Toitū Otago Settlers Museum has varied collections of artefacts and employs a conservator to help care for them.
Collections can be conserved in two main ways. The first is called passive or preventative conservation. Objects can deteriorate if they are exposed to poorly controlled environments. To prevent this, collections are held in stores where the light exposure, temperature and relative humidity are controlled. This can also be seen when objects are on display in the galleries. Sensitive materials (such as archives and textiles) will be displayed in low light levels and displayed for limited periods of time.
Another hazard to collections are pests, predominately borer and clothes moth. These are controlled by a strict quarantine procedure for new acquisitions and loans coming into the Museum. The galleries and stores are also monitored using a system called IPM (Integrated Pest Management). This will pick up any unwanted visitors in the Museum before the collections are affected.
The second way is called remedial conservation, when the conservator will physically treat objects. Conservation is a blend of art and science as the conservator not only has to understand how the object was made, construction materials and historical background, but also the chemistry behind deterioration processes and how a treatment will affect an object. Conservation is not the same as restoration. Rather than trying to make an object resemble how it looked when it was first made, conservation is the stabilisation of an object, ensuring evidence of its history can still be interpreted and is not removed or hidden.
Another important part of a conservator’s job is to record all the information they find out about an object and any treatment applied. The Museum uses a collections database called Vernon and the record is supplemented with photographs. This procedure is carried out for collection items and loans in or out of the Museum.
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