Pollutants in the Museum Environment

Pollutants in the Museum Environment explores how environments affect artifacts, detailing pollutant sources, testing methods, material vulnerabilities, and preventive strategies. Essential for architects, curators, conservators, and collections specialists focused on safeguarding cultural heritage.

For centuries the world’s art and artifacts have been brought into museums and collections in an attempt to preserve them and the cultural history they represent. Yet it has become apparent only with the benefit of hindsight and, increasingly, with today’s technological advances, that the environment designed to protect can also be putting these precious and vulnerable objects at risk. The environment in which artifacts are housed continually acts on them: it can alter them chemically, accelerate the aging process or provide the benign climate that minimizes the potential for damage; it can make the difference between destruction and preservation. Preventive conservation has therefore become a primary focus in the care of collections today, and in Pollutants in the Museum Environment, Pamela Hatchfield (of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston) provides a rich resource of information on the subject. The sources of pollutants, methods of testing for them and their potential to damage materials exposed to them are all examined, as are a range of construction materials used in the museum environment, from wood products to plastics. In addition, strategies for preventing or limiting damage such as the choice of stable materials, the protection of objects in enclosures, and the mitigation of pollutants, are laid out in detail. Pollutants in the Museum Environment is an invaluable and practical guide for all those who have to deal with the challenge of preventive conservation – from architects and designers to curators, conservators and collections care specialists – and points the way towards the provision of a properly safe haven for the art and artifacts placed in our care.

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Sources of pollutants in the museum environment

Damage to materials

Testing for pollutants

Mitigation of pollutants in the museum environment

Using materials in the museum environment

Protecting objects in enclosures

Appendix 1: Commonly used units of measurement for airbone polluants

Appendix 2: Plastics: technical information

Appendix 3: Product stability

Appendix 4: Materials and sources

Appendix 5: Material Safety Data Sheets

References

Index

• By (author) Pamela B. Hatchfield

"...Alles in allem...[hatte] ich im unterricht mit tsudenten bis jetzt immer ein handbuch zum thema luftschadstoffe in innenraumen aus der sicht der museen vermisst, so wird der vorliegende band diese manko beheben..." RESTAURO 4 (June 2003) "Even for readers who will never be concerned about air pollutants and their effects on collections, the discussions on everything from floor coverings to ceilings is useful...it would be wrong to assume that this book is just a compilation of the literature-as successful as it is in that regard, it is not the whole story. Hatchfield has strong opinions about the dynamic nature of various phenomena, and the literature has permitted her to solidify them." Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 42 (2003) 485-488 "Insgesamt betrachtet stellt das Buch also eine sehr nutzliche, detaillierte Materialsammlung zur Schadstoffpravention im Museum dar, die es in deutscher Sprache in dieser Form nicht gibt." Papier Restaurierung 7(2) (2006) 8-10 "The book covers much more than pollutants. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the appropriate use of construction products in museums and archives...the appendices are very helpful, providing invaluable information, most especially: technical data on plastics and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)." Journal of the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property 28 (2003)
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...Alles in allem...[hatte] ich im unterricht mit tsudenten bis jetzt immer ein handbuch zum thema luftschadstoffe in innenraumen aus der sicht der museen vermisst, so wird der vorliegende band diese manko beheben...

—

Even for readers who will never be concerned about air pollutants and their effects on collections, the discussions on everything from floor coverings to ceilings is useful...it would be wrong to assume that this book is just a compilation of the literature-as successful as it is in that regard, it is not the whole story. Hatchfield has strong opinions about the dynamic nature of various phenomena, and the literature has permitted her to solidify them.

—

The book covers much more than pollutants. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the appropriate use of construction products in museums and archives...the appendices are very helpful, providing invaluable information, most especially: technical data on plastics and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS).

—

Insgesamt betrachtet stellt das Buch also eine sehr nützliche, detaillierte Materialsammlung zur Schadstoffprävention im Museum dar, die es in deutscher Sprache in dieser Form nicht gibt.

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