Uninvited Pests

In this week’s blog, Project Conservator Katharine discusses the new Integrated Pest Management Plan for the CRC Special Collections, and describes the common pests found in heritage institutions….

Integrated pest management (IPM) is the practice of monitoring for insect activity to prevent damage to collections and cultural heritage. It was originally developed by the agricultural industry to control insect populations in crop stores without continuously using pesticides. It has now been adopted by libraries and archives as a means to monitor and deter the insect pests that use organic materials present in special collections as a food source.

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Paper Conservators: News and Ideas Exchange 2016

This week’s blog post comes from Conservation Volunteers Mathilde Renauld and Paula Burbicka, who recently attended a paper conservators new and ideas exchange event at the CRC….

Scotland’s Paper Conservators gathered on May 4th 2016 for informal 5-minute presentations and socialising, hosted by the Centre for Research Collections (CRC), University of Edinburgh.

Organiser Helen Creasy (The Scottish Conservation Studio) began by enumerating the outcomes of last year’s news and ideas exchange; this year’s well attended event will also assuredly be impactful. Talks were enthusiastically received, prompting many questions and fruitful discussions.

Paper conservators at the news and ideas exchange

Paper conservators at the news and ideas exchange

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A Passage to India – Part 1

In this week’s blog, Special Collections Conservator Emily, describes the first stage of conserving a collection of Indian portraits…

I was recently asked to complete a condition report and treatment proposal for a collection of 32 portraits from India, known as a Tasawir, dating from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The images have been pasted onto gold-sprinkled paper, and 7 have examples of calligraphy on the back. They are due to be used in a teaching seminar at the University in the new academic year and are scheduled for exhibition in 2017, but need to be conserved and rehoused before they can be safely handled and displayed. Prior to any conservation work carried out on treasures in the collection such as this, a full condition report is required to document any signs deterioration. This allows the conservator to study the object in detail to understand the materials used, the types of damage found and what may have caused it, ensuring that the treatment proposal put forward is carefully considered and suitable for the item. The brilliance of the pigments used, and the detailed nature of the paintings make these items visually stunning and I was delighted to be given the opportunity to examine them closely.

One of the paintings in the Tasawir

One of the paintings in the Tasawir

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