Preserving People, Not Just Paper: My Internship Conserving the New College Collection

Posted on April 1, 2026 by conservation

Today’s blog comes from Katherine Richey, an Edinburgh student who undertook a five-month internship with Heritage Collections from March to the end of July 2025. The internship focused on the care, documentation, and rehousing of two key paper-based collections held within the New College Collections at the University of Edinburgh: The Alumni Photograph Collection, and the Chaplains’ Files of the Church of Scotland.

People are at the heart of every collection, but never have I felt that more strongly than during my time working with the New College Collections.

When I began my role as the New College Collection Conservation Intern back in March 2025, I expected to learn a lot about paper. I didn’t, however, quite expect to encounter so many people – their stories, their portraits, their grief, and their humour – and to feel so connected to them through the material they left behind.

Split between the new conservation studio on the fifth floor of the Main Library, and New College itself, my role has involved caring for two very different, but equally fascinating collections: a series of graduation photographs dating from 1857 to the present day, and a group of Chaplains’ files belonging to the Church of Scotland. While the work focused on conservation and collections care, it also offered a rare glimpse into the lives that passed through these institutions.

A Collection of Faces

The heart of my internship was spent with the New College Alumni Photograph Collection, a series of over 180 class portraits dating from 1857 to the present day. Each one captured a graduating class from New College, tracing students, professors and expressions over a century and a half of history.

Class portrait from the New College Collection

When I first encountered the collection, it was tucked in the corner of stores and had seen better days. Although loosely organised by decade, the folders were all one size, meaning items were often sliding around or sticking out of the sides. Some were torn or delaminating, others just very, very dirty.

Collection on the shelf, before treatment

With a project of this scale, the first step was planning (and in turn, testing my love-hate relationship with excel). I logged each item into a spreadsheet, recording dimensions, condition issues, treatment plans and rehousing needs. This helped me break the project down into stages and order the right materials for rehousing down the line.

Then came the cleaning, with some photographs gathering more than a century of dirt. Cleaning was done in two steps: first brushing away loose debris, then gently lifting ingrained dirt with a smoke sponge. In some case, for example an 1857 image with a hand-drawn name map, I used only dry brushing to avoid damaging sensitive areas. The images responded incredibly well to this non-invasive method, with many vastly improving aesthetically as a result.

smoke sponge on top of a piece of card. Half has been cleaned

Surface cleaning the photographs with smoke sponge

After cleaning, I moved on to repairs. Using Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste, I reinforced tears and crumpled corners, repaired delaminated board, and stabilised weak areas. The limited timescale of the project meant that treatments were focused on function over aesthetics, ensuring they could be handled safely ready for future digitalisation.

Photograph with delaminating corners, before treatment

Photograph with delaminating corners, after treatment

Finally, I rehoused the collection in individual photon paper folders, placing them into groups inside drop-spine boxes. These were mostly organised by decade, where this correlated with the object’s size, but any outliers were also placed in size-appropriate boxes, with each item carefully labelled. The result is a clean, stable, and much more accessible collection, ready to be accessed more easily in New College.

Working on this project deepened my understanding of conservation as both a practical and intellectual task, and a careful balance of ethics, planning, and material knowledge.

Meeting the Ministers

Midway through my internship, my focus expanded beyond the photo collection when I was asked to support a second project: the Chaplains’ files held at New College.

These files, mostly dating from the early to mid-20th century, trace ministers of the Church of Scotland, offering a moving portrait of Scottish clerical life across the period. Many of these men had served during periods of enormous social upheaval, particularly the Second World War, with many files reflecting the emotional weight of that time, including items such as death notices, letters from ministers taken as prisoners of war, and quiet reflections on personal trauma. Here, my job was to catalogue the contents of each file, adding additional administrative data from the Fasti Ecclesia Scoticanae to ensure our records were up to date. Then, I cleaned and stabilised the materials, removing damaging fastenings, before rehousing them into archival folders for future longevity and reference.

Newspaper clipping from the Chaplains’ files

Taken together, these records show how spiritual leaders themselves were shaped by the very crises they helped others to navigate. Many letters were steeped in a deep sense of duty and service, framing ministry as both a calling of faith and an act of national resilience. What stood out to me in each file was the emotional control embedded in their language; their need to appear strong, composed, and unwavering. At the same time, these documents subtly reveal how psychological strain was minimised or spiritualised, couched in terms like “exhaustion” or “unsuitability”.

I hope, from this project, further study can be done into the impact of attitudes of the period, and it goes to show how even in the most seemingly administrative of collections, the human voice finds a way through. While this collection gave me immense technical experience in rehousing, surface cleaning, and cataloguing, it also taught me to slow down, read between the lines, and respect the weight that paper can carry.

Reflections

As I come to the final days of this experience, I cannot help but to look back and realise how much I have learnt over the last five months. Where my practical conservation and collections management skills have flourished thanks to working so closely with experts, I have also developed a deeper appreciation of the true value of collections teams, and the quiet but vital work they do to ensure that our history is accessible for those to come.

My time has been greatly enriched by some brilliant experiences: hearing all about developments of the discipline at the Scottish Paper Conservators News and Ideas Exchange in the National Library of Scotland, spending time learning to treat 19th-century books, and seeing the daily ins and outs of the conservation studio, from pest traps to acquisition choices. Each of these moments have given me a wider perspective of what conservation looks like across an institution.

More than anything, however, I did not expect this work to feel so personal. A lot of conservation is described in technical terms and processes, and of course that is a significant part of the job. But what I quickly realised was that I was not just handling paper, but encountering people. Someone was in this space before me, and this is what they left behind.

Just a week before this internship ended, I graduated myself. After spending so long with the classes who had come before me, this work made my own moment even more special. I was more aware than ever, when crossing the stage, of the community I had stepped into, and the importance of the work we do to ensure their stories do not disappear.

I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to support that work, and more importantly, to the incredible team who have aided me in making these collections remain accessible in the future.

Homes for Rocks – Rehousing the Lyell Geological Specimen Collection

Posted on May 2, 2022 by conservation

Today we have the first installment of a two-part series from Joanne Fulton. Joanne is here on an 8-week internship funded by the John R. Murray Charitable Trust to help with the conservation of the collection of Sir Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875).

It is a privilege to handle objects that have been worked on by people in the past, to experience the connection and witness their working and learning processes. Therefore, it has been a fascinating opportunity to work on the rehousing of the Lyell Geological Specimen Collection which consists of various specimens from flint implements and axe heads, to shells and raindrop traces.

As previously outlined in these blogs, Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was a hugely significant scientific figure in the 19th century. Amongst others, Lyell corresponded and was a close friend of another well known figure, Charles Darwin, a name closely linked to a number of the shell specimens within the collection I’m rehousing.

These specimens were collected or given to Charles Lyell on his many geological excursions. They were then used to inform his geological research, and they continue to inform learning and research within the University of Edinburgh today. When observing the many documents in the Lyell collection, I’ve found drawings of the same specimens I’m rehousing, illustrated by Lyell in his papers and notebooks.

In the first week I calculated I should be aiming to complete at least 5 objects per day to finish within the 8 weeks of my internship, as I had to bear in mind that within the 168 objects to be rehoused there are groups of items – here I’m largely referring to the shells – that make up a single object. However, as I reach the end of week 4, I’ve found I’m now completing over 10 a day due to more efficient preparation.

The materials I have been using to rehouse the specimens includes card tray compartments and plastazote, a type of foam used in archival repackaging. I have several sizes of trays, however there are 6 specimens which are too large for the largest of trays and need their own custom boxes. I’ve made these myself with card and corrugated card.

My process for rehousing a specimen begins having prepared the tray and two layers of plastazote to fit within. I then cut into the plastazote as appropriate to the rock. Using a white pencil I mark out where I need to cut through the top layer of plastazote, and then using a sharp scalpel, I carve into the thicker bottom layer. This carving is continued until the specimen sits tight and will continue to do so in the future when the specimens are returned to their storage.

A stone edged out of its housing. The foam is carefully cut so the rock sits secure.

A sharp scalpel is needed to create a neatly cut support for each specimen (EUCM.0204.2013)

All this cutting creates a lot of off-cuts from the plastazote. Rather than wasting them, I shall be reusing them as padding for a Tyvek book cushion in order to make my project more sustainable.

Previous to my rehousing, some of the rocks were held in small green trays of a standard size, often not suited to the actual size of the specimens and offering no added protection. The shells, which I shall be rehousing next week, are in small red boxes.

Included with many of the specimens are extra notes and labels of various origins – some of Lyell’s own handwriting – which also need to be housed with the object as part of their history. When this is the case, I create a third layer of plastazote to house this paper note slipped in a melinex sleeve, carving a little recess for it to sit flat. I then attach cotton tape to the middle layer so the user can lift the object to see the paper note when needed.

A foam black board with neat holes cut out to house and keep secure spiral shells.

Shells after rehousing: A note stating these shells were collected by Darwin is stored underneath (EUCM.0180.2013)

The majority of these specimens are in good condition – they are rocks and so robust by their composition- the labels, many handwritten by Lyell, and other attachments to the object are less so. Many are in need of repair having suffered losses, crumpling, and have become detached from the specimen. This is a problem I shall be tackling in the second half of my internship; repairing the tears and losses, as well as reattaching the labels with an adhesive.

There have also been a few messy surprises and oddities in the collection, with one rock having a large amount of white tack attached, unfortunately this was also stuck to the rock’s labels. This white tack was removed, and the same tack was used to remove the tiny amounts left in the small crevices on the rock surface. I carefully removed the labels from the rock and the tack, removing the unwanted and potentially damaging tack mechanically from the paper labels.

A shard has white tack stuck to the top in one photograph. In the second, it has been removed, and the surface cleaned.

Photo during and after removing white tack from one of the specimens (EUCM.0003.2013)

Having recently graduated from the paper conservation course at Northumbria University, its been a rich learning curve working with objects such as the geological specimens. In my second blog, I plan to examine the method of reattaching the loose labels to the specimens as well as the finalisation of the rehousing within the second half of my internship.

Righting Letters – Conserving the Lyell Collection

Posted on April 8, 2022 by conservation

Today we have the first installment of a two-part series from Sarah MacLean. Sarah is here on an 8-week internship funded by the NMCT to help with the conservation of the collection of Sir Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875).

As my career in conservation progresses, I find myself drawn most to objects and collections that give insight into the more personal, human aspects of history and heritage. Kings and Queens and famous faces are all very well but I’m more interested in the lives of everyday people – in their passions and machinations, and in how they interacted with the world around them.

Throughout my studies and previous work, I have had ample opportunity to see and conserve this kind of history. Most recently, I worked on the conservation and digitisation of the 1921 Census of England and Wales where I saw first-hand the lives of ordinary people, a snapshot of the nation captured in a single day. And now, as an intern working on the Sir Charles Lyell Collection, I see similar opportunities to preserve and elevate the more unique and personal aspects of the great man’s life.

Sir Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875) was a Scottish geologist and scholar whose discoveries informed a significant shift in our understanding of the Earth and its history. Lyell posited that the geological processes that shaped the Earth are still active in the modern era and through extensive fieldwork, travel, popular lectures, and his best-selling books, he became internationally famous and respected by many scientific communities.

He also corresponded with near-innumerable members of these communities with professional and personal relationships often spanning the entirety of his career in the same way that his precious notebooks do. It is this varied and extensive correspondence that I have been working steadily to conserve and rehouse during my time at the Centre for Research Collections.

Open letter where the bottom edge is worn and has multiple small tears. Along the top is a large tear down vertically of the top quarter. A hole in the middle of the page obstructs the margins. In the second photo, the edge tears have been repaired, and the hole is supported by a thin layer of tissue paper.

A letter from Lyell’s correspondence before and after conservation treatment

This part of the Lyell Collection comprises 22 boxes containing thousands of letters and other documents. Typically, I assess and conserve 1-2 boxes in an average working day and so anticipate completing this work by my 6^th week here at the CRC. I re-label each folder of correspondence individually before assessing and conserving its contents as needed. Typically, this work extends to flattening folds and plane distortions, surface cleaning using chemical sponge, undertaking tear repairs, and infilling small lacunae using Remoistenable Tissue (lightweight Japanese paper impregnated with an adhesive that is reactivated with moisture).

My work on the 1921 Census prepared me well for my work on the Lyell correspondence – not only have I built considerable aptitude with my chosen repair material, but I also greatly enjoy the nitty-gritty remedial nature and consistency of the work. However, this consistency and regularity is not to say that the Lyell correspondence has not already yielded some wonderful surprises.

Often, these surprises have come in the form of unique drawings, maps, and other larger format works coloured with an array of aesthetically pleasing pigments. From the coastline of Louisiana to coal deposits in the Scottish Highlands, these works have the potential to tell us not only about Lyell’s working processes and the areas of study he thought most important, but to give greater insight into his personal quirks alongside those of the people with whom he corresponded.

Pencil and red ink of a conical volcano erupting with smoke. A small village is drawn in the lower left corner.

A small drawing showing an erupting volcano illustrating Lyell’s interest in volcanology.

These larger works often pose interesting conservation challenges too. Their scale means that they have been folded to fit their envelopes or other housings and the mechanical stresses this puts on the paper has led in many places to weakness and tears. The repairs that I undertake must not only be neat and visually pleasing but must also be robust enough to withstand handling and consultation as well as the object itself being carefully folded again and returned to its housing.

I have also had the opportunity already during my time at the CRC to tackle Lyell’s collection of geological specimens and discovered a heretofore unknown little example of such a specimen within his correspondence – another pleasant surprise.

Crumpled within a small envelope, I have been unable yet to discover what type of stone these pieces are comprised, but I have been able to rehouse them, encapsulating them in Melinex for the time being so that they can be viewed and consulted without the need for direct handling.

On top of an envelope, laying on wrapped white paper and cotton wool are two sharp yellow shards.

Two small geological samples discovered within an envelope in Lyell’s correspondence.

All the work I have undertaken thus far on the Lyell correspondence has been done with that knowledge that the collection is, at its core, is to be used and learned from. This need for accessibility interests me just as much as the unique and personal stories within Lyell’s correspondence because I believe strongly that the more accessible we are able to make the Lyell Collection and others like it, the greater the impetus will be for such treasures to be preserved and protected in the future.

Water Quality Part 4 – Conclusions and Recommendations

Posted on August 25, 2021 by conservation

Today’s blog post concludes remote intern Mhairi Boyle’s four-part series on water quality. Mhairi discusses the conclusions she reached during her internship and provides us with her recommendations for regular water testing at the CRC.

As the weeks drew to a close, I began to culminate all of my research into one final report. Mulling over everything, I was able to generate a few conclusions, and most importantly, some recommendations for the CRC.

My first conclusion is that the tap water in Edinburgh is safe to use in paper conservation treatments. The on-site analysis demonstrated that the metal content is far below the maximum amount recommended by Scottish Water. This is, of course, subject to regular testing and monitoring.
My second conclusion is that there is a lot more research to be undertaken in this area. Looking towards a more sustainable profession, the use of tap water in paper conservation should be encouraged, subject to quality. Further research should be undertaken into the metal and chlorine content of tap water.

A brown british shorthair cat leans over someone with a pen trying to take notes on a sheet of paper

Further investigations should be taken.

As a culmination of all my research, I devised a Water Testing Programme for the CRC. I wanted to keep it simple, understandable, and easy to grab at a moment’s notice. The gist of the program is as follows:

Monthly pH Testing. The CRC uses water to make solutions, adhesives, and to humidify objects. The pH of the water used should be tested monthly with a digital pH meter, and be adjusted if it is too acidic. It should also be tested before the washing of any objects.
Monthly Chlorine Monitoring. A more sensitive digital chlorine reader has been recommended for the CRC. Monthly chlorine monitoring will allow the CRC to monitor the chlorine content and observe any fluctuations.
Bi-Annual Water Analysis by an External Company. The results can be compared to Scottish Water quality reports for any discrepancies. Bi-annual water analysis accounts for any major seasonal changes in the water.
Contingency Planning. I have recommended the use of a logbook to ensure the Programme is carried out, and to allow for the monitoring of results. If the results of the tests are deemed unacceptable, I have recommended the interim use of jugs of purified water until the results are fully investigated. For example, if the iron content jumps up significantly, it could be an indication of rusted pipework at the University.

And that’s a wrap! I’d like to thank my supervisor, Emily Hick, and all of the CRC & Museums staff for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

a brown british shorthair cat peers around the side of a laptop which has a draft of the conservation report on display.

Water Quality Part 3 – Survey

Posted on August 23, 2021 by conservation

In the third instalment of this four-part series, remote intern Mhairi Boyle discusses the survey she created to get insight on water type and water usage from fellow paper conservators all around the world. She talks us through how she analysed the results and provides the findings from the survey.

In this blog, I will be discussing the results of an online survey I conducted.

Do you ever walk into a supermarket and feel immediately overwhelmed by the amount of baked goods on display? Sourdough, or tiger loaf? Or maybe cleaning products are your thing: Cillit Bang, or Mr Muscle? Either way, this is called ‘choice overload’, or ‘overchoice’. When I first started looking into water filtration methods and types, this is exactly how I felt. Which company? How much? Is it effective?

In this case, it has proven very useful to conduct a survey. Surveying fellow paper conservators on their water usage and opinions has given me an insight into the most popular water types and filtration choices, and why conservators use them.

I asked ten questions, five of which were multiple choice, and five of which were open-ended. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible to maximise the number of respondents. A one-page survey is less daunting and time-consuming than a ten-page survey. The open-ended questions gave me information on emergent themes and concerns of conservators regarding their water usage. The multiple-choice questions gave me quantifiable, i.e. numerically measurable information, on which water and filter types were most popular. In the end, I got fifty respondents, which was a great result. When I closed the survey and exported the information into a spread sheet, I looked at it and froze for a moment. What now?

Graph showing locations of respondents versus percentage of respondents.

Over 50% of respondents resided in North America.

Enter… Excel. Microsoft Excel can be an intimidating beast. I feel that I have only scratched the surface of its analytical power, but even so, it has been a very valuable tool. If you are not mathematically-inclined (me), Excel can do all of the hard work for you. The multiple-choice results were surprisingly simple to grapple with: I was able to work out percentages using Excel calculations and visualise all of the answers in bar graphs and pie charts.

Qualitative information is a bit more complicated to analyse. I used a method called ‘open-ended coding’. Using this method, the researcher reads through all of the answers and notes any common emerging themes or feelings that arise from the answers. These can all be categorised. I used coded themes such as ‘Safety’, ‘Cost-effectiveness’, and ‘Sustainability’. I was then able to tally up how many conservators’ answers came under each theme, and from that I was able to get a general sense of what was important to the respondents. I could also add comments on the side. This process takes a few reads of the answers, as more themes may emerge on second and third analysis.

Here are some of the key findings:

North American respondents used a larger combination of water filtration methods. For some, this was because their tap water quality was very poor, and for others, it was because they preferred the sense of control it gave them.
Some conservators were wary of using tap water because of its regional and seasonal variability.
Over half of respondents agreed that tap water is viable in conservation, but it is dependent on local quality and regular, thorough testing.
Conservators chose water type and filtration methods based on: safety, control, purity, and cost-effectiveness.
Most conservators did not have an official Water Testing Programme, but did undertake regular testing of some description.

Graph of walter filter preference by region for North America, Mainland Europe and the United Kingdom for Deioniser, Activated Charcoal Filer, UV Radiation, Reverse Osmosis, Particulate filtler, Other and none but percentage.

Respondents in North America used a greater variety of water filtration systems.

The survey gave me some valuable information on the real-life practices of conservators, and I used some of this information to inform my Water Testing Programme. I will talk more about this in my next blog.

Water Quality Part 2 – Water Tests

Posted on August 18, 2021 by conservation

Join us today for remote intern Mhairi Boyle’s second instalment of her four-part series on water quality and its impact on paper. Here she discusses the tests and analysis she undertook during her internship, explaining the chemistry and her results in an easy to digest way.

In this week’s blog, I will be discussing the water tests and analysis I have undertaken.

When doing this kind of research, it’s important to have real-life evidence to support your work. To start off, I created my own at-home experiments. This was my supervisor, Special Collections Conservator Emily Hick’s, great idea. My at-home experiments focused on the presence of chlorine and chloramine in tap water. To give you a bit of context, the chlorine content of tap water is something that concerns paper conservators. Chlorine is used to disinfect tap water to make it safe to drink, but it is also an oxidative bleach. This means that it has the potential to accelerate the degradation of paper-based objects, weakening them and making them more brittle, much like when you bleach your hair too much and it begins to snap off.

I wanted to firstly find out the chlorine content of my tap water, and also observe if the chlorine content varied drastically over the period of a month. I also wanted to compare the chlorine content to that of spring water, charcoal filtered water, and distilled water. I used WaterWorks test strips, which you dip into the water for ten seconds. The strip changes colour depending on how much chlorine is in the water. The results were quite positive. The chlorine level in the tap water and filtered water were very low, and varied slightly but not by much. The distilled and spring water had no chlorine, which made sense because they had both previously been purified.

A brown british shorthair watched as a woman dips a strip into some water in a glass measuring jug.

Testing a water sample.

A graph showing the total chlorine level in water. It never goes above 0.25

The Total Chlorine level of tap water from 26/04/21 – 21/05/21.

I also managed to analyse some on-site samples. During this most recent lockdown, most of the CRC has been closed to the public. However, a select few conservators have been allowed to go in on different days to complete essential work. Whilst on-site, the conservators have taken tap water samples for me which have been sent off for lab analysis by a company called IVARIO. Water was sampled from the CRC, St Cecilia’s Hall (SCH), and the University Collections Facility (UCF).

IVARIO’s Standard Test tests for almost everything that is of concern to paper conservators: metals, pH, conductivity, and more. As everyone knows, Scottish tap water is great, and so unsurprisingly the results came back very positive. All of the metals were under the maximum value recommended by Scottish Water; the pH was very close to neutral; and the water was deemed to be quite soft. There were slight variations, with the CRC and SCH samples differing from the University collections facility samples. This could be because the UCF falls under a different water supply area. Overall, the water at all sites performed very well.

A table measuring Copper, Lead, Iron, PH, Electrical conductivity, Calcium, Magnesium and water hardness in different water samples.

A comparison of the on-site water samples to standards set by Scottish Water.

In my next blog, I will be looking into the opinions and practices of paper conservators from all around the world.

Water Quality Part 1 – Introduction

Posted on August 16, 2021 by conservation

Today we have the first instalment of a four-part series from our remote intern Mhairi Boyle. In her first instalment, Mhairi shares with us the importance of water and its inextricable link to paper. She eases us into the topic of different purity levels of water and comments on what it has been like interning from home during the pandemic.

My name is Mhairi, and I have spent six weeks in April and May virtually interning with the Centre for Research Collections (CRC) in the Conservation department. I graduated from the University of Melbourne with an MA in Cultural Materials Conservation in 2018, after which I worked on a freelance basis in Australia until returning to Scotland in late 2019. This internship has been a great opportunity for me to get back into conservation on this side of world, after a long pandemic-enforced break. This will be a four-part blog series, detailing my experiences and investigations as a virtual research intern.

I was first introduced to the concept of the ‘Five Minute Shower’ when I moved to Australia a few years ago. Concerned about the depleting sources of water due to many droughts and the impact of global warming, the Australian Government campaigned for the nation to hop in and hop out of the shower in a five-minute extravaganza instead of indulging in a lavish and lengthy bathing ritual. Indeed, water is a finite natural source, as well as being one of the main proponents used in paper conservation treatments.

People are often surprised to hear that water goes hand in hand with paper in the world of paper conservation. When you drop your book in the bath at home, it alters the fibres of the paper. Most often, after panicking and trying to dry it with a hairdryer, your book becomes distorted and wrinkly. However, when used in a controlled manner, water can be highly beneficial to paper! Water can be used to wash and flatten objects, and it is also used when making various adhesives used to repair tears and more.

The bottom edge of a book showing crinkled pages from being dropped in water and drying.

My most recent bath tragedy.

You might remember the Bobble Bottle, or the Brita Water Filter craze. People started to question the water they were drinking, and how to best purify it. Activated charcoal filters have certainly had their moment in the spotlight. This topic is also discussed in paper conservation. Water can remove degradation products from paper fibres, but this means that it can also add undesirable elements to paper.

You may be wondering how a five-minute-shower, Bobble filters, and paper conservation are all connected. Here comes the tricky part: many water purification systems used in conservation use a lot of energy, and a lot of water. Tap water is the most cost-effective and sustainable option, but is it viable for conservation treatments? What about all of its unknown variables? My internship project is a preliminary study which explores all of these questions and assesses the viability of tap water in conservation treatments.

My internship has been a fully remote research project. Pre-pandemic, I would have never imagined working from home as a conservator. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of conservation is practical treatment work. However, there is a lot more to it than that! I have gained a lot of valuable experience working remotely, which will be very relevant to post-pandemic work habits and routines. I have been introduced to the world of Microsoft Teams, remote all-staff meetings and seminars, and lovely coffee breaks with the conservation team, CRC volunteers and interns.

Interestingly, it has made me very aware of my own work habits. I have learned a lot about my own productivity levels, and how to plan my work around my energy levels. One of the main perils and joys of working from home has been spending time with my kitten, Taro. Sometimes, he is a very helpful assistant intern. Sometimes, he is intent on distracting me any way he can, from sitting on my keyboard to yowling the songs of his people at the highest decibel possible. It has been a time of growth and adaptability for both of us.

A brown british shorthair cat sits on a desk next to a dvd guide to paper and water for conservators.

My assistant helping me get started.

In my next blog, I will be diving into the world of water analysis and what is actually in our tap water.

How to Become More Sustainable

Posted on August 2, 2021 by conservation

The CRC Conservation Team ran two remote internships earlier this year. This blog is from Karoline Sofie Hennum, who was our intern for our Environmental Sustainability in Collections Care project between May – July. Here, Karoline Sofie talks about her internship and shares her top tips on how we collection care practitioners can all work more sustainably.

Ever since my teenage years, I have often found myself involved in political activism, in particular animal welfare and the environment. In 2015 I entered the field of conservation and collection care as I started my BA at the University of Oslo, but it was not until my first year of my MA in conservation at the same university that I truly realised how much of a problem waste produce and energy consumption is in conservation and collections care. As result of this, I swiftly decided that I wanted to become a conservator who always considers sustainability in my own practices.

In May of this year, I started an internship in Environmental Sustainability in Collections Care with the University of Edinburgh’s conservation team. This internship is one of two remote conservation internships offered this semester, so all my work is carried out from my own living room. My supervisor, preventive conservator Katharine Richardson, has taken me and her phone camera on virtual tours around their premises – it does not get much more corona-friendly than that!

The goal of my internship is to integrate environmental sustainability into existing collections care practices amongst those working with the University’s heritage collections. I will be helping the conservation team to take their first step in forming their own sustainability plans, in particular a long-term action plan to tackle issues related to sustainability, such as reducing energy consumption in environmental control. To do this, I am researching and making recommendations on how sustainability can be introduced to their everyday collections care practices. So far, I have started or completed a range of tasks:

Assessment of their material waste and energy consumption
Appraisal of their materials and equipment, as well as their suppliers, to see what can be recycled or reused, or possibly replaced with more sustainable products
Researched environmental sustainability and created a literature review and a resource list for the conservation team to use
Reviewed and added sustainability measures to their existing collections handling guidelines, as well as their Disaster Response and Recovery Plan
Currently looking into setting up a recycling scheme for their nitrile gloves waste.

For many, it can be difficult to fully get a grasp of how one can become more sustainable when working in collections care and conservation. If there is one thing I have learnt so far in my internship, it is that even the smallest changes can make a big difference in the long run. Therefore, I have put together a list of simple steps anyone caring for cultural heritage collections can take to become more sustainable:

Swap all halogen light bulbs out with LEDs. Consider installing motion sensor lights or light bulbs.
Reduce your own nitrile gloves waste. Ask yourself if you really need to wear them or if having clean hands is applicable. If a used pair has not been contaminated by dust, soil or hazardous chemicals, you should consider reusing them.
Turn off lights and electrical appliances when they are not in use or of any importance to the work you are currently doing.
Reuse materials. Cut-offs or waste material can often be reused or repurposed. The bin should always be your very last option. Your imagination is the only limit – come up with creative solutions. Make sure you share your solutions with other conservators in forums and on social media. Let us help each other!
Set up recycling points around your workplace. If you do not generate enough waste on your own to fill up for example zero waste boxes, team up with another local conservator!
Travel to work or on courier trips by public transport if you can.
Set up a sustainability working group at your workplace. Arrange monthly tea breaks or meetings where you discuss sustainability and share your experiences with one another.
Participate in sustainability discussions and join networks. Examples: Icon’s Environmental Sustainability Network, Sustainable Scotland Network and Fit for the Future.

And remember: Start small and keep yourself inspired. Small changes will eventually lead to bigger ones.

Thompson Dunlop Conservation internship at St Cecilia’s Hall 2019

Posted on January 29, 2021 by conservation

Article written by Riccardo Angeloni in 2019

One from the archives this week! In this article we’ll transport you back to July 2019 (months before Covid-19 even existed, imagine that!) and hear from Riccardo Angeloni, a Thompson Dunlop Conservation Intern at St Cecilia’s Hall….

Throughout the month of July 2019, I had the chance to work and study as an intern at St Cecilia’s Hall. I was welcomed by professional and friendly staff and spent the first few days learning about the main principles of collection care. This internship was an opportunity to put in practice a lot of theories and techniques that until then, I had only seen on paper.

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Conserving the Mackinnon Collection

Posted on November 8, 2019 by conservation

This week, Claire Hutchison describes the start of her eight-week internship working to conserve the Mackinnon collection…

I am four weeks into my internship at the CRC and absolutely loving it! I have been given the task of conserving and rehousing the Mackinnon collection. This project has been generously funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. This collection comprises of the lecture notes, learning materials and other such scribbles of Professor Donald Mackinnon, the first Chair in Celtic at the University of Edinburgh. He made quite the mark during his professional life by translating many Gaelic texts that include poetry, medieval manuscripts and religious texts. Through his work, primary sources of Gaelic language and literature could finally be shared.