1st Edition

Preventive Conservation in Museums

Edited By Chris Caple Copyright 2012
    624 Pages
    by Routledge

    624 Pages
    by Routledge

    Preventive Conservation in Museums makes available and comprehensible the diverse literature and ideas of preventive conservation to an audience with a limited scientific background, principally those studying museum studies or engaged in the museum profession. It bridges the gap between the basic museum generated literature and technical and detailed conservation literature.

    The area of preventative conservation has developed greatly in recent years and has adopted a far more holistic approach. The development of the concepts of risk analysis, management of conservation and how preventative conservation relates to the importance of traditional beliefs and approaches to artefacts have all made an impact on the subject in recent years along with the advance of instrumentation over the last thirty years. The next generation of ideas that will affect preventive conservation practice are just starting to emerge, including: detailed modelling of the environments of buildings and the sustainability of the artefactual and building heritage.

    Preventive Conservation in Museums highlights the wide variety of threats, develops the concept of an holistic appreciation of these threats, and too appreciates the need to prioritise the appropriate forms of response. It uses a careful balance of sources, some technical, some theoretical, some practical as well as case studies to explore threats and their mitigation. For all those people involved in preventive conservation, be they students or professionals, this volume will be an invaluable summary of the past, present and future of the discipline.

     

    Part I: Holistic Approach to Preventive Conservation  Part II: Agents of Deterioration  II.1 Physical forces (handling, moving) and Security  II.2 Fire & Water (disaster)  II.3 Pests  II.4 Contaminants (gasses, dust)  II.5 Radiation (light)  II.6 Temperature & Relative Humidity  Part III: Managing Preventive Conservation  III.1 Environmental Management  III.2 Ethical Considerations  III.3 All Together Now  III.4 Preventive Conservation: The Future 

    Biography

    Christopher Caple is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University.