hands together than if you’re trying to hit the target with one hand and the tube is in the rack.  It also makes the next step easier.  Since I had an old Merckoquant test kit, I’ve been using that nice scoop, but if I didn’t have it I would scheme a way to have the right quantity of zinc ready ahead of time.  Adding the zinc makes the reaction happen.

12. Quickly but without panic, grab each lid by one corner and poke the paper into the tube, squeezing down the edges of the Parafilm to seal the lid in place, set back into rack.

13.  Contents should be bubbling vigorously.  If they are not, something is wrong.  Bubbling has nothing to do with a positive or negative result, it just means the test is running properly.

14. References suggest results are reliable after 30 minutes.  I usually wait overnight, just for convenience. 

 

Tubes are bubbling vigorously!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REPORTING THE RESULTS

15. Dipping the paper in tap water and immediately holding it up to plain white paper helps a lot to see faint yellow positives.

16. The test is not known for false positives.  If your negative control did not turn and your positive did, you ought to be OK.  

17. The degree of color change is not indicative of the amount of arsenic on the sample.  Your sampling technique or the application method of arsenic over various areas are examples of varying factors that make this test qualitative and not quantitative.

18. The “helicopters” of test paper are hazardous waste.  The rest of the materials are not, particularly if you only throw them away 10 at a time and you keep your extra positives for future testing.  With the Odegaard et al method, you’ve potentially got a bunch of contaminated water to deal with.

 

Examining the test papers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TROUBLESHOOTING AND NOTES

I’ve gotten positive results on really small specimens, including a hummingbird that was only about an inch square.

Things that test positive for arsenic can also have insect infestations.  A bird mount that tested positive had a previous infestation in the feet.  Tons of larval casings and frass.  Cathy Hawks tells me that feet were generally not treated on traditional bird mounts and have a bit of meat left intact which can be attractive to insects.

I am still investigating, but it seems that a number of specimens in our collection that were freeze dried are coming up positive for arsenic.  Cathy Hawks told me that the craze for freeze drying really got going after arsenic was going out of favor, but I guess that doesn’t mean that the two are mutually exclusive.

Once, I accidentally ran my two swabs at once, using only the normal amount of reagent.  The result still came out positive.

Waterlogged Wood Deterioration

WATERLOGGED WOOD DETERIORATION

Notes for investigating possible treatment of waterlogged archaeological spruce root basketry

Ellen Carrlee, March 2009

 

WOOD BASICS (especially conifers)

Gymnosperms (Softwoods) Seeds NOT in ovules.  Usually have needles.  Conifers in this group.  They have sieve cells, a type of phloem characteristic of non-flowering vascular plants.

Angiosperms (Hardwoods) Seed in ovules.  Flowering plants.  Usually lose leaves seasonally.  Divided into monocotyledons (grasses, palms, bamboo) and dicotyledons

 

 

Cell Wall has layers of:

1. cellulose (a polysaccharide aka complex carbohydrate aka complex sugar), cellulose will form H-bonds with about 36 other chains to form a microfibril, sort of like making a thick rope from thin fibers.  Some regions of these microfibrils are crystalline and some are amorphous.  They are 5-12nm wide and have tensile strength of steel. About 40-80% of the secondary cell wall is cellulose microfibrils (Bidlack et al 1992.)

2. hemicellulose a polysaccharide more soluble than cellulose…especially soluble in strong alkali.  Hemicellulose is now called cross linking glycans by biologists.  They don’t aggregate and don’t form microfibrils. Thought to cross link non-cellulosic and cellulosic polymers.  About 10-40% of the secondary cell wall is hemicellulose (Bidlack et al 1992.)

3. lignin (a complex polysaccharide)  is basically a polymer of phenolics, especially phenylpropanoids.  About 5-25% of the secondary cell wall is lignin, and the cellulose microfibrils and hemicellulosic chains are embedded in lignin, which serves as a amorphous polymer “glue.” Lignin % is higher in conifers than hardwoods in general.  Lignin is not easily soluble, and is probably bound chemically to the hemicellulose and not the cellulose.  Lignin is the precursor to coal (Bidlack et al 1992.)

 

The outermost layer of the cell wall is the middle lamella, and has the glue that binds it to adjacent cells.  The primary wall is thin, found in young, growing cells, and has pectic polysaccharides (30%), hemicellulose (25%) cellulose (15-30%) and protein (20%.)  All plant cells have a middle lamella and a primary wall.   Secondary wall is an additional deposit inside the primary wall.  Mostly for support and made of cellulose and lignin.  In the secondary cell wall, elongation stops during growth because of deposition of lignified secondary cell wall.  There are often distinct layers (S1, S2, S3) that differ in orientation of the cellulose microfibrils.  Lignin rarely occurs in the S3 lamella (Bidlack et al 1992.)  The lumen is the space bound by the cell wall.  The wall is made from the outside in, so as the wall gets thicker the lumen gets smaller.

 

Organelles are parts of the cell that do activities.  Include nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria, plastids, ribosomes, dictysomes, microtubules, vacuoles (water-filled part of the plant), endoplasmic reticulum.

 

Ergastic Substances are passive products of organelles (?)  Include starch, tannins, proteins, lipids, crystals/phytoliths (sometimes survive and aid ID.) 

Cutin is the lipid in the cuticle layer.  Suberin is the lipid in the Casparian strip, often in roots and periderm.  Cutins and suberins are persistent in nature.  Suberin is a physical barrier to water.

 

Plant tissues divide into

1)       Simple, like pith (ground tissue in the center of a stem or root) which is made of parenchyma cells.  Parenchyma are simple tissues, but come in a wide range of shapes and sizes with different functions.

2)       Compound, like vascular tissue which is made of both parenchyma and sclerenchyma cells.  Sclerenchyma are compound tissues divided into sclereids (ie stone cells) that are bigger diameter and have a thicker cell wall and fibers that are long and thin with pointed tips and a small lumen.  Both of these have multilayered birefringent walls. Sclerenchyma are thick walled, dead at maturity and give rigid support.  Note: Douglas fir sclereids are elongated and resemble fibers.

3)       Complex, like the bark, which is made of parenchyma, sclerenchyma, and collenchyma cells

 

Vascular tissue is the xylem and phloem

Epidermis is cuticle has cutin, lipids, oils, resins.

Periderm is the outer protective and supportive secondary tissue, formed by the cork cambium and it replaces epidermis in the stems and roots, mostly. Bark is periderm. Some of its parenchyma cells are called phellem and they contain a lot of suberin.

Ground tissue is everything BUT the vascular tissues, epidermis, and periderm, like cortex and pith.  AKA “fundamental tissue”

 

 

Xylem is the vascular tissue for water movement and has lignified secondary cell walls and pits in the cell wall.  Secondary xylem is wood, and preserves better than phloem.  Also sections nicely for detailed analysis.  Xylem is usually larger than phloem. Sapwood is the living secondary xylem and has starch grains.  Heartwood is dead, and contains extractives making it darker.  It is less porous than sapwood because it includes tyloses, tannins, salts, resins, silica etc that block fluid movement.  Growth rings are the result of early wood (larger tracheary elements and thinner walls.  More holes.) and late wood (smaller tracheary elements and thicker walls. Denser.)

 

Xylem is made of cell types:

1. tracheids Found only in softwood, transport water and dissolved minerals and have thickened lignified walls for support.  Generally, loss of water through leaves drives the flow.  No perforations in end wall, but lots of pits in the walls.  Secondary thickenings of various kinds are diagnostic.  Spiral thickenings (like springs) appear only on Douglas fir and yew on the nothwest coast (but many other confiers worldwide).  Yew has steeper and less regular spirals and no resin canals.  Douglas fir has resin canals, but is not a true “fir” despite its vernacular name. DON’T confuse with spiral thickenings with spiral checking, which is more common in other conifers too. The tangential diameter helps ID of conifers (called “texture”.)  Big holes are “coarse” textured, like redwood.  ID chart on p.17 of Hoadley.  Nonliving cells.
2. vessel members (aka trachea) Transport water in hardwoods.  These do have perforations in common end walls.. Secondary thickenings are also diagnostic. Nonliving cells
3. fibers in hardwoods. Nonliving cells
4. parenchyma Alive for many years

 

Secondary xylem in roots: vascular rays, periderm, vascular cambrium, vessel distribution, primary xylem.  Look carefully at ray anatomy, esp crossfield pitting and ray tracehids.

 

Phloem is the vascular tissue for food transport (sugars and amino acids) and has thin-walled cells with less lignin than the xylem.  Secondary phloem is inner bark for food storage and transport.  It contains layers of fibers alternating with sieve element cells and parenchyma cells.  Parenchyma cells (12-38% of inner bark volume) are thin walled and weak next to the stronger fibers of sclerenchyma and this is why inner bark separates into sheets.  Note: genus Pinus has no sclerenchyma.  Phloem contains mostly sieve elements and neighboring regulatory cells (“Sieve elements”/ albuminous cells in gymnosperms, “sieve tube elements”/ companion cells in angiosperms.) Sieve elements don’t survive well for ID, but are at least half the cells of the inner bark.  Sieve elements are a lot like tracheids but have sieve areas rather than pits.  In the cedar bark used for weaving, tissue is made up of stong hair like fibers, delicate cuboidal parenchyma cells that store food, and porous food conducting sieve cells. 

 

CONIFEROUS WOOD has

Axial tracheids with smooth walls or walls with spirals; circular bordered pits (CBP) with numerous rows.  Are like 100X longer than their diameter.  Almost all the longitudinal cells in conifers are this kind.

Ray tracheids that are smooth or dentate (in pines) Don’t show up in Western Red Cedar.

Axial ray parenchyma that are smooth or dentate

Axial parenchyma with smooth or nodular end walls.  Shorter than the tracheids.  Sometimes are filled up.  Don’t show up in pinus and picea.

Ray parenchyma with smooth or nodular endwalls (nodular in spruce root.)

Resin canals that are thick or thin walled.  Larger rounded opening that has thin-walled epithelial cells that secrete the resin (easily damaged in sampling.)  If it bulges and blocks the canal that’s called a tylosoid.  Pines have numerous, evenly distributed ones with thinner epithelial cells.  Firs and spruces have fewer, sometimes grouped, and thicker epithelial cells.  Can be hard to see in samples but important for ID.  Spruce root has large coalescent resin canals in the central region.

 

A ray initiates in the cambrium and extends radially into the secondary phloem and xylem.  (cross over the growth rings at 90degrees) Mostly made of parenchyma cells but also tracheids.  It shows up in the secondary xylem of some conifers.  Most other cells go parallel to the stem or trunk.  A fusiform ray has a larger resin canal in the middle that makes it look like an eye in tangential view, diagnostic for pine.  Rays are important in ID.  Upper and lower rows of ray cells are ray tracehids, and the middle ones are ray parenchyma. Ray tracheids can be hard to see in hemlock.

 

Pits are voids in the secondary cell wall.  It matches up with a pit in an adjacent cell, forming a pit pair.  Pits in longitudinal or ray parenchyma cells are simple pits.  Tracheids have more elaborate bordered pits, look like targets or donuts (they indicate you have a conifer.)  The number across the radial wall of earlywood tracheids is important for ID (one for spruce, two for larch, up to four in redwood.) 

 

Where ray parenchyma and tracheids intersect, you get field crossings and the pitting there has one of four shapes: piceoid (slit opening, as in spruce root,) cupressiod (oval, almond opening,) taxodioid (round, as in western red cedar,) fenestral (like a window, squarish)

 

ROOT: Similar to branches (withes) in the circular arrangement of cells.  But cells are larger, thinner walled, often collapsed, and tissue can have open/disorganized appearance.  Resin canals might join together.  Rows of bordered pits may be more numerous than typically found in trunk wood for that species.  Longitudinal parenchyma are very prominent, and the width of the ray parenchyma cells is bigger than in the rest of the tree.

 

DETERIORATION BASICS

 

WHAT DEGRADES

* Loss of holocellulose in waterlogged wood, because it is so soluble.  (Florian, 1990)

* Holocellulose degrades more rapidly than lignin, and hollocellulose in archaeological wooden arrows from Nyden Bog had decomposed completely. (Christiensen 2006)

* Holocellulose is the hemicellulose plus the cellulose, and it deteriorates first.  Umax is a function of deterioration in the form of holocellulose loss, and thus the void space in the cell wall.  Depends on the density of that species of wood.  (Cook and Grattan, 1986)

* Holocellulose = cellulose + hemicellulose.  As water content increases, carbohydrate decreases and you’re left with proportionally more and more lignin.  Lignin is quite resistant to microbial and chemical attack.  Cellulose and hemicellulose are lost at about the same rate, even though hemicellulose can be degraded much easier than the crystalline cellulose.  (Hoffmann 1982)

* Degraded oak timbers show about half of the cellulose and hemicellulose is gone, with fissures and cracks criss-crossing the tissue. (Hoffmann 1986)

* Lignin bonds only to hemicelluloses, not to celluloses.  Lignin is made of large 3_D crosslinked molecules.  (Hoffmann 1982.)

*  Wood shows zones of progressive degradation.  Secondary wall loosens because of hydrolysis of carbohydrates.  Cell walls lose fluorescence and birefringence.  (Does this impact the cobalt thiocyanate staining?) Lignin skeleton eventually collapses, leaving only granular debris.  Tertiary walls and compound middle lamellae keep the dimensions stable as long as they are filled with water (Hoffman & Jones 1988; Blanchette & Hoffmann 1994.) 

* Double bonds in lignin are affected by warm treatments (Christensen et al 2006)

* Chemical degradation of the secondary cell wall starts at the lumen and progresses inward (Hoffmann 1982)

* Western red cedar inner bark cell walls very thick.  Lumens in inner bark of Western Red Cedar were very small compared to those in wood.  Some smaller thinner-walled cells contain resins.  (Bilz et al 1998)

* In cedar bark (phloem) the fiber cells are usually intact, holes in sieve plates and pits are enlarged, pectin, starch bodies and inorganic crystals are gone, thin-walled parenchyma cells mostly gone, cellulose seems to be gone or changed.  Cell walls have a crystalline look that might be due to impregnation with inorganic salts from burial, perhaps an early stage of fossilization.  Some of the insoluble resins and tannins of the bark are still present in reduced amounts, and some of the color-inducing brown phlobaphenes are still there too.  High lignin and tannin content in the call walls of fibers and sieve cells. (Florian 1977)

* Study of the Bremen Cog (oak, fresh water) indicates wood cell walls are thinned, erosion bacteria were a primary agent of degradation, and that non-degraded tissues were impermeable to PEG 3000 and only impregnated with PEG 200. (Hoffmann et al 2004)

* Higher cellulose content is correlated to greater risk of fungus development. (Grattan 1986)

* Mold and sap-staining fungi eat starch in ray cells.  Spiral checking of tracheid and fiber cell walls often attacked by staining fungi.  Don’t mix up spiral checking with spiral thickening. (Jagels, 1982)

* Mold and sap stain fungi only utilize the food stored in the wood and do not destroy the strength (Florian 1977)

* Egg-shaped voids are typical of holes left by fungal hyphae (Hoffmann 1982)

 

* Surface cuboidal cracking is often due to soft-rot. (Florian 1982)

* Pectin is the main chemical in the membranous valves of bordered pits, and bacteria that specifically attack pectin are often the first to enter the wood, making it more permeable.  (Florian, 1977)

* Collapse of radial walls of tracheids when waterlogged in Thuja plicata is a weakness. (Florian 1982)

* Loss of pectin that normally glues cells together is often missing in deteriorated wood, which might contribute to cracks between the longitudinal cells and the stronger ray parenchyma cells. (Florian 1982)

* Tension wood is not characteristic of roots (Florian, 1982)

 

SHRINKAGE AND COLLAPSE

* Shrinkage from capillary tension happens when the free water is pulled by evaporation from the void structure of the wood.  Shrinkage is also caused from desorption of bound water from the cell wall.  Article gives extensive info about which cells collapse in which direction. (Barbour and Leney  1982)

* The meniscus of water (which has high surface tension) applies stress to those capillaries as it leaves and can collapse them.  Forces are not as intense if there are air bubbles, as in green wood. This is why wood that is only damp and not waterlogged can slowly air dry successfully, especially if the cell walls are not too degraded. (Grattan 1986.)

* Hygroscopically bound water in the capillary network of the cell walls needs to be replaced by PEG for dimensional stability to occur (Young, 1982)

* “Second order space” is the term used to describe the volume of the microcapillaries in the cell wall that does not include the voids caused by deterioration.  At the fiber saturation point, water exactly fills this space without filling the lumen in undeteriorated wood.  (Cook & Grattan 1990)

* Areas like roots that have a lot of longitudinal or ray parenchyma will have more shrinkage (Florian 1982)

* Salinity differences between water inside cells and outside of cells can cause problems with osmotic pressure if you put waterlogged material found in saltwater directly into fresh water.  Salt solution moving out of the cell moves faster than fresh water moving in and cell can collapse.  Desalination is crucial. (Bradley 1992)

* Shrinkage in sound or slightly deteriorated wood is anisotropic, or varies in the three major directions: longitudinal 0.5%, radial 3-6%, and tangential 5-10%.  More deteriorated wood ill show less well-defined shrinkage (but more shrinkage overall?) (McCawley 1977)

 

PENETRATION AND PERMEABILITY

*  Capillaries make up about 40% of the volume of the cell wall. Capillaries seem to range between 10-80nm.  Water is 0.2nm, PEG 400 molecule around 2nm x 0.25nm, PEG 1000 around 4.5nm and PEG 4000 around 18nm.  (Hoffmann 1982.)

* Intracell connections, “plasmodesmata” or “cytoplastmic connections” have small diameters.  Water and glucose (5-carbon ring) can pass, for example, but PEG and sucrose (6-carbon ring) cannot pass.  Osmotic pressure can also cause those openings to collapse and make PEG penetration harder.  Perhaps PEG 200 is the best for these spaces.  (Grant et al 1997.)

* Low mw PEG in cell lumina and larger voids in cell wall will diffuse back out of the wood again, only remains in the capillary system.  Larger mw needed for those larger voids (Hoffmann 1986.)

* Lower mw PEG penetrates the micro-capillaries of the cell wall, while higher mw penetrates the lumens, flows through the vascular system (Grattan 1986.)

* Normal anatomical wood characteristics that impede permeability: few/small hardwood vessels, many hardwood thick-walled fiber cells, short longitudinal tracheids in softwoods, the absence of ray tracheids, the absence of radial and longitudinal resin canals, aspirated and encrusted bordered pits, blind simple pits, high specific gravity, ray parenchyma containing resin or other material, reduced tangential wall pitting, extractives in heartwood.  (Florian, 1982)

* Pits between the cells have valves (the torus) which can block penetration of PEG if closed (aka blocked or aspirated.)  Must be viewed at 1000X to 3000X so requires SEM?  (Bradley 1992)

 

* In white oak, which is hard to penetrate, the rate of degradation by microorganisms is faster than their speed of penetration, so you get areas of very deteriorated wood on the exterior of the timbers and less deteriorated zones towards the core. (Christensen 1970, Grattan 1986)

* Pine and oak are two species where the heartwood is only slightly permeable to liquids, and often less degraded than outer areas of the wood (Hoffmann 1986.)

* Western Red cedar (thuja plicata) is very difficult to penetrate, even when deteriorated.  Similar to oak in this way.  (Cook and Grattan 1990)

*Picea sp and Thuja plicata have no tangential permeability because there aren’t many wall pits, there are blind pits and there’s resin in the ray parenchyma cells.  Picea will be more permeable than Thuja plicata because it has resin canals and ray tracheids that Thuja plicata does not.  (Florian 1982)

* In many coniferous species, fast-growing wood is more permeable than slow growth wood.

(Jagels, 1982)

* Softwood samples generally show open and enlarged tracheid bordered pits (probably from bacteria) which make them more porous (Florian 1982)

*  Deterioration greatly improves the ability of PEG to penetrate and treat wood successfully, but most excavated waterlogged wood is only moderately deteriorated.  White oak, various cedars, and white ash are hard to penetrate, while aspen, cottonwood, alder and spruce allow greater penetration. Caution with determining degree of deterioration from thin 3mm cross sectioned wafers of wood examined under the microscope, as the sample has a lot of disrupted wood cells and suggests more cell wall accessibility than there really is.   (Young, 1990)

 

MEASURING DETERIORATION

* Degree of deterioration in PEGCON determined by comparing the density of the deteriorated wood to the density expected for that species. 

* Percent water content is often used to evaluate deterioration of waterlogged wood, but it varies with species and is measured in different ways which makes comparisons difficult (Grattan 1986.)

* Archaeological woods have a higher ash content, which means they have more minerals in them than fresh wood.  Minerals are determined as oxides after their organic content has been burnt away in analysis. (Hoffmann 1982)

* Some waterlogged wood, Mary Rose, Brown’s Ferry Wreck, show elevated ash content.  Also, metals and siliceous materials enter the wood and add to the ash content.  (Richard Clarke comment in  Singley, 1982.)

* A device called a Pilodyn has a spring loaded blunt pin and helps to determine degree of deterioration on large things like timbers from the Mary Rose. but it is far too large for basketry (Grattan 1986)

* Amount of water in waterlogged wood is calculated: weight of wet wood minus weight of oven dried wood divided by weight of the oven dried wood and multiplied by 100 to give % water.  Anything over 200% is considered degraded.  (Hamilton 1998)

 

Sources:

Alden, Harry.  Plant Anatomy and Morphology for Objects Conservators and Archaeologists.  CD from a course offered by Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, 2000.

 

Barbour, R.J. and L. Leney.  “Shrinkage and Collapse in Waterlogged Archaeological Wood: Contribution III Hoko River Series.  In book. Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group conference: Ottawa, 15-18 September 1981. ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group (1982), pp. 209-225.

 

Barbour, James.  “The Condition and Dimensional Stabilization of Highly Deteriorated Waterlogged Hardwoods.”  Proceedings of the 2^nd ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group Conference.  Grenoble, 28-31 August 1984. 

Lots of info about the layers of the cell wall

 

Bernick, Kathryn.  Personal communication April 9, 2009.

 

Bidlack, Jim, Mike Malone, and Russel Benson.  “Molecular Structure and Component Integration of Secondary Cell Walls in Plants.”  Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science Vol 52 1992 pp 51-56.

 

Bilz, Malcolm, Tara Grant and Gregory S. Young.  “Treating Waterlogged Basketry: A Study of Polyethylene Glycol Penetration Into the Inner Bark of Western Red Cedar.”  Proceedings of the 7^th ICOM-CC Working Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Grenoble 1998.  pp.249-253

 

Blanchette, Robert A.; Hoffmann, Per “Degradation processes in waterlogged archaeological wood”  Proceedings of the fifth ICOM Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials conference, Portland, Maine, 16-20 August 1993 pub. 1994

 

Christensen, M, M. Frosch, P. Jense, U. Schnell, Y. Shahsoua, O.F. Nielsen. “Waterlogged Archaeological Wood, Chemical Changes by Conservation and Degradation.”  Journal of Raman Spectroscopy.  Vol. 37, issue 10.  Special Issue: Raman Spectroscopy in Arch and Archaeology II. 2006.  pp. 1171-1178.

 

Christensen, B. “The Conservation of Waterlogged Wood in the National Museum of Denmark.”  Museums Tenniske Studier 1, National Museum of Copenhagen, Denmark.  1970.

 

Cook, Clifford and David Grattan.  “A Method of Calculating the Concentration of PEG for waterlogged Wood.”  Proceedings of the 4^th ICOM Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials.  Bremerhaven 1990.

 

Florian, Mary-Lou E., Dale Paul Kronkright, Ruth E. Norton.  The Conservation of Artifacts Made from Plant Materials.  J. Paul Getty Trust.  1990.

 

Florian, Mary-Lou.  “Anomalous Wood Structure: A Reason for Failrure of PEG in Freezer-Drying Treatments of Some Waterlogged Wood from the Ozette Site.”  In book. Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group conference: Ottawa, 15-18 September 1981.  ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group (1982), pp85-98

 

Florian, Mary-Lou.  “Waterlogged Artifacts: the Nature of the Materials.  Journal of the Canadian Conservation Institute.  1977

 

Grant, Tara and Malcolm Bilz.  “Conservation of Waterlogged Cedar Basketry and Cordage.”  Proceedings of the 6^th ICOM Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials York, 1996. Pub 1997

 

Grattan, D. “Some Observations on the Conservation of Waterlogged Wooden Shipwrecks.”  AICCM Bulletin, Vol. 12 No 3 and 4. 1986.

 

Hamilton, Donny L. Methods of Conserving Archaeological Material from Underwater Sites.  Nautical Archaeology Program Department of Anthropology Texas A&M University.  1998.

 

Hoadley, R. Bruce. Identifying Wood.  Accurate Results with Simple Tools.  Taunton Press.  Newtown, Connecticut.  1990.

 

Hoffmann, Per, Adya Singh, Yoon Soo Kim, Seung Gon Wi, Ik-Joo Kim, and Uwe Schmitt.  “The Bremen Cog of 1380: An Electron Microscopic Study of its Degraded Wood Before and After Stabilization with PEG.”  In Holzforschung Vol 58 No 3 2004 pp 211-218

 

Hoffmann, Per and Mark Jones.  “Structure and Degradation Process for Waterlogged Archaeological Wood”  in Archaeological Wood Properties, Chemistry, and Preservation. Developed from a symposium sponsored by the Cellulose Paper and Textile Division at the 196th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Los Angeles, California, September 25-September 30, 1988. Advances in chemistry series 225. American Chemical Society. Washington 1990.

 

Hoffmann, Per.  “ On the Stabilization of Waterlogged Oakwood with PEG II Designing a Two-Step Treatment for Multi-Quality Timbers.”  Studies in Conservation 31 (1986) pp.103-113

 

Hoffmann, Per. “On the Stabilization of Waterlogged Oak with PEG – Molecular Size Versus Degree of Degradation.”  Waterlogged Wood Study and Conservation, Proceedings of the 2^nd ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group Conference, Grenoble, France.  1984.  pp. 243-252.

 

Hoffmann, Per.  “Chemical Wood Analysis as a Means of Characterizing Archaeological Wood” In book. Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group conference: Ottawa, 15-18 September 1981. ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group (1982), pp.73-84.

 

Jagels, Richard.  “A Deterioration Evaluation Procedure for Waterlogged Wood.”   In book. Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group conference: Ottawa, 15-18 September 1981.  ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group (1982), pp. 69-72

 

Martin, Robert and John G. Christ.  “Elements of Bark Structure and Terminology.”  Wood and Fiber  Vol 2 No 3 1970.  pp 269-279.

 

McCawley, J.C. “Waterlogged Artifacts: The Challenge to Conservation.”  In Journal of the Canadian Conservation Institute.  Vol 2, 1977. pp17-26.

 

Rodgers, Bradley.  ECU Conservator’s Cookbook: A Mthodological Approach to the Conservation of Water Soaked Artifacts.   Chapter 2: Waterlogged Wood.  Herbert P. Paschal Memorial Fund Publication.  East Carolina University.  1992. 

 

Saupe, Dr. Stephen G.  “Cell Walls –Structure and Function” Plant Physiology (biology 327) College of St. Benedict/ St. john’s University. Collegeville, Minnesota. 2009.  http://employees.csbsju.edu/ssaupe/biol327/Lecture/cell-wall.htm

 

Singley, Katherine R. “The recovery and conservation of the Brown’s Ferry vessel” In book. Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group conference: Ottawa, 15-18 September 1981.  ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working Group (1982), pp. 57-60

 

Young, Gregory S.  “Microscopy and Archaeological Waterlogged Wood Conservation.”  CCI Newsletter, No. 6, September 1990.  pp 9-11.

 

Young, Gregory S. “Polyethylene Glycol Localization within the Structure of Waterlogged Wood.”  9^th International Congress on Science and Technology in the Service of Conservation.  1982.

Museum Object Handling

 

Blogs need images! This is on exhibit at Ernie's Old Time Saloon in Sitka, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Lauren Horelick.

This is the document for the hour-long training I give incoming staff, volunteers, and interns at the Alaska State Museum.  I elaborate with real-life stories I have from experience or hear from colleagues to illustrate each point during the training.  This version fits on the back and front of a single sheet of paper.

MOVING OBJECTS

TOOLS and JEWELRY should be removed from body, pockets, and nearby.  Rings, watches, belt buckles, and tools in pockets can scrape artifacts.  Pulling back long hair and removing scarves prevents entanglement in artifacts, too.

GLOVES are the default standard.  Occasional exceptions: gloves can reduce dexterity when handling thin paper or glass, and cotton can leave fibers on textiles or snag some surfaces. Nitrile can offer more dexterity than cotton.  Large sizes may be more comfortable.

PUBLIC should always see you wearing gloves.  Never leave objects unattended in public areas, even if area is blocked off.

EXAMINE before you pick it up.  Consider weight, broken elements, center of gravity, loose parts. Old age changes stability.  Examination will take longer earlier in your career as you develop your senses regarding fragility of objects.  Ask about damage you see.  This protects you from mistaken liability too. 

PLAN AHEAD a clear path, open doors, and safe destination to set object down again.  This is the most-overlooked of all object handling rules.

CARTS are the safest way to move artifacts.  Steering is usually easier on one end.  Pads help objects remain stable. Beware floor transitions (elevator!)

CARRY objects in a box or tray for more control.  Boxes on carts are an excellent way to move artifacts.

TWO hands for carrying, even for small artifacts. Don’t hand off to another person… set object down first for the other person to pick up. (exception: handing item to person on a ladder)

LARGE items may need two people, or even a third spotter.

FRAMED?  Carry with one hand below frame, one hand on side (not by the wire).  Don’t touch back / front of canvas.  The damage may not show for years.

 

IN COLLECTIONS

WORK SURFACES should be clear of pens, markers, liquids, tools, tape, hot lights, etc.  Pencils are always preferred.  Work surfaces for artifacts are separate from other activities, such as unpacking or keeping lists.

MEASURING?  Use a plastic or cloth tape whenever possible.  If you must use a ruler or tape measure, use extra caution.

FLOOR?  Not even for a moment!  Use foam or padding if only for a moment.  Items on the floor are at high risk for flood damage, bumping with carts, kicking, tripping, contractor damage etc.

STACKING (paper, photos, and textiles only, not objects) can be done for short stacks that are always to be carried flat and level with acid-free materials in between each item.

DAMAGE must be reported to the conservator (breakage, loose parts, bugs etc.)  If possible, leave it as is until conservator can see it.  Do not attempt to fix or alter damage you see.  If you see a live bug, capture it on a piece of tape for identification.

CLEANING is a conservation treatment.  Do not clean objects unless instructed.  Achieving an overall even level of cleaning can be tricky.  Some “dirt” also has historical significance.  Cleaning is irreversible.

SEARCH padding and packing materials carefully to avoid losing parts.  Discarding dirty packing materials is important, but check thoroughly first.  Beware black plastic trash bags…artifacts can be mistaken for trash!

COVER objects left out overnight and leave a note, such as “ART BELOW.”  Dust/light/water/asbestos etc.  Tyvek offers lightweight covering while repelling water.

 

BASIC CONCEPTS

SLOW DOWN!  If there is a speed urgency, something is already going wrong. Don’t make it worse by rushing.

PATIENCE when accessing things stacked, in the back of shelves, or in drawers without stoppers.  Don’t yank something out of the bottom of a pile, or lift objects over other objects if it can be avoided.

FOCUS on the task at hand.  Minimize chatter and take a break if fatigued.

TOXIC? Mounts with arsenic, some metal corrosion, dusts/pollens/molds/allergens.  Gloves protect you as well as the artifact.  Good to wash your hands.  Mention if you feel unwell.

NUMBERS & NOTES must not be separated from artifacts.  Duplicate if necessary.

DON’T TEST IT OUT.  Objects should not be fidgeted with, caressed, or fondled.  Includes instruments, machines, fitting together broken edges etc.  This is consumptive use.  Note opportunistic touching damage in exhibits and train your eye to see the harmful effects.

EVERY object in our collection or on loan counts, even if it is ugly or broken. We have public trust responsibility and an ethical responsibility to protect anything with a catalog or loan number.

Anatomy of an Archives Flood

 

Alaska State Archives and Records Management Building. Photo by Damon Stuebner

In the wee hours of August 17th 2009, rainwater flooded the collections of the Alaska State Archives in Juneau.  The following is the timeline of events, challenges, and insights compiled the following week and discussed at a group debriefing.

AUGUST 2009 ARCHIVES FLOOD DEBRIEFING

Ellen Carrlee, Conservator, Alaska State Museum

TIMELINE:

Sunday August 16: Rainstorm with considerable wind.

Monday August 17: Rainstorm continued with 1.8” of rain.  Cruise ship Pacific Princess with about 600 passengers skipped Juneau port of call because weather is too severe to safely hold anchor.  Montana Creek threatened to flood.  At some point late last night or this morning, construction bubble ripped off the roof and rainwater entered the Archives.  Resident nearby heard cover rip off at 5am?

• Head of Archives was on vacation, Records Manager discovered the flood at 7am  There was a ¼” puddle headed for the electrical panel and people walking in the water.  Safety hazard.
• Contractors were talking about turning up the heat, but this was not done.  HVAC was turned off completely around 9am.
• 10AM all standing water was removed for 2^nd floor, gone from ground level around 11am.
• Centennial Hall was called but was unable to give space.  On day 4, they offered their space but it was not needed by then.  Head of Alaska State Library – Historical Collections (ASL-HC) secured the Juneau Arts and Culture Center (JACC) around 8 or 9am.  There was a pre-existing verbal agreement with the JACC director to use the space in an emergency.  JACC building was dealing with its own roof leak.
• Curator of Museum Services from the Alaska State Museum (ASM) provided expertise, organized conservation response and facilitated connection between locations.
• Conservators attending the Western Association for Art Conservation contributed expertise and labor to the response.  Approximately 15 conservators helped.  Other important volunteer sources were retired division staff, local library, university library, contractors, Alaska State Museum and Juneau-Douglas City Museum (JDCM) volunteers
• Hair dryers, fans and dehumidifiers secured.  JACC had 4 humidifiers and 4 fans running.  Some items were purchased by the contractor, but personal calls to friends in other state divisions was most effective.
• Juneau Douglas High School (JDHS) was a key source for tables (school not in session).
• End rolls of newsprint secured from Juneau Empire.
• State senator from Juneau visits site.

Chris Hieb rescues wet document boxes. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

Tuesday August 18

• Smell of mold started to become strong in the JACC building itself.  Loading dock of Archives also had a smell.  Certain interleaving sheets were thought to be the source of that smell.  Awareness of the potential health risks, people
• Recovery efforts established in the atrium of the State Office Building (SOB) atrium.
• ASM Curator lined up a refrigeration van from AML barge lines, awaiting approval from administration.
• 4pm, 200+ more wet boxes were discovered when the emergency when about 52 hours old.
• Article appears in the Juneau Empire

Wednesday August 19

• Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner stopped by today (and the next day,) two members of the Alaska House of Representatives came by the JACC.
• Still discovering how far the leak penetrated, scope of emergency still not known.
• Refrigeration van ordered by State Records Manager, coming up against the window for mold to get established.  Van arrived in the morning.  260 boxes placed in the van, wrapped in plastic trash bags first.  Stacked two high in the freezer van.  Needed a special energy source, so van was taken back to the barge line out Thane road and plugged in there.  $25 per day rental and $25 per day electricity.
• Use of the ASM’s non-collections storage space in the Public Safety building nearby for temporary storage of processed dry boxes.

Thursday August 20

• Most WAAC conference volunteers had passed off their roles to staff, but the paper conservators kept working even though the WAAC conference had begun.
• Juneau City Clerk offered to put together a crew to work over the weekend if needed.
• Friday August 21
• Humidity strips ordered from Talas, they shipped them ground by accident.
• Recovery efforts had to vacate the JACC by 11am due to incoming event.
• About 1000 boxes impacted during entire emergency.  Archives has about 24,000 boxes in its collection.

WEEKEND

• Head of Archives empties dehumidifiers.
• Many people came in to fluff and flip pages.

The Juneau Arts and Culture Center donated space to the recovery effort. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

Monday August 24

• 10 frozen boxes were processed as a trial run, 5 in SOB and 5 at Archives.  Transported from Thane Road by panel truck.  They were allowed to thaw for about an hour on the floor with the top off the box.
• Coordinator for the Archives Rescue Corps project (a grant-funded initiative to identify archival collections and needs statewide) gave a best practices chat and sent around email list about it to help get everyone on the same page.
• Some of the frozen boxes had really wet materials, even though it was assumed they might not be too bad.
• Head of Archives planned to unplug fans and dehumidifiers in Archives to see where things were in the morning, but that actually happened on Friday.

Tuesday August 25

• Down to only one volunteer in SOB, two in Archives.  Library staff on ¾ time recovery, and ¼ time regular business.  Archives still 100% on recovery issues.  Library to remain closed this week, Archives will also remain closed next week.  Archives responding only to pre-existing reference requests, not taking new ones.
• Everything that was wet that was NOT on the freezer truck was dealt with.
• Another 60-70 boxes total pulled from freezer truck to process.
• Warmer and more humid than normal in Historical Collections today.  Related? Is HVAC compensating?  Resolved with fans.
• Instrument in the stacks reads 66.6 degrees F and 60%RH in the morning when ASM conservatorreads it.  Raining really hard outside today.

Wednesday August 26

Thursday August 27

• Started to leave the SOB atrium, and moved into the info services area of the library.
• Humidity strips finally arrived in the afternoon.
• Another article in the Juneau Empire

Friday August 28

• All materials finally all out of the SOB atrium.
• Turned off dehumidifiers and fans in the Archives stacks and closed the doors.

WEEKEND

The atrium of the State Office Building, just outside the Alaska State Library, was another location for the recovery effort. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

Monday August 31

• Library open, half their space still closed off for recovery

Tuesday September 1

Wednesday September 2

Thursday September 3

• Boiler is turned back on in the Archives building

Friday September 4

• Debriefing summary meeting.  Remarkable, even a week later, how different people’s memories and assumptions were.  Very civil, however.
• After today, 15 boxes are still frozen. 

Tuesday September 15

• Dock, garage and vault cleaning is finished.

Archives loading dock. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

CHALLENGES

• Incident Command System (ICS) not fully implemented FEMA training needed.
• People are sensitive to chain-of-command issues and this came up several times: being denied use of Centennial Hall, delay in accessing certain volunteer pools, people taking initiative early on such as covering things with tarps because they did not want to “step on toes”.
• Although there was leadership, people were still confused about who was in charge.  Some volunteers left when they could not find someone to give them direction.
• Hard to communicate over multiple locations (Archives, JACC, SOB).
• Controlling unauthorized purchasing.
• Someone to go around to each group and describe how to process a wet box would have helped standardize the system earlier.  Especially the order to lay out box contents so they could be re-packed accurately and efficiently.
• People wanted a sense of prioritization in the materials recovered, although this was difficult in the early days of discovering the extent of the emergency, and prioritization may have slowed down efficiency.  Are people working to save things that have duplicates elsewhere while unique rare items are still wet?  Would have been nice to have an Archives representative working at each site.
• Having a laptop with Archives database Minisis on it would have been nice.
• Tracking in general was difficult.
• Tracking which box was re-shelved in order to include it in the re-checking plan.
• Document safety: Records with confidentiality issues are being dried in asecure office.  Someone needed to stay with papers in SOB atrium until building was locked each night.  Confidential records include:  personnel records, social security numbers, health information, Department of Law or Attorney General files, vital records (birth, marriage, death, adoption, child custody,) court records such as names of victims, prisoners, witnesses, juveniles, parolees, pre-sentence reports etc. 
• Space needed to pile up processed material before it could go back to Archives.
• Wet documents put into dry boxes for transport had a star drawn on the lid, but many people did not know what the star meant.
• Some papers may still have been damp when sent back to storage.  The coolness of the paper from all the moving air hard to distinguish from the coolness of being damp.  Touch testing to determine dryness.  If your hand is sweaty or damp, also harder to determine dryness.  Things are left for several hours to dry, sometimes overnight.
• Damage mainly things being some running of ink making things illegible, some photos stuck together.  Blue ink ran through to pages below.  “Gel” ink pens also run badly.  Red on the red-edged labels would bleed.  Dry-erase typing paper from the 1970’s had a coating that made it stick together.  Envelope adhesives activated.  Labels on folders tend to fall off, even when not wet.
• After boxes re-shelved, it was discovered that some records were completely illegible, but put away after they dried without further review, as had been intended.
• Some papers had swollen or wrinkled to the point that what was contained in a single box now requires two boxes.  Those are marked 1 of 1, 1 of 2 etc and put in the Head of Archives’ office for updating of Minisis.
• 40lb Hollinger boxes were slightly larger than the 32lb AAA boxes, lids don’t fit.
• Physical labor challenging, but concern that professional movers would not have the handling skills necessary, plus there needed to be careful record keeping as the boxes moved.
• The Archives dock was a bottleneck, due to the number of people and the space.
• Many people did not feel comfortable driving the big van.
• Fans are loud and create an annoying breeze.  People are getting hoarse from shouting over them.
• People need to take breaks, and while having food on site was convenient, there is also benefit to walking away for a little while and clearing one’s head with a change of scenery.
• There was a ¼” puddle headed for the electrical panel and people walking in the water.  Safety hazard.
• More first aid kits needed for paper cuts, staple wounds etc.
• Building facility staff sometimes contributed to more problems, such as needing to move many tables in order to water plants.Circuits at the JACC were not able to handle as many hair dryers as we wanted to use.
• Almost another disaster when smoke from welding on the roof caused one zone to go into alarm.  Another zone would have caused a Halon discharge, causing more damage and costing perhaps $100,000 to replenish, not to mention leaving the Archives storage without fire suppression.
• Archives HVAC system can only increase humidity, not decrease humidity.
• Hard to know the extent of the damage because the water traveled but also because a box could be very wet but the contents could be OK or vice versa.  Took several days to know the extent of the emergency.
• Humidity went up in the Historical Collections, perhaps because fans used regularly in there were re-purposed for the emergency.  Issue of putting other collections at risk during the emergency?
• Was it better or worse to have the JACC loading dock door open?  It happened to be raining outside, and no rain was coming in but the RH question was hard to resolve.
• Dumpster space needed for throwing away wet discarded material.
• Lack of understanding about the difference between freezing and freeze-drying.

Archives loading dock area. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

 

INSIGHTS

• Lucky that it was clean rainwater and not dirty groundwater.
• Vault containing the oldest and most vulnerable archives was not very impacted.
• Cardboard boxes and file folders absorbed water and were sacrificial, often the archival material itself was not wet.  Boxes that held reel-to-reels also sacrificial.
• Easier to handle the foldered papers than the bound books that had been in the library flood a few years ago.
• Fanning out folder contents with folders on the bottom promotes drying, but you must counteract blow-away.  Leaving staples, paper clips etc on helps (and then discard those fasteners to make it easier to put folders into boxes.)  Weight the papers.  Improvised weights included nuts & bolts, pellet gun shot, sand, cat litter etc put in ziplock bags or envelopes taped shut, clean plastic bottles, or small Tupperware containers.
• Instead of cutting boxes to capture info before tossing them, photocopy the box instead.  Not taping things to boxes, since that may not last, but rewriting info on new box and then dropping the old label or a copy inside.
• Helps track if “frozen” is written on an impacted box.
• Putting wet boxes in plastic trash bags in order to put them in the freezer truck helped move them, keep them together if they started to fall apart.
• Wet feet will freeze to floor of the van.  More gloves against the cold would have been nice.
• The frozen material did not behave any differently than the non-frozen when it was processed, but it was harder to tell when it was dry because it was cold.
• Getting newsprint endrolls was really lucky, helped to go there and ask in person in the morning.  If school had been in session, we might not have gotten any since teachers love them.
• If school had been in session, student volunteers may have been available (but so many tables might not have been available)
• Good attitude, people were nice to each other, overall sense of calm.  Tone was set from the top down.
• LAM-wide emergency response committee was the core of leadership during the event.
• Communicating status and issues with post-its was effective
• The people driving the van were the glue and informal communication conduit between sites
• Some kind of more regular daily meeting might have helped, even if not everyone could attend.  Having a summary email coming from the Director of LAM is good, because her name carries weight and people will read it.
• Easier emotionally to work on a collection if it is not “yours.”
• In general, it is good practice not to leave boxes on the floor at the end of a workday

Wet document boxes in Archives stacks during the emergency. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

NEXT STEPS (as planned two weeks after the disaster)

• Monitoring the RH with humidity strips in the boxes
• System for box checking and then random box checking. 
• Silica gel packets if needed 
• Should a paper conservator come back to do a debriefing and help assess the damage?
• Air quality monitoring?
• Eventually rotate in acid-free materials for any non archival materials used in the recovery.  Some folders used for the recovery are smaller and shallower than the original folders as well.
• LAM-wide basic emergency response plan, including Incident Command System
• LAM-wide scenarios, both “table-tops” where a scenario is discussed and hands-on exercises where activities take place. Training to familiarize everyone with Incident Command System
• Compile new resource list, include humidity monitoring devices & supplies, communications devices, have a well-known location for these supplies
• Compile contact info for responders to include in emergency response plans
• Compile reference file about mold
• Memorandums of Agreement with other organizations (JACC, Centennial Hall, Terry Miller gym etc)
• Having staff read over contracts, be on first-name basis with contractors?

 

WAAC 2009 in Juneau: Extracurriculars

As so often happens at conferences in small places, WAAC 2009 took on a bit of a feel of a retreat.  Lots of good info was shared and warm connections made at various meals, social activities and events outside the talks.

Wednesday was the day before the talks began, but the day after the Angels project wrapped up.  Yosi Pozeilov gave a workshop on digital documentation to many members of the Alaska State Division of Libraries, Museums and Archives, and then turned around that evening and gave a terrific public lecture on his personal experiences with pinhole camera photography.  What a long day!   For those who don’t know him, Yosi is the senior photographer at the Conservation Center of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and married to conservator and WAAC board member Marie Svoboda.  I heard that Yosi got to spend some time in the studio of Ron Klein during his visit to Juneau.  Ron Klein is perhaps Juneau’s leading mad scientist-genius type, and was making collodion prints the day Yosi visited.  I think Paul Gardinier, the exhibits designer at the Alaska State Museum, introduced them.   Of course it was the perfect matchmaking thing to do, but Scott and I were running in other directions and Paul just graciously stepped in and made the connection.   That kind of thing is a big part of what makes it great to live and work in a place like Juneau.  People look out for you.  Speaking of that, many WAAC conference attendees spent all day Wednesday helping with recovery from the flood at the Alaska State Archives.  Instead of shopping, sightseeing, and generally enjoying a bit of vacation in exotic Alaska, these fine souls were getting pruny fingers helping save wet documents, maps, blueprints and photos.  The opening reception for the conference was held at the Alaska State Museum just before Yosi’s public lecture on pinhole cameras.  In the seemingly mundane photo above, Scott Carrlee stands next to Linda Thibodeau, the director of the state division of Libraries, Museums and Archives, to make some opening remarks.  What you can’t see in the photo is how badly Scott choked up and almost cried when he described the outpouring of help from WAAC attendees in mitigating the disaster.  Conservators were present providing key help and leadership in the three most crucial days of the disaster.  Some of their spouses came and helped, too.  Nobody got paid.  Nobody expected anything in return.  They just rose to the occasion.  That kind of thing gets Scott every time.  (you should see him when he watches “Its A Wonderful Life.” )

Janice Mae Schopfer helping to save maps following the flood at the Alaska State Archives

 

Scott wasn’t the only one touched by the outpouring of help.  The Post-It on this jar of coveted, rare, homemade  Nagoonberry Jam says, “Karen, a token of my admiration for your amazing extra work!  Fondly, Mary.”  Mary Irvine is part of the Alaska State Museum security and visitor services staff, who put in a lot of extra time herself during the Archives emergency and also helped pick up WAAC attendees at the airport.

Yees Ku Oo

The first day of talks on Thursday was followed with another reception, this one at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.   There was a performance by the dance group Yees Ku Oo, led by Carolyn Noe.  The director of the City Museum, Jane Lindsey, generously split the cost of the honorarium with WAAC.  She didn’t have to do that, but it was a classy move.  Although the photo above is blurry, maybe you can get an idea of how hard that guy is pounding on that box drum.  I saw him unfurl a length of supple chamois-like leather from around his hand after the performance, but I didn’t see any other padding or glove there to protect his hand.   My God, the sound that drum made!

Here are my winnings from the silent auction.  A Golden “paint samples” tee shirt!  Look at this cool triceratops pencil sharpener where the hole for the pencil to go in also accomodates a key that winds up the dinosaur and he walks!  You lift his head to remove the shavings, which is his only flaw…I wish you lifted the tail instead.  And I won a cute bottle of “Ven Dinero,” an odd- smelling oil that is supposed to attract money into your hands.  I’ll let you know how that goes! 

Dinner was at the Thane Ore House, a local rustic lodge-like restaurant that serves amazing all-you-can-eat salmon and halibut.  It is on the water, not far from Sheep Creek where salmon were spawning.  At one point, our dining hall was almost empty because everyone HAD to go see the spawning salmon.  Music was provided by the Great Alaska Bluegrass Band, my favorite band in Juneau, and they played several encores to an appreciative crowd.  

Great Alaska Bluegrass Band at the Thane Ore House

Maria Charette and D. Hays Shoop enjoy the band

The end of the banquet marked the end of the conference, but I heard that the boat trip “Adventure Bound” to see glaciers, seals, sea lions and whales out in Tracy Arm was loaded with conservators the next day.  Seems like August 2009 was the busiest month ever in the Carrlee household…on Sunday evening Arlen Heginbotham and Leslie Rainer generously spotted us some childcare so Scott and I could go out an a date and toast the conference finally being over! 

WAAC 2009 in Juneau: Aug 21 Sessions

The WAAC newsletter intends to publish abstracts from the conference, so I won’t repeat them here.  

Albrecht Gumlicht introduced the morning  sessions by saying how much he enjoys the mix of information presented and the courage to look at the profession from different angles.  He feels these interesting and controversial talks are what make WAAC special.  I am reminded of a talk I once heard by Elaine Gurian, who said that a museum should be a safe place for unsafe ideas.  Indeed, the friendly, casual atmosphere of open-mindedness and  excitement at the conference was palpable.  I think when people consume alcohol and Red Bull, they are seeking the same sensation of relaxed, focused sharpness.  I saw neither of those substances in evidence, however.

 

Vin Diesel, oops I mean, Seth Irwin!

Seth Irwin presented “A Comparison of Two Soot Removal Techniques: “Dry Ice Dusting” and Rubber-Based Chemical Sponges” co-authored by Randy Silverman.  Seth spent a good part of his last year and a half at the Queen’s graduate conservation training program working on this project, which sought to compare techniques for fire soot recovery techniques.  Disaster recovery companies train their crews to an industry standard that involves wiping with rubber-based soot sponges, commonly known by brand names such as Absorene or Gonzo, and then cutting off the dirty area to reveal fresh sponge.  FTIR confirmed that their composition is identical to your common household rubber band.  Randy Silverman suggested dry ice dusting as an alternate method, one that was used for the removal of lead paint on the Utah State Capitol building.  Randall Heath is the owner and operator of  the company “Cold Sweep”  and this dry ice technology was the one tested.   The sample set was 20 books…5 leather covered (both sheep and calf), 5 open weave cloth, 5 tight weave cloth and 5 paper covered books.  There were a few more books that had no analysis but were books to practice on.  The books were all cut in half and analyzed with surface metrology/ profilography by topographic scanning at the Novalus aluminum manufacturing company.  It uses a laser to read the surface and give a 3-D scan on a nanometer scale.  Takes three hours to scan a single square centimeter!  They also did colorimetry at CCI.  The National Fire Lab in Ontario was able to include the books in a test burn to make good sooty deposition on the books.  Can you imagine how fun that was?  This presentation (and I am hoping the published paper will appear in the 2009 AIC annual meeting Book and Paper postprints?) includes a ton of great info about many details of getting reliable results.  For example, the way they packaged the books to prevent disturbing the soot.  Or the clever Mylar templates to make sure they could line up the exact same areas for analysis again.  The specifics on the Alpheus Precision Series Model T-2 dry ice dusting machine and its use were also described, and operator experience is important.  Seth described how the dry ice dusting machine works.  For the fine mist, a brick of dry ice is placed in the machine and a blade shaves it to the size of a sugar crystal (or you can go up to the size of a grain of rice) and a compressor blows that through a nozzle.  30 psi was the lowest pressure setting for this machine.  Bigger things like walls and sculpture require pellets to be loaded into the machine.  The dry ice crystals expand to 700X their size and cause the soot or other deposit to pop off.  Dry ice sublimes (that’s right from solid to gas) so there is no moisture unless you are working on something that might have a temperature issue, like metal.  Since there are no residues like from sand or walnut shells, you don’t have the containment issues.  The metrics for describing the results of this study are fairly sophisticated.  The conclusion seemed to be that if you had a little bit of surface abrasion, that correlated to the soot being gone.  The soot sponge was better at removing soot for this reason.  Dry ice was better at preventing abrasion, but didn’t always remove all traces of soot.  However, it outperformed the sponge in dealing with 3-D surfaces like spines, edges and crevices.  Both did well with mitigating odor. 

 

Karen Zukor

When I saw the title of Karen Zukor’s talk, “Undocumented Worker” I expected some WPA or CCC-era artwork about some long-suffering 1930’s worker and the rise of unions and the complicated paper treatment she had to do on the valuable print by some artist I wouldn’t know.  In fact, her talk was a fascinating account of three different major projects she has worked on that have challenged her professional ethics because she was forbidden from fully documenting her work.  The talk was full of intrigue, code names, and secrecy.  In one case, it involved working for a wealthy patron.  In another it was the Federal Government.  And the third case was so sensitive I am afraid to mention any details here at all.  Working for the Federal Governement involved bizarre working conditions that limited not only documentation, but also bathroom breaks, supplies available, and even what she wore.  Aside from feeling compromised on AIC ethics for documentation, it has been difficult for Karen because  some of this work has been the most rewarding of her carrer, but she can’t discuss it with colleagues because “I’ve never worked on it and I was never there.”  So you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was a fascinating talk.

 

 Jennifer McGlinchey presented “Photograph Conservation Internship in Alaska” describing her last few months working in the Alaska State Library’s Historical Collections (including a survey) and doing trainings around the state for the Archives Rescue Corps, a program funded by a Connecting to Collections IMLS grant.  A 2006 Heritage Health Preservation Survey identified only 26 archives statewide in Alaska.  Since Frances Field began working on the ARC project, she has found more than 105.  60% are in poor-to-fair condition, and 90% said they needed training in care and storage.  Apparently, at these trainings Jennifer included a terrific short synopsis of photography as it applies to techniques used in Alaska, and I heard from many people how terrific that talk was.  There was also instruction for the caretakers of these archives on testing for cellulose nitrate, the Beilstein test for chlorides in PVC plastics, pH testing for acidic enclosures and testing for light levels.  I really liked her presentation technique for this talk…she would show images of historical events, and say “I saw the Pipeline built” and “I experienced the Klondike Gold Rush.”  What a clever way of describing both the material and also the effect the images had on her.  She identified some issues on the Alaska State Library’s historical collection, like cellulose acetate netgatives stored with prints, camphor plasticizer recrystallizing on the surface of cellulose acetate negatives, and some silver mirroring and intereference colors appearing as the negatives deteriorate.  The collection also had several thousand gelatin glass plate negatives that were starting to flake around the edges.  She showed library staff how to do basic consolidation around their edges with warm gelatin and a small soft brush.  Monday August 17th was supposed to be her last day, and a small going-away party, but alas that was the day the Archives flooded and she was called upon to lend her expertise.  Her images and description of the event were riveting, and then I realized that somehow between wrapping up her internship responsibilities, helping with the emergency, and getting ready to leave Alaska, she miraculously found time to re-write her WAAC talk to include this info!  Impressive.  Red Bull perhaps?  Jennifer is now in the third-year internship at the MFA in Houston.  Lucky them!

 Valery Monahan presented “The Ice Patch Archaeological Collections: Conserving 9000 years of Yukon Hunting History.”  I was thrilled to hear this talk and finally meet Valery.  The  ice patch phenomenon is yielding some amazingly preserved ancient artifacts. If you haven’t heard about this yet, it is mindblowing.  In 1997, some Dall Sheep hunters were on an alpine ridge in the SW Yukon territory, and got whiff of a barnyard smell.  Coming out of the ice, they saw vast black areas of caribou dung in a place where there had been no caribou for 80 years.  It was a north-facing slope at considerable elevation, and snow had covered it for thousands of years.  Around 100 of these ice patches have been identified in SW Yukon alone…revealing 9000 years of layer stratigraphy of caribou dung.  And where the caribou go, so go the hunters.  Artifacts are being found, as well as the remains of ancient caribou, birds, and small mammals.  Approximately 180 artifacts have been found in cooperation with First Nations representatives.  The youngest artifacts are Gold Rush era, but the oldest artifact is a dart fragment dated 9,450 BP (calibrated.)  Valerie is responsible for the conservation of these artifacts, which have included antler, wood, sinew, hide, feathers and paint.  The preservation is so remarkable, some of the artifacts look to be only 100 years old but are in fact thousands of years old.  The recovery of the artifacts is salvage-only at this point, with helicopters checking the sites during the short thaw period, which may only last a couple of weeks and does not happen reliably every year.  This year, for example, was not a good year despite the warm temperatures in many places.  The artifacts are generally not waterlogged, in spite of the threat of running and pooling meltwater.  Slow drying in the freezer has been successful so far.  The artifacts are of such age and importance it is preferable not to consolidate or add anything that might interfere with later analysis.  While the range of dates for the artifacts covers 9000 years, the artifacts represent a single activity: big game hunting.  They therefore show the changes in that activity over time.  Study of the artifacts also reveals the resources available in the area through time, such as forest succession from hardwoods to softwoods.  As the world gets warmer, ice patches are being found in many other areas, including Alaska, Wyoming, and Norway.  

 

Susanne Grieves presented again!  This time a talk called “Simple Solutions to Complex Problems: The 2008/09 Ice Mitigation and Artefact Conservation Programme at Scott’s Terra Nova Hut Cape Evans, Antarctica.”  The author of the talk was Lizzie Meek, but she couldn’t be at WAAC, so Susanne was presenting.  Susanne was at the site from February to October of 2008.  She was at Scott base in the Ross Sea area, the New Zealand base…McMurdo is the American one nearby. Scott base is painted green to be visible in an emergency, and McMurdo is red.  Scott base has about 120 people working there in the summer and 12 in winter, and the buildings are connected by hallways.  McMurdo has about 1500 in summer and 150 in winter.  The Antarctic Heritage Trust is a charitable trust begun in 1987…it doesn’t own the huts or the artifacts, it only exists for research, conservation and education.   One way in to the area is from Chile, another is from Christchurch in New Zealand.  The huts were prefabricated in Australia or England and then hauled ashore, which is why they aren’t far from the coast.  The time period is right around 1900…a few years before, and a little more than a decade after.  Last inhabitation of the huts was around 1917.  The conservation challenges are numerous.  From 1950 to around 1980, the area saw a rise in tourism, up to around 3,800 people each year.  Trash was long thrown in the channel, and souvenirs were taken from the huts of the early explorers, especially the huts that were easy to reach.  There is a penguin colony in the area who have also made themselves at home, and unfortunately penguin poo is nasty, stinky stuff that dries hard as concrete.   In the 1960’s and 70’s many potentially historical items were burned during “cleanups.”  Chlorides and salts from the seawater corrode metals and damage wood…seawater has about 35,000 ppm but the snow has almost 33,000.  There are thought to be around 18,000 artifacts, but 10,000 are in the Terra Nova hut.  The AHT lab has treated about 2,538 objects so far.  Susanne described the ethical, personal, and professional challenges she faced working in that difficult environment.  In the hut, there were challenges with the weight of the snow, the snow getting inside, the meltwater flooding, the moisture and humidity,and even ice heaving up under the floorboards.  Manually removing snow and ice was incredibly time consuming…it would take 7 days just to dig out and begin work.  Recently a snow groomer was employed to help with the digging, and a breakthrough occurred when solar gain from dark material was shown to have a huge effect on melting the snow away.  They used volcanic gravel for this purpose.  Amazing futuristic vortex generators were also employed to change the course of the wind and thus minimize snowdrift.  A remarkable project was undertaken to pull up the flooring and floorboards and remove all the snow and ice below that was causing heaving.  They were able to re-lay the flooring materials with such accuracy that they reused the old nail holes.  There is a blog for the ongoing conservation work as well as a website for the work that the AHT does.

 

Michele Austin Dennehy presented “On Again, Off Again: Conservation Aspects in Accessible Display Case Design”  about the exhibit cases for the artifacts on loan to the Arctic Studies Center at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.  The artifacts discussed by Michele are coming from the National Museum of Natural History, with the Arctic Study center exhibit planning to open in spring 2010 and be on display for at least 7 years.  The intent is to allow the artifacts on display to be removed from exhibit and taken behind the scenes for up-close study by researchers.  To accomodate this, the mounts and display cases had to have unusual engineering and planning.  The cases have floor-to-ceiling glass doors that open with actuators.  The mounts are related to vertical rods that tie into the ceiling to meet seismic code.  The cases are double-sided, and objects are displayed at use-height according to the purpose of the artifact.  A stem on the artifact mount fits into a bracket that extends from the vertical rod.  The bracket arm has a thumb screw to hold the mount stem, and mounts have allen screws as well.  The engineers wanted a mechanical tightener, such as a screwdriver.  But that means tools in with artifacts, so tethers were made for the tools, and additional threads were added to the screws to make the delicate task of accessing the hardware without dropping screws easier.  The mount-makers were the heros of the project.  Benchmark did the first phase and then it was Ely, Inc.  Some folks worked for both companies.  Sounded to me like there were maddeningly typical issues where the desires of designers were prioritized over the well-being of the artifacts…not installing double doors to consultation rooms where artifacts would need to go, trying to avoid plexi, trying to avoid any mounts touching the deck, designers wanting things to be as vertical as possible, etc.   But it also sounded like many of the fears of the conservators were unfounded, and the artifacts were not as difficult to access as feared.  Special carts were designed to carry the artifacts to the viewing rooms as well as hold the artifact while viewed up-close.  It will be interesting to hear how this all goes…the exhibit aims to provide a very unusual level of access to the artifacts, and has taken great pains to do so safely.  There is a huge community of Native artists, scholars, and students in Alaska for whom access to this material would not have been possible without this project.  From what I have heard, the concept is pretty groundbreaking and many entities are going out on a  limb to make it happen.  Expect to hear more about this in the coming year.  

 

Albrecht Gumlicht presented “Sand or Snow? Preparation of an Archival Model by Renowned Modernist Architect John Lautner for a Traveling Exhibition.”  The Getty Research Institute was recently given a huge collection of sketches, drawings, photos, and architectural models from this important artist, who died in 1994.  He was famous for modernist, geometric, often futuristic-looking buildings in both sandy desert and snowy mountain environments.  The buildings played to their surroundings beautifully.  The collection came with some issues, both in terms of conservation and because many items were committed for a traveling exhibit through the Hammer Museum, “Between Earth and Heaven: Architecture by John Lautner.”  The model Albrecht discussed was very futuristic, with a veranda living room that swivelled outdoors James-Bond style by push button.  It also had a tent-like roof with three points of contact with the ground.  The roof  on the model was detachable, and the conservators left it that way to make transport easier.  The building was sited in a mountain environment, so the artist used table salt to indicate snow on the roof and the surrounding topography, but much salt had been lost or turned a disfiguring splotchy yellow by the adhesive used to make it stick.  There were many aspects to the treatment, but the most fascinating was how to reintegrate the look of the snow, since it looked rather ugly as it was and could easily be mistaken for sand.  Because the architect had buildings in both sandy and snowy locales, it was really important to get the snow right.  But maintaining the original material and adding more without facing the same adhesive issues was a big challenge.  The eureka moment was provided by colleague Nancy Yacoo Turner, who suggested that the new “snow” did not need to be permanently attached…a method was simply needed to apply an appropriate product when interpretation or exhibition was desired.  The magic substance ironically was white Sonora desert sand sold as “Vita-Sand” for pet lizard enclosures.  The product has a white color, similar grain size to the salt, and was easy to apply with a sieve.  For the curved roof, a “wig-like” secondary cover was made of Tyvek with the sand attached with PVA adhesive.  After exhibition, the “snow” could be removed in about 20 minutes with a soft paintbrush and a Nilfisk equipped with a rheostat.  The packing job was really nice, too, employing Tyvek straps that attached to foam bumpers with stainless steel T-pins and foam disk washers.  Near the end, Albrecht had a hilarious statement that went something like, “We used sand to cover up salt that was meant to look like snow that we didn’t want to have mistaken for sand but that tempted the visitor to taste it because it looked like sugar…”

The WAAC business meeting went very quickly, since many officers were not present and many reports were not submitted.  Marie Laibinis-Craft is the new President,  Dana Senge is the new Vice-President, Brynn Bender is the new Secretary, Natasha Cochrane continues as secretary, Chris Stavroudis (aka Mr. WAAC) will continue as a member-at-large (and a sort of untitled and unpaid Executive Director, it seems?) and new members-at-large will be Rhea Carter and Bev Perkins.  Apparently, elections this year were very close.  It is a rather strange experience to agree to run for the board and then not get elected, but I have to admit I take elections much more seriously when I have a choice of candidates.  Next election will try to incorporate an electronic ballot, from what I hear.  Perhaps some paper ballots, some electronic ones?  And next year’s meeting?  September 1-3, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.   And finally, even though the out-of-the-way-gosh-the-economy-is-in-the toilet-right-now conference in Juneau had only about 40 attendees, it didn’t lose money for WAAC.  WHEW!

WAAC 2009 in Juneau: Aug 20 Sessions

Breakfast and breaks sponsored by Optium and University Products. Thank you!!

There’s a benefit to being married to the person who determines the order of the talks: you can get your over with right away!  My paper, “PEG Treatments at the Alaska State Museum” started the talks with a description of the challenges to treating waterlogged archaeological basketry with polyethylene glycol (PEG.)  I’ve written about that elsewhere on the blog, so won’t repeat it here.  I have to admit, I was so intent on taking notes on the next two talks (also involving PEG) that I neglected to capture even fuzzy images of them to add visual amusement to the blog.  So above I show you a bit of one of the coffee breaks.  We had two sponsors for the breaks, Optium and University Products.  WAAC was very grateful to them for their sponsorship.

I don’t know if you can make it out, but this was the weather in Juneau’s local newspaper: hot and sunny throughout the lower 48, but chilly in all of Alaska, and rain for us all week.  The real temperate rainforest, live.

After I chatted about PEG, Susanne Grieve presented a paper “Conservation of Waterlogged Wood from the USS Monitor” that was co-authored with Elsa Sangouard.   The talk was similar to the one she presented at the 2009 AIC annual meeting in Los Angels, so I think you’ll be able to find a published version soon.  Don’t be mixing up the Monitor with the Hunley...that’s a different project.  Up until recently, Susanne was part of the treatment team, but now she teaches in the graduate Maritime Studies program at East Carolina University.  The Monitor is an 1862 ironclad vessel famous for its rotating turret that became the precursor to all subsequent turrets.  It was also part of a famous battle against the Merrimack.  In addition to complicated treatments for the metal and the sensitive issue of human remains found in the turret, wood treatments have been challenging.  Susanne described how hydroxide groups released by the degradation of cellulose make wood more hygroscopic as it deteriorates.  Acid-base issues are catalyzed by metallic salts in the water.  Bacteria lead to hydrolysis, and the cellulose reacts with seawater, eventually leaving only lignin.  In wood associated with iron, sulfur-reducing bacteria are catalyzed by the iron to make sulfuric acid.  Amazing that wood survives from the marine environment at all!  The sulfur problem has been well publicized by those fighting it on the Swedish warship Vasa, but the Monitor seems to have even higher levels.  Susanne described a treatment for a wooden chest that was horribly deteriorated.  It was made of poplar, walnut and pine.  It was impregnated with 20% PEG 400 and 5% PEG 1000 for 2 months.  Ammonium citrate was used to chelate the iron.  Three other artifacts, a hardwood shot ladle, a gun sponge, and some  oak gun carriage parts were treated with a low concentration of PEG 400, around 10%.  Some of the info relating to treatment of composite artifacts with PEG in a way that wouldn’t corrode metal seems to be part of someone’s thesis, so I won’t blab about that here.  Likewise, it seems that information about treating Lignum vitae, a very hard wood sometimes used on ships, might be part of an upcoming WOAM conference and I shouldn’t jump the gun on that either.  I was relieved to hear that Susanne prefers not to use biocides in the water if she can avoid it, which is my preference as well.  

Monica Shah from the Anchorage Museum discussed the challenges of treating objects in Barrow, Alaska in a talk titled “Treating Ipiutak Objects Remotely: A Work in Progress.”  Areas of coastline in Northern Alaska are actively eroding into the sea during winter storms due to changes in the climate.  This has led to some stunning discoveries near Barrow by archaeologists and scientists working for the local Native corportation.  Among these discoveries were artifacts found below a Thule-era cemetery.  The Thule are the precursors of the modern Inupiat inhabitants of the area.  However, the artifacts dated back even further to the Iputak era instead, and the previously known extent of the Iputak territory was considered to be Point Hope and not Barrow.  So this discovery extended the range of the known Iputak territory, making these very important artifacts.  They included the only known intact Iputak sled runners, each made from a single log.   There were also some associated long wooden poles and a paddle.  This wood was wet, not fully waterlogged.  Dr. Claire Alix of the Univeristy of Alaska Fairbanks happened to be on site.  She is a wood specialist and archaeologist studying driftwood in the area.  Her research sounds very interesting.  The interpretation possible for Native artifacts if we knew patterns of driftwood distribution might be really groundbreaking.  Apparently, the sled runners, a wooden plank, and the paddle were spruce.  The poles were willow.  The facilities available for treatment of the wood had some wonderful walk-in freezers of different temperatures, but there were challenges in the availability and cost of supplies.  For example, it would cost more than $1000 to get a 30% solution of PEG to treat one sled runner.  Clean water was also a challenge.  Monica had to mix various molecular weights of PEG together to get up to a workable concentration, which might not have been more than 10% in the end.  However, since the wood was not fully waterlogged, this was enough.  For the treatment of the poles, which sublimated quite a bit in the freezer and were no longer wet enough for PEG nor robust enough physically, Rhoplex was available and worked well in conjunction with teflon tape and distilled water from a spray bottle.  One image showed what seemed to be a long skinny piece of wood hopelessly splintered and shattered, but then the next image showed it all back together again and bandaged up extensively with the Teflon tape, as if Monica reassembled a big 3-D jigsaw puzzle.  From what I understood, Monica was able to work with these artifacts in person twice so far, with the rest of the work and monitoring done remotely through email and telephone conversations.

After lunch, Dave Harvey presented, “Things Shouldn’t Go Bump in the Night!  Paranormal Research and Investigations in Museums and Historic Sites.”  Certainly this was the most exotic of the papers following the conference theme:  ”Where the Wild Things Are: Conservation in the Extreme.”  Dave described some of the ground rules that are helpful in protecting collections and historic structures, not the least of which is taking into account that some people want to wander about in the dark.  But he went on to describe the mutual benefits possible.  These patrons of course want access to your facility, and could be well served by our assistance with the fundamentals of the scientific method and the rigors of documentation.  But many of them are rigorous themselves, and copies of their documentation may enhance the files at your institution.  Furthermore, some researchers have expensive equipment that might have applicability to our work.  Dave demonstrated how a thermal sensing gadget revealed locations of windows that had been covered over, or leaks in a historic building.  I was also taken with the idea that whether or not one believes in whatever presence is being hunted, it should not be permitted to be removed without the thoughtful consent of the caretakers/ owners of the property.  It would be part of the history of the site.  Paranormal tours are very popular, and creative public programming takes advantage of this interest.  There are over 700 paranormal research teams around the country.  Some of the hallmarks of good paranormal research are worth thinking about: recording all possible versions of oral history, since some change and some capture various aspects of the same tale.  Appreciating the value of historical images, but being skeptical since images can have contaminants like light, dust, bugs, silvering on mirrors etc that could give a false image.  Not making assumptions (so important with ethnographic material!) but in this case, just because something feels creepy doesn’t mean it is.  Some things to beware of when working with these paranormal research teams: touching, cords/cables, walking around in the dark, insurance, food/drink, public use of confidential information, and their habit of sitting on historic chairs and beds. Finally, Dave mentioned I book I want to read: “Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War” by Drew Gilpin Faust.  Dave mentioned it in the context of understanding the time period of the site or event, but it just sounds like a good read!

 

The next talk, “Repair and Restoration of Two Sculptures by Benny Bufano,” was presented by Jonathan S. Fisher, an objects conservator in private practice in the San Francisco area.  The talk began with a little art historical info about the artist, who I must agree is quite wonderful.  Apparently the Mondavi Winery put out a nice catalog of his work, but he deserves to be more widely known.  The first sculpture treatment involved a painstaking fill to hide the crack in a stone bear that had broken in half.  Adhering the two halves with Akepox epoxy was the first step, but it took considerable patience and skill to prevent the fill area from “spreading.”  His studio took advantage of a turntable for rotating the sculpture and socks full of old pennies as sandbag weights.  Simple but effective.  Chalk pencils were an especially useful tool in his arsenal of materials for hiding fills.  He needed to match color, sheen and translucency in all angles in different light.  I was especially taken with the whole debate on how far to go and when to stop.  Where is the line where “better is the enemy of good?”   The second treatment involved fabricating a faux marble ear on a very large owl sculpture.  It began with a cleaning, using steam and towels.  Jonathan likes to collaborate with artists in his treatments, in this case a sculptor he knows.  The two of them were pondering a solution at lunchtime, and the local tradition of pouring the salsa over the chips instead of dipping led them to experiment with casting chunks of polyester resin mixed with pigments in ice cube trays, then smashing them up to serve as inclusions in a translucent matrix.  It reminded me of Tony Sigel talking about marble or alabaster chips in some of his fills to give the desired translucency.  Another good tip: cutting off a paintbrush to make a “stubby ” brush is an excellent tool.  The shape for the ear was first made from plasticine, smoothed with rubbing alcohol and  the coated with vaseline so the mold-making material would not stick.  He used RTV silicone bulked with cabosil, a couple of coats’ worth, to make the mold.  He likes Akepox 5010 because it is a water-clear gel often used as a stone epoxy, quick setting and doesn’t shrink or drip.   I need to check with him about posting this information…even though it was discussed in public, the etiquette of blogging is still new to me regarding the conservation field and if Jonathan isn’t comfortable with it being here, I’ll pull it.  

I was greatly looking forward to Dennis Calabi’s talk, “Backward Glances: Radical or Conservative” and I was not disappointed.  As a paintings conservator for the past 40 years, he has seen many new products come into use, and many old ones disdained.  He emphasized the need for more tools in our toolbox, not fewer.  The old methods had flaws and limitations, but at least those were known and could be compensated for in a skilled treatment.  New products are embraced enthusiastically, but often at the expense of the previous method.  One example was the traditional wax resin lining.  Knowing little about paintings, I did my best to follow him, but it sounds like wax resin was largely replaced by BEVA.  Dennis says BEVA has a tendency sometimes to auto-reverse and the problems that arise when it does so can be difficult to correct.  Furthermore, it seems that wax resin allows a certain amount of control in application not afforded by BEVA, requiring a lower temperature, allowing a person to line a painting by hand, and more reliable in unstable environments.  Dennis was particularly disturbed when artworks with perfectly serviceable wax resin linings were removed in order to be replaced with more modern materials…putting the artwork at risk for little gain.  The talk was illustrated with various photos of wild critters, for the amusement of multi-taskers in the audience, and some great shots of the interior of Dennis’ studio.  I could look at images of other people’s studios all day…it is kind of like window-peeping or reading somebody’s diary…a workspace can be a little bit of a glimpse into someone’s head and from what I could tell, inside Dennis’ head is a whimsical, thoughtful, lovely place indeed.  Dennis thought the profession could sometimes be too quick to dismiss those who place a premium on hand skills and intuition, labeling those who don’t rapidly embrace experimental new materials and techniques as “tired old hacks.”  He reminded us that we are all building on the experience of our elders, and some treatments by those much-maligned “restorers” saved countless artworks from total loss.  Some materials have been eliminated from the toolbox because of their homespun nature…saliva for example, was often avoided before Richard Wolbers made it acceptable again.  Another excellent example involved the use of linen to line paintings instead of synthetics.  Linen requires a lot of labor, like removing the slubs and sizing with rabbit skin glue (which is later drowned in wax.)  But you can achieve a range of stiffnesses and the wax bonds well.  With synthetic materials, sometimes it is difficult to come up with the right stiffness/thickness combo, and they sometimes fail to adhere.  I’m sure we’ve got many analogies in the objects conservation world for old stuff we might have thrown out of the toolbox too hastily.  At the end of his talk, he showed a cartoon of a man tied to the railroad tracks, saying to a plein air artist, “Dammit man, does it look like I have any yellow ochre?!”

Dana K Senge AV queen

When Scott Carrlee found out Chris Stavroudis wasn’t going to be attending the WAAC conference, he panicked a bit.  The first thing I said was “you’ve gotta assign somebody to do AV!”  He assigned Dana Senge, and that was one of his best decisions of the whole conference.  This woman actually read the manual for the powerpoint projector before she arrived!  At one point, a speaker said “Can I lighten this image??” and without missing a beat, Dana just reached over, clicked a few buttons through a couple of menus, and POOF she took care of it.  Damn impressive.  As far as I could tell, AV went off without a hitch.  Well, except for my laser pointer finally dying after a dozen years of reliable service.  Thankfully, Susanne Grieve lent hers to the cause.

The talk after the coffee break was “The Conservation of the Frances Davis Paintings from the Holy Trinity Church” by Carmen Bria, Camilla Van Vooren, and Hays Shoop.  Carmen presented.  This was the most locally relevent of all the talks, and the granddaughter of the artist was there.  The treatment of the paintings was fairly straightforward…some cleaning, relining and putting a rigid backing in place.  But the story of the artist and the chain of coincidence that saved these paintings was quite dramatic.  The six large liturgical paintings had been in the Holy Trinity Church, and shipped to the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Art in Denver for treatment after many years of fundraising. They were slated to be shipped back when the church burned to the ground.  These paintings are one of the few things that survived from the original church…a historic church where the artist was a founding member.  I knew this story well and was even a bit player in the drama, but an unexpected treat was the very friendly joking Carmen did with Dennis, since Carmen used all the new-fangled materials on these paintings that Dennis had been discussing in his own talk just before the break.

WAAC 2009 in Juneau: Angels Earn Wings

 

L to R Brian Scott, Dave Harvey, Dana Senge, Carmen Bria, Catalina Hernandez, Anne Gunnison, and Yoonji Lee. Still working: Karen Zukor, Hays Shoop, and Camilla Van Vooren.

Tuesday August 18 was a very productive day.  The “Angels” project for this year’s Western Association for Art Conservation conference (WAAC) continued at the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Juneau, Alaska.  The three teams hit the ground running in the morning: brass, textiles, and paintings.  The paintings folks wrapped up with their condition assessments and treatment recommendations for the large icon paintings, and volunteered to try their hand with the metals.  

Hays Shoop

Carmen Bria and Dave Harvey

Before treatment

After treatment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This table for memorial votive candles was a special challenge.  Once Dave saw that the item was sheet brass over a wooden tabletop, the plan to soak it in hot water with a little surfactant to loosen the wax (as we had done with the disassembled candleabra) was “off the table” as an option.  I hit four stores yesterday afternoon in search of a steam gun to combat the wax.  No luck.  Last night Dave told me, “I don’t think we can take on that little votive table, that’s a major project and we aren’t even done with one candleabra yet.”  Caretaker James Johnson had been hearing complaints for weeks about the unsightly appearance, but had valiantly held out against pressure to polish it himself, “Wait till the conservators get here…” he’d been telling people.  He knew full well how much work it is to polish these pieces, as he’d been the person doing it for years.  But still, we didn’t want to disappoint him and leave it all waxy.  When the paintings team announced they had wrapped up their work and were available to join the metals team, the well-caffeinated crew decided to go for it.  The wax gave way with gentle heat from a hair dryer and much effort with teflon tools.  Michael Penn came and took photos for the Juneau Empire newspaper.  Layers of clear polyester Mylar film were stacked and pierced to make a nearly invisible barrier to catch the dripping wax.  Once things get unsightly again, the top layer of Mylar could be removed for an improved appearance.  Many of the screws holding the little candle cups were stripped, and I spent several hours driving around town gathering M4-25 .70 machine screws.  Need metric machine screws?  Automotive hardware stores are the best bet.  When Carmen and Dave carried the polished artifact back into the church at the end of the day, we were giddy indeed.

 

Catalina Hernandez

 

 

In the meantime, Catalina Hernandez and Yoonji Lee were vacuuming historic liturgical banners from the church while Dana Senge was back in my lab with the sewing machine making Tyvek pillows and strapping mechanisms to store the two old and two newer liturgical banners.  The intention was to put them in boxes, but the attached hanging rods and rigid painted surfaces (oil on leather adhered to textile) set requirements for the folded size, and there was a need to get them through doorways.  They would either be stored up a twisty stairwell, or across the courtyard in another building, exposed to rain during transport.  Several large sheets of corrugated plastic Coroplast had been procured, but not a single cut had been made by lunchtime.  Amazingly, by the time the polished brass was being carried in to the church, the textile boxes had been completed and the old banners were safely in storage along with the box for the new banners, which were still on display in the church.

 

During all this activity, paper conservator Karen Zukor, who had intended to be at the church, was still up top her eyeballs with wet documents from the disaster at the Alaska State Archives.  Karen joined us for a quick swig of iced tea at the Pizzaria Roma at lunchtime, then dashed back into the thick of things.  In the afternoon, Hays Shoop and Camilla Van Vooren also headed down to help.  In the evening, the whole gang converged on the Carrlee house for wine and cheese and a little “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” happy hour for Karen.  What a way to celebrate your birthday…helping direct a disaster recovery!

WAAC 2009 in Juneau: Angels in Overdrive

 

 

 

 

The Western Association for Art Conservation is having their annual conference in Juneau, and the volunteer “angels” have their hands especially full this year.  The site is the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Juneau, an 1894 gem on the National Historic Register.  The church was originally built by Alaska Native Tlingit people who continue to be most of the membership.  The architectural plans and many of the liturgical artifacts were gifts from the church in Russia 115 years ago and continue to be used today. 

 

The Angels “paintings team” includes (L to R) Camilla Van Vooren, Carmen Bria, and Hays Shoop from the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Art. 

 

 

The Angels “banner team” includes Catalina Hernanadez (NMAI Mellon Fellow, textile conservator) and Dana Senge (objects conservator in private practice) and Yoonji Lee (NMAI Mellon Fellow, textile conservator) who isn’t pictured here because she’s off doing disaster recovery…more on that in a moment…

 

 

The Angels “metals team” consists of Dave Harvey (objects conservator in private practice, shown in the center here) Anne Gunnison (NMAI Mellon Fellow, objects conservator) to the right and volunteer Brian Scott on the left.  Brian is from Phoenix Arizona, who happened to meet several conservators on the ferry ride to Juneau.  He intended to go to Peterburg, but instead was inspired to come to Juneau and help with the  project.  He spent the day industriously polishing brass with Dave Harvey.  Anne spent part of the day with the disaster recovery team…

 

 

WAAC president Scott Carrlee was supposed to be the administrator of this busy gang, but the weather had other plans.  A major storm hit Juneau over the weekend, and the rain hasn’t let up much for days.  Flood warnings are in effect for parts of town, and the 670-passenger cruise ship “Pacific Princess” skipped its port of call in Juneau because of high winds and fears it could not hold anchor.  Last night, a plastic “bubble” protecting ongoing construction work on the roof of the Alaska State Archives blew off, and rain caused serious water damage to some 500 boxes of documents, including maps, court documents, legislative documents and governors’ records.  Scott headed over to the Archives with several Angels, including Karen Zukor (paper conservator in private practice) Yoonji Lee and Anne Gunnison.  Janice Schopfer (head of paper conservation at LACMA) Albrecht Gumlich (Getty Conservation Center objects conservator) and Christel Pesme (paper conservator and GCI consultant) happened to be in town for the conference and also pitched in with disaster recovery efforts.

 

Members of the parish arranged a banquet dinner for us this evening at the Alaska Native Brotherhood/Sisterhood Hall.  We were stunned and delighted by what they presented.  Salmon pasta salad, meat n cheese plates, veggie plates, garden salad…but that was the tip of the iceberg!  Fresh salmon and halibut, and I daresay some of the best I have ever had… James Johnson knows what to do with fish!  Delicious fry bread and rice rounded out the meal.   And then there was a cake with the image of the church on it, celebrating 115 years.

 

   

 

In addition, we were treated to a full dress rehearsal performance by the traditional Tlingit dance group Yaaw Tei Yi (the Herring Rock Dancers) who are headed to Hawaii this weekend to perform at the Annual Native Hawaiian Convention.  Quite a wonderful reward for the efforts of the WAAC angels, who will be hard at it again tomorrow morning…

WAAC 2009 in Juneau: Pre-Blog

UPDATED AUGUST 4, 2009

Coming to Juneau for the 2009 WAAC conference?  Here’s what to expect!

While Conservation Online is transitioning, there’s a temporary WAAC website with registration info, preliminary list of talks, and some travel info.  Here’s a pdf of a map I rigged up with locations of interest to us:  WAAC map

PACKING Juneau is a very casual place.  People wearing heels or ties are generally expected to be from somewhere else.  Bring comfortable walking shoes…everything on that WAAC map is walkable.  A light raincoat or a fleece jacket would cover you in most rainforest-y weather, but we have had an unusually sunny summer so far.  Maybe that will continue? 

GETTING HERE If you arrive by airplane, the airport is about 20 minutes ride from downtown.  Taxi is under $25 with tip.  The ferry is quite a distance, more than a half an hour, and the taxi is around $40.  I’ll look into the bus angle, but generally that’s not been the most straightforward.  Ferry travelers can be pretty friendly and you might be able to talk someone into giveing you a ride into town.

USEFUL HERE  You can probably get cell reception…there is AT&T and GCI here, and visiting family and tourists with iPhones seem to do OK.  The JACC (Juneau Arts and Culture Center, where the conference is taking place) has free wi-fi.  If you rent a car, parking downtown is a pain.  Find a good spot and walk.  But if you want to see the sights, having a car gets you access to some great stuff.  Don’t want to walk uphill?  Cut through the State Office Building when it is open!  The Willoughby Avenue entrance has elevators that take you to the 8th floor.  Cut across the building through the atrium (organ concert noon on Friday) and exit onto Calhoun Avenue, right across from the City Museum. 

Here’s the Juneau Arts and Culture Center, where the conference is taking place.  It is the building with the artist tents out front on the corner.  You can register here on the 20th, or at the opening reception at the Alaska State Museum the night before.  On the right side of the photo, on the street, is the Goldbelt Hotel.  The big building in the background is the State Office Building.

This view is just outside the JACC building.  Alaska State Museum on the right, and the Prospector Hotel on the left.  The Driftwood Hotel is out of view on the other side of the Museum.  Along the edge of the Prospector at the back of the parking lot there is a little gravel shortcut to the grocery store and drugstore beyond.

EATING HERE  Juneau is not known for its spectacular restaurants.  There are plenty of places to get a decent bite, though.  BREAKFAST at the Sandpiper Cafe (next to the Driftwood Hotel) is the best in town, but the City Cafe in the Baranof Hotel is perfectly fine.  TJ McGuires in the Prospector Hotel is OK too.  Breakfast sandwiches can be had at Thibodeau’s and the Alaskan and Proud grocery store. Silverbow Bakery has coffee and bagels, and Heritage Coffee has breakfast pastries, I think.  I noted locations of better-quality coffee on that map with little smiley faces.  No Starbuck’s or Pete’s I’m afraid, but the local roast, Heritage Coffee, is decent.  LUNCH places I frequent include those breakfast places above, Kenny’s Wok and Teriyaki, Subway, and my favorite, the Hangar on the Wharf.  That’s in the big blue building on the waterfront called the Merchant’s Wharf.  There is a new restaurant under construction down there, too, and they have a temporary trailer serving various dishes emphasizing seafood.  There is outdoor seating only, but let me tell you, this is the best food for the money in all of Juneau right now.  Also in the blue building are tasty little russian dumplings at Pel Meni’s.  Open late, and that’s all they serve. On front street there’s a place called Bernadette’s Fast Food and it has killer Filipino style fare.  Up near the Capitol is a health food store called Rainbow that has lunch food too.  After lunch, treat yourself to homemade baked goods or fancy Mexican cocoa-coffee type drinks at Pie In The Sky.  DINNER  Fanciest places are Zephyr (Mediterranean) and the Gold Room in the Baranof Hotel (seafood and steak joint.)  Tarantino’s is a decent Italian restuarant.  El Sombrero has good Mexican unless you are very familiar with Mexican and then it won’t be satisfying.  Midwesterners like me think it’s just fine.  Kenny’s Wok and Teriyaki and Seong’s Sushi bar are OK.     Bullwinkle’s Pizza is a dive-y local joint good for a pitcher of beer and a garlic chicken pizza.  Pizzaria Roma down in the Merchant’s Wharf is the place for more specialty pizza heavy on the garlic.  And if you have a car (or willing to pay the taxi fare) our favorite dinner place is the Island Pub across the bridge on Douglas Island.  Thin crust brick oven very creative great view of the channel.  Pretty much locals-only.  Good bar and nice ambience too.

These are about a block from the JACC.  Building in foreground is Thibodeau’s Market, a little place to get a 75 cent cup of coffee and a sandwich or inexpensive breakfast burrito.  In the background, Sandpiper Cafe!  Good breakfast and lunch.  The Driftwood Hotel wraps around the parking lot back there in an “L” shape. 

FUN HERE  I’ll start with the downtown walkable stuff.  If you like to hike, for goodness sake head up Basin Road (the oldest road in Alaska) and hike up Perseverance Trail.  If you start downtown and hike to the end and back downtown, that’s probably a good half a day.  Take some water and a snack.  The Last Chance Mining Museum is partway there, and an even shorter hike would be the Gold Creek Flume loop only an hour or two and mostly flat after a steep initial hill to get there.  There are at least 100 fabulous trails in the Juneau area thanks to the gold mining history here.  Let me know if you need directions.  People get lost and die every year.  The Mount Roberts Tram is fun, but $27 per person.  If you hike up Mt Roberts (takes about an hour, trailhead at the top of Sixth Street) you can ride down for free if you buy something worth $5 in the shop or resturant (a cold beer, for example!)  The Juneau-Douglas City Museum and the Alaska State Museum are both swell, but of course you’ll get to see those at various receptions.  Walking up and down South Franklin Street will make you feel like a tourist.  But get beyond the flat part of downtown and you’ll quickly hit the residential neighborhoods of closely packed funky old houses that are sometimes compared to San Francisco neighborhoods. 

If you have a car…on Douglas Island are the remains of a whole gold mining ghost town called Treadwell, now swallowed up by the woods.  The trail for it begins right on Sandy Beach in Douglas.  Walking tour brochure available at the City Museum. A couple of miles down Egan Drive is the DIPAC salmon hatchery which also has a small aquarium.  Last I was there, it was only $3.  The Mendenhall Glacier is around 20 minutes drive from downtown Juneau.  Has a great visitor’s center too.  If you are willing to drive a bit “out the road” you can see the beautiful  Shrine of St. Therese and the Jenson Arboretum.  We often see sea lions and seals out there. 

With time and money, there are some outrageous adventures to be had.  Adventure Bound boat trip is great to see a glacier in a fjord, and you usually see marine life too.  Whales breaching is not uncommon.  Zipline tours in the rain forest.  Helicopter flights up on to the ice field (I think there are dogsleds up there too.) Float plane tour to the Taku lodge for a salmon dinner. Salmon fishing charter.  Rent sea kayaks for the day paddle around the islands.  All of these activities have good websites, and get booked up so go ahead and check ‘em ahead of time.

Need help?  During the day, the Alaska State Museum is (907) 465-2901.  Our home number is the phone book under Scott and Ellen Carrlee.  In pinch, my cell is (907) two zero nine, fifty three sixty.  Shhhh don’t tell anyone!