20317 aiccm newsletter #100

National Newsletter

contents

Australian Institute of the Conservation of Cultural Material (Inc.) ISSN 0727-0364

No.100 August 2006

President’s ReportTamara Lavrencic

contents

President’s Report 1

From the Editorial Committee 2

Letters to The Editor 2

Feature Article…77 Degrees South 3

Obituary 6

Special Interest Groups 7

Web Doc 8

People and Projects 9

Reports 16

Reviews 19

Technical Note 22

Change is in the air! The positions of Vice President and Treasurer on National Councilwere vacated due to an impending birth (Anne Carter) and works commitments (KimBrunoro). The positions have been filled by Helen Privett as Treasurer and Detlev Lueth asVice President. Kay Söderlund will stand in as Chair of the Education StandingCommittee, a role traditionally held by the Vice President. Many thanks to Ann and Kimfor their commitment and keen involvement in council issues, and an equally big thankyou to both Helen and Detlev for stepping into the vacancies, at such a challenging time.Congratulations Anne, from all of us, on the birth of your daughter, Claudia.

One of the reasons that this is such a challenging time for AICCM is that we need tochange our Secretariat provider, again! Our current provider, Secretariat Australia, hasindicated that the amount of time involved in dealing with membership issues is muchhigher than expected and they would need to double their fee to recoup the costs. As wecannot afford this type of increase, we are working towards a handover in September,so please bear with us, as there may be teething problems with a new provider.

Finally, an appeal for change, especially to those members who undertake preservationneeds assessments or preservation surveys for community organisations as part of theNational Library of Australia’s Community Heritage Grant (CHG) Program. Please includea list of prioritised recommendations in your report for these organisations. This listprovides the “evidence” for future grant applications. Without prioritisedrecommendations, the organisation is less likely to be successful in applying for follow-upgrants to implement recommendations. I ask this as one of the assessors for the CHGprogram. Over the past 8 years I’ve been impressed by the overall improvement in thequality of reports provided by conservators under this program. However I’m still comingacross the occasional few that make a large number of recommendations, but withoutprioritising them. A list of priorities helps the organisation focus on the most urgent issueswhen applying for further funding.

This issue of the AICCM Newsletter is amilestone for the AICCM in that it is the100th edition! Here we are, so many yearsdown the track from the first edition in19??. I t also marks the 19th editionproduced by the Victorian-based EditorialCommittee, membership of which haschanged over the years since early 2002.We’d like to acknowledge the people who have been involved on the Committee: Katy Glen, Helen Privett, Pip Morrison,Penny Nolton, Alex Ellem and Jude Fraser.We have also had support from the Publications committee of NationalCouncil: Alice Cannon, Karina Palmer andMarcelle Scott.

Our feature is a report from our intrepidcolleagues who have wintered in theAntarctic at Scott Base, 77 degrees South.Sarah Clayton, Nicola Dunn and Ainslie Greiner have been working onobjects from Shackleton’s hut at Cape Royds.They give us a lesson in history andgeography and enlighten us to thechallenges of working in a difficultenvironment where initial planning is the keyto ensuring materials and equipment areavailable for the tasks ahead.

Our own Helen Privett has provided areport on her participation in the MetalsConservation Summer Insti tute at theHiggins Armoury Museum in May this year.Nicole Rowney and Lisa Stoddart attendedthe recent IPC conference in Edinburgh andreviews the conference highlights. BernardKer tesz keeps us up to date with theactivities of DISACT, the Disasters ACTNetwork, and has also submitted atechnical note on microfibre cloths. MeganPhillips provides a review of the recentCanberra workshop on the selection ofdisplay and storage materials, presentedby Jean Tetreault from CCI. Pam Dawson, arecent conservation graduate from LincolnUniversity in the UK, reports on her workplacement at CCMC at The UniversityMelbourne.

Our president, Tamara Lavrencic alerts us to changes on National Council and to impending Secretariat changes.Publications Officer, Alice Cannon answerssome questions about the AICCM web site.Members continue to use the Newsletter as a forum to raise issues of concern tothem. Our regular columns: People andProjects, SIG News and the Calendar arealso included.

Enjoy this 100th edition of the AICCMNational Newsletter. The Committee relieson submissions from members to make theNewsletter a valuable resource for allmembers and we’d like to thank everyonewho has contributed over the years to all

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AICCM National Newsletter No 100 August 2006

from the editorial committee Letters to the EditorDear Editor,I was disappointed with the recent decision to postpone theproduction of the AICCM Newsletter in electronic form. As Iunderstand it, National Council made the decision after complaintsand comments from AICCM members who wished to continuereceiving the Newsletter in hard-copy.If the Newsletter could be produced electronically (as adownloadable PDF file, for example) then huge savings could bemade. One of the most repetitive criticisms by AICCM members isthat they feel they don’t get value for their membership money. Ifpeople would agree to accept the Newsletter electronically, thecost of currently printing and posting out the Newsletter could beredirected into other AICCM activities (such as supporting theSIGs). The Newsletter could also be made to look more interesting,with colour photos and hyperlinks among many possibilities.Those people who insist that they need a hard copy of theNewsletter can surely print one off from the PDF version. There mustbe very few members who would not have access at least to acomputer, if not a printer.I would like to see the proposal for an electronic Newsletter putback on the agenda, and see it supported by AICCM members.Yours sincerely,Prue McKayNational Archives of Australia

Dear Editor,I have a fundamental dilemma every time I receive a public enquirywhich requires me to refer the enquirer to a conservator in privatepractice. As an employee of the Commonwealth, I’m guided by aproscribed set of values and code of conduct so my response is torefer enquirers impartially and without favour to the market place ofservice providers. The obvious place to refer them to would appearto be the AICCM’s list of AICCM Members in private practice.Consequently I applaud the AICCM’s inclusion of the Guidelinesfor Commissioning Conservation Treatment on the FindingConservators page. This document is thoughtfully placed above thelisting of conservators so that, hopefully, the prospective consumerwill be forewarned and forearmed. The listing of private conservators does however pose a problemfor me. Listed there are an interesting grab-bag of serviceproviders. Some are what I would consider bona fide privatesector providers; full time businesses with premises, security,insurance and satisfying industrial safety requirements. Othershowever would appear to be part-time, back-room operationswhere some of the conservators have not even taken the trouble todivorce their contact details from their full-time public serviceemployment. Apart from those ethical issues involved inmoonlighting via an employer’s contact structures, there are thosewhere a perceived endorsement can be seen to flow byassociation with a reputable public sector employer.I am therefore placed in the exceedingly uncomfortable position ofreferring the public to what I consider a somewhat flawed listing.Am I the only one who experiences this dilemma?Bernard KerteszAustralian War Memorial

77 Degrees South: The Conservation of Objects fromCape Royds Hut, AntarcticaSarah Clayton, Nicola Dunn, Ainslie GreinerAntarctic Heritage Trust

On 3rd February 2006 threeconservators; Sarah Claytonand Ainslie Greiner from theAustralian War Memorial,Canberra, and Nicola Dunnfrom the Museum of London,flew from Christchurch, NewZealand by C17 US militaryplane to Scott Base located at77 degrees South, RossIsland, Antarctica. This wasthe beginning of an excitingseven-month experience,working for the AntarcticHeritage Trust (NewZealand). InternationalConservation Services (ICS) Sydney, Australia contractedthe team for the 2006 winter season.

The base is operated by Antarctica New Zealand, aGovernment organization whose primary function is stagingand supporting scientific field events during the summerseason from October through to February. During thesummer there are up to 80 people on the base, and manymore living and working out in the field. However, overwinter the base is manned by a skeleton-staff that keeps thebuildings running and prepares for the following season’sscience events. During winter 2006 there were 14 peopleon base, 11 from Antarctica New Zealand and the threeconservators.

The Antarctic Heritage Trust (AHT) is delivering a project tosave the expedition bases left by Antarctica’s first explorers.It is a world first for heritage conservation in polar climates.AHT has converted, equipped and shipped two freightcontainers to Scott Base for use as conservationlaboratories. The laboratories will be used over the summermonths when space on the base is at a premium. Thelaboratories are self-sufficient and have solar panels anddiesel generators for electricity and heating. They havebeen supported on skids so that they can be transported to

the hut sites to enableconservation work to beconducted in the field.

As the base is relativelyempty during the winterperiod we were able tobring in materials andequipment from thelaboratories and set up atemporary laboratory in thescientific event stagingspace in the Hillary FieldCentre (HFC). The HFC wasconstructed in 2005 and isconnected to the rest of the

base by link-way corridors. The centre houses all of the fieldgear and food for science events as well as food suppliesfor the base, which arrives by ship once a year.

Located on Ross Island are a number of historic hut sites fromwhat is known as the Heroic Era of polar exploration,dating from the early part of the 20th Century. These includeShackleton’s hut at Cape Royds, constructed for the 1907Nimrod Expedition; and two of Scott’s, the Discovery Hut atHut Point (1901) and the Terra Nova Expedition Hut atCape Evans (1911)). Connected to continental Antarcticaby the Ross Ice Shelf, Ross Island provides one of the mostsoutherly points accessible by boat, and was consequentlyused by the explorers as a suitable starting point for attemptsto reach the South Pole.

The aim of the AHT project for the 2006 winter season wasto conserve relics from Shackleton’s Cape Royds hut thatwere transported to Scott Base during the 2005-2006summer. Summer transport of the relics to the base wasnecessary as it is not possible to access the hut during thewinter months. The relics were packed in plastic crates andtransported over the sea ice in a Hagglund all-terraintracked vehicle and have been stored outside within twoshipping containers at Scott Base. The objects that were


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The team outside one of the summer laboratories

conserved during the winter were returned to storage andwill go back the Cape Royds hut site during the 2006-2007summer season.

Essentially the project for the 2006 winter season wasdivided into two parts; objects from inside the hut and thosefrom outside. Our brief was to start by conserving the itemsfrom inside then, if time allowed, start on those from outside.

The objects removed for treatment from inside the hut havebeen prioritised as those that were actively deterioratingand were at high risk of structural breakdown. Although thisincluded about 100 domestic objects including ski boots,sledging harness, clothing and kitchen utensils, the majorityof the work was on approximately 500 cans of food. Wecompleted the conservation of this group of artefacts in earlyAugust and began on the second stage of the project.

Over the 2005-2006-summer season a cache of storesfrom the exterior of the south and east walls of the CapeRoyds hut were excavated to enable structural work to beundertaken. Around 3000 individual items were removed,most of which were tins or jars of food in plywood cases.When approaching the treatment of each of these objects,a decision had to be made on whether to return them to theoutside or place them in the hut. Prior to access controlsbeing imposed on visiting the huts, people wantingsouvenirs had simply taken objects, depleting and thinningout the stores in the hut. Therefore, artefacts from outside thatwere in a good condition were conserved and will be re-located inside the hut filling in gaps on the shelves. This willalso extend the life of the objects by improving theirenvironmental conditions.

However, a large proportion of the tins were in a poorcondition, punctured, leaking, structurally unstable and theirpaper labels were either missing or illegible so their contentscould not be identified. These cans had their contentsremoved and were stabilised as far as possible. At presentthere are no conservation methods available that will protectobjects for long sustained periods in the harsh outdoorAntarctic environment. A particular problem is that those onthe outside of a group will be aggressively abraded bywind-blown gravel and snow and so, to some extent, mustbe seen as sacrificial at the current time. This part of theproject is ongoing and will be continued by a team ofsummer conservators.


77 Degrees South: The Conservation of Objects…4

Nicola and Ainslie working on enamel ware

A can of Stewed Rump Steaks: Before treatment and Aftertreatment

The project threw up a wide range of conservation issuesthat need to be addressed on a long-term basis. Probablythe most challenging of these is the environment in which theartefacts are housed. All the huts, including Cape Royds,suffer from high humidity problems during the summermonths in contrast to low humidity during the winter. This isprimarily due to water in the form of snow drifting into thehuts through small holes in their structure during winterblizzards. In the summer the external temperature then risesabove freezing thawing the accumulated snow and ice andraising the relative humidity to over 90%. The effect of thehigh humidity is to cause corrosion on metals and moldgrowth on organic materials. Corrosion is furtherexacerbated by high levels of salt in the local environment,precipitated out of freezing seawater then distributed by thewind, giving rocks a white and slightly snowy appearance.

The project raised some unique challenges and problems,not least of which was that, being in Antarctica, we werephysically cut off from the world for six months with no flightsor ships in over winter. This meant that before heading southwe needed to be as organised and prepared as possible.Inevitably as we worked through the objects we found thatwe didn’t have some materials and equipment that weneeded, but by being adaptable we were still able tocomplete the work program.

We found that a number of the cans were leaking orpunctured which causes both environmental andconservation concerns, not least because at the hut site theyare a biological hazard to the environment and to visitors.From a conservation angle, the cans leak onto and affectother objects, and if breached then it is likely that they areactively corroding on the inner surfaces and need to betreated. All leaking cans were therefore opened and theircontents removed, a sample of each food type being keptand frozen for future reference.

However, an interesting challenge arose in how to actuallyopen the cans. Unlike modern cans, the Heroic Era tins donot have the horizontal lip at the top onto which modern canopeners clamp. Also, the surfaces of the historic cans wereeither painted or lacquered and would be scratched anddamaged even if we were able to use a modern canopener. After many experiments and help from the engineersat Scott Base we decided the best method available was toopen the cans using an electric Dremel hand tool with a thincutting disk. The opening was made in the base of the canby cutting three sides of a square then carefully prising theflap open. The hole was made as large as possible to makeremoving the contents and cleaning the inside of the can easier.

Once we had overcome the initial revoltion of dealing withdecaying food, we all became fascinated by the contentsof the cans. It was interesting to see what the food actuallylooked like and how it had survived or deteriorated. The Mutton Cutlets were of particular interest. Those inreasonable condition were composed of pink meat, fat andbones. However, we were disturbed to open one can onlyto find the whole contents had rotted completely, turning intoa liquid the consistency of gravy and even the bones haddisappeared - where did they go? Another favourite was acan of Tripe and Onions in which the tripe looked more likea tongue with a bright blue stripe down the centre.

The conservation of Cape Royds and the other historic hutsis an on-going project. Sarah and Ainslie left Antarctica inAugust with Nicola staying on until October. Our placeshave been taken by two conservators who will work throughthe summer period. At present Antarctic Heritage Trust hasproject funding for two more years of object conservation atCape Royds and it is hoping to secure funding to employconservators based at Scott Base for the next six years, andto move on to the other huts on Ross Island. The Trust’sproject has caught the attention of the wider world. TheNatural History Museum in the UK have been following theproject and our work online.

We have all enjoyed the experience of wintering over inAntarctica, working on this very special collection. Wewhole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who thinks theyare sane enough to do it!

Relevant websites:Antarctic Heritage Trust: www.heritage-antarctica.orgNatural History Museum: www.nhm.ac.ukConservator job inquiries: www.icssydney.com.au


577 Degrees South: The Conservation of Objects…

Removing the contents from a can of curried rabbit

Obituary Wendy Smith – an outstanding contribution to Australian library preservation

We were greatly saddened tohear of the death of one ofAustralia’s leading shapers oflibrary preservation, WendySmith, in Western Australia inearly August 2006.

Wendy commenced work in theConservation Section of theNational Library of Australia in1985, having graduated with aMaster’s degree from theCanberra College of AdvancedEducation’s Conservation ofCultural Materials course. Fromthat time on, Wendy made alengthy and profound contributionto the development of librarypreservation in Australia, as apreservation manager, teacherand writer.

Wendy played a key role inimplementing what was then a new approach to libraryconservation in this country, adapting the ideas of‘preservation’ emerging particularly in American librarycircles and applying them to Australian conditions. Thismeant a new emphasis on collection management ratherthan a narrow focus on treatment of individual objects; itmeant the development of library-wide policy rather than justtreatment specifications; it meant enlisting the enthusiasmand care of staff throughout the library in looking aftercollections rather than looking to a small army of elite, white-coated specialists behind locked doors to do it all; it meantidentifying priorities for a range of different approaches,based on a recognition that library collections requiredaction if they were to serve their intended purpose.

Wendy contributed to the development of this newapproach which was being fostered by Ian Cook and JanLyall in the National Library of Australia. In order to betterunderstand librarians’ needs and priorities, Wendyundertook further studies, and gained a Graduate Diplomain Librarianship. Wendy became a tireless practitioner andadvocate in her role as a manager in the Library, and in hersubsequent roles as a conservation educator, consultant,writer and presenter.

Those roles took Wendy to some interesting places,reflecting both her quiet but determined drive, and the

respect which her knowledge andexperience justly earned.

In the early 1990s, Wendypursued a new career inpreservation education, leavingthe National Library to take up anappointment as lecturer in paperconservation and library andarchives preservation at theUniversity of Canberra. Prior tothis, Wendy had mapped out acomprehensive training course inlibrary preservation, with specialfunding from the InternationalFederation of Library Associations(IFLA) – a course which reallycame to life with the possibility ofonline delivery through the WorldWide Web. (In 1997, Wendyworked with the University ofNew South Wales to adapt herIFLA-funded course into a new

Preservation Administration course delivered through theUniversity’s School of Information, Library and ArchiveStudies – sadly now just part of Australia’s library andarchive education history.)

Wendy also had a special interest in the problems ofpreserving library and archive materials in countries in theAsia and Pacific region. Wendy’s interest and skills as ateacher took her to the Pacific and a number of South EastAsian countries in the mid-1990s and beyond, to presentlibrary preservation workshops.

Ever open-minded to change, Wendy returned to theNational Library in 1996 to lead the early establishment ofan experimental Web archiving program, which would laterbecome the PANDORA archive of Australian onlinepublications – one of the NLA’s great achievements inaddressing the challenge of digital information content.Working with staff from IT, collecting, cataloguing,preservation and management areas of the Library, Wendyoversaw the development of business process models thathave guided the development of the archive over thesucceeding decade.

Wendy Smith left the National Library – for the second andlast time – in the late 1990s. However, she remained animportant influence in library preservation, working as a


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consultant to the Community Heritage Grants scheme (whichprovides funding to help preserve nationally significantcollections in the care of small community organisations);preparing widely-used and cited information resources suchas glossaries; writing papers on subjects ranging frompreservation of newspapers to the inadequacies of Webarchiving programs in capturing a full record of informationfrom the Australian wine industry.

In her retirement, Wendy continued her interest in thespecial problems of preservation in the Asia Pacific region,now working as a volunteer. She spent two months at theNational Library of Laos, and a month at the Jose RizalMuseum of the University of the Southern Philippines, as wellas giving training courses in Samoa and the Cook Islands.In the first years of the new millennium she enrolled as adoctoral candidate in the preservation of electronicinformation at Charles Sturt University under Ross Harvey.Wendy was nearing the completion of her PhD when shewas diagnosed with kidney cancer just before Christmaslast year.

Wendy and her husband Mike moved to Western Australiashortly before Wendy’s death so they could be near othermembers of their family. Wendy’s battle with cancer wasconducted with much of the quiet resoluteness – and goodhumour - that she brought to her professional life, and manyformer colleagues were surprised to learn that she had beenso seriously ill, and shocked at her passing.


7Obituary

Special Interest GroupCo-ordinatorsAntarctic HeritageJanet HughesPh: 02 6273 [email protected] and PaperPrue McKayPh: 02 6212 [email protected] Picture FramersJune AndersonPh: 02 9564 5576Fax: 02 9564 [email protected] ScienceDeborah LauPh: 03 9252 6403Fax: 03 9252 [email protected] O’[email protected] Objects ConservationHolly McGowan-JacksonPh: 03 8620 [email protected] PagliarinoPh: 07 3842 9296Fax: 07 3844 [email protected] OsmondPh: 07 3840 [email protected] LuethPh: 03 9881 [email protected] ConservationSarah SladePh: 03 8664 [email protected] PhillipsPh: 08 8207 [email protected]

The Education Special Interest Group will be holding aplanning meeting on Saturday 21st October from 8:30amuntil 12:00 midday at the Research & Discovery Room,Level 2, The Australian Museum, College Street, Sydney.This meeting follows the AICCM Conference and AGM onthe 20th October. The meeting will address:1. The revised Aim and Terms of Reference for the EducationSpecial Interest Group.2. Focus Areas and Activity planning3. EDSIG Forum to coincide with the AICCM Conference inBrisbane 2007.Contact the Co-ordinator, Julie O'Connor for furtherinformation.

Education SIG

Did you know? Using the AICCM websitewww.aiccm.org.au

Alice Cannon, Publications Officer

AICCM members can update their contact details online.

• Log on to the AICCM website by entering your logonname and password.

• Click on the My Profile link at the top of the main page.• Click on the card-file-like tab heading labelled Details.• Change your address and other contact details as

required – you can also change your specialisationcategories and elect to join SIGs on this page.

• If you wish to be included in the list of privateconservators, make sure you have filled in theappropriate contact details under the heading of PostalAddress.

• The details you enter under Postal Address are whereyour newsletter etc will be sent. The details you enterunder Street Address are the details that will appear inthe Membership Directory.

• Remember to click on the Save Changes button thatappears at the top of the page.

AICCM members can print off tax invoices formembership fees.

• Log on to the website and click on the My Profile link asbefore, but instead select the Summary tab heading.

• By scrolling down the page you can see whatmembership fees you have paid and print invoices forthese transactions – useful for tax returns!

AICCM members can access and send professionalmessages through their online inbox.

• Log onto the website and click on the My Profile link asbefore.

• Select the Inbox heading that appears above the card-file tabs. This will open the General Messages folder ofyour inbox, where you can see all the emails theSecretariat has sent out recently.

• On the left will appear a list of all the SIGs andcommittees to which you belong. If you click on theseheadings, you will be able to view all messages sent byother people who belong to that group – so, forexample, if you are a member of the Objects SIG andclick on this heading, you will see all the messages sentby members of the Objects SIG using the online system.

• You can send emails to all members of the groups towhich you belong. Select the group heading you wish

to contact and then click on the New Message buttonthat appears at the upper right of the screen.

• Give the message a title and then type and format yourmessage. You can choose to address people by nameby typing “Dear” (or “Yo”, if you prefer) and then clickingon First Name – when your email is sent the system willautomatically insert the recipient’s name into this space.

• When you have finished, click on the button labelledSelect Recipients and Send, located at the top right,above the message field. You will have the opportunityto select certain members of the group to which youbelong, or to simply send your message to everyone inthat group

• One drawback of the online messaging system is thatyou don’t seem to be able to delete messages. To clearyour inbox, select all the messages you wish to removeand click on the Archive button. You can then accessthese messages (if you need to) by clicking on theArchive folder on the left-hand side of the screen.

Please use the online email facility wisely – it should belimited to messages of a professional nature only. Pleasedo not use this resource for commercial, political orfundraising purposes.

AICCM members can participate in the online forum.• Log on to My Profile as before and click on the Forum

link above the card-file tabs.• The main forum page will appear, with a list of current

discussion threads. Click on a heading to view the postsfor a particular topic. This area of the site is quite new,so there aren’t a lot of discussion threads going yet.

• You can follow the links to either start a new discussionunder an existing topic heading, or to reply to amessage that has already been posted.

Next IssueContributions gratefully accepted for the December issue ofthe Newsletter: news; reviews of conferences, workshops,books; reports, technical notes etc. Please contact JudeFraser <[email protected]> prior to the deadline of1st November if you wish to submit and article.


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People and Projects

ACT

Australian War MemorialThe Large Technology staff are preparing the bridge, gundirector and sundry other pieces of the destroyer HMASBrisbane for outdoor display at the back of the Memorialbuilding. These components were cut off the ship before shewas scuttled last year, and now have to be stabilised andremounted on a specially built base that will also holdexhibition material relevant to the ship. This is proving a verychallenging project, involving not only conservation work onthe items themselves, but also liaison with the designers andmechanical services engineers to work out how best tointegrate environmental control, fire suppression servicesand multimedia displays into a very cramped originalspace. Added to this is the challenge of providing a safeway to maintain objects up to 10 metres in the air. John Kemister is leading this project, with David Gordon,Andrew Pearce, Lee Davies and George Bailey assistinghim. George is also co-ordinating the treatment andreinstallation of the many pieces of equipment from a ship'sbridge with the help of Megan Phillips and Daniel Wardrop.Andrew Pearce has recently completed the preparation of a1916 German artillery piece with help from Laura Kennedy. David Keany and Alison Wain performedsome careful paint analysis on it. It was repainted to returnit to its battlefield colour scheme. This left it looking tooclean, so Julie Whittlam and Anthony Whittlam came inand skilfully simulated dirt and blasted metal with their paintbrushes for us. This has proved so successful that ourDirector now wants to see all the large objects looking wornand dirty!Jamie Croker has completed work on the Iroquoishelicopter for the Post 1945 exhibitions, and is preparing aGS Land Rover for display at the Vietnam Veterans’ Day.Andrew Schroeder is in the final stages of preparing anarmoured personnel carrier, also for Post 1945.Alison Wain has also been organising laser workshops tobe held later this year. Laura Kennedy has been revising theMemorial's Disaster Plan in preparation for our Intranet, butdon't worry - we will keep some hardcopies around in casethe network gets crunched by a disaster. The Memorial also has a new Preventive Conservation Assistant,Mark Stafrace who brings a whirlwind of enthusiasm to the job.In the Paintings lab, Sharon Alcock and Ilaria Poli havebeen installing backing boards on 300 paintings over the

last year and doing some minor treatments to them.The Textile lab has seen major changes this quarter. Cathy Challenor, after many years as Senior Conservator,has been lured away for 12 months to undertake a projectinvolving in-depth cataloguing of the textile collection, andloves every minute of it. Sarah Clayton is still snowed in inthe Antarctic. If you want to see what antics she and themerry crew have been up to, see:www.nhm.ac.uk/antarctica-blog. Bridie Kirkpatrick iscurrently standing in for Cathy as lab head. Sadly we saidgoodbye to Anne D'arx, our textile technician who hasmoved to Queensland. We welcome Judith Andrewarthaon a temporary transfer from the National Museum ofAustralia and Jessie Firth, currently on break fromconservation studies at The University of Melbourne. Judeand Jessie are undertaking treatments on Pre-WWI soft hatsand attempting to make a dent in a mammoth survey list oftextiles and objects for the refit of the Post ‘45 Galleries dueto be opened in 2007.

Endangered Heritage Pty LtdEndangered Heritage Pty Ltd (née Textiles) has expanded.We have a full-time objects conservator, Ursula Sattler,who has been working on site with the National Museumresearching, analysing and conserving the 6” Grubbrefractor telescope. This project will finish shortly and shewill return to the lab to carry out a range of treatments,notably on an extensive private collection of PNG carvingsand baskets. Victoria Gill has been working on a set ofhorsehair upholstery from late 19thC with Greg Peters fromPatinations. This includes new seats for a First World Warfield gun and the canvas work cross stitch of a ship’s chair.We have a new retail manager based in our secondpremises and we have been busy with a new web site:<www.endangeredheritage.com>

National Archives of Australia – NationalOfficeThe NAA Conservation Lab now has the pleasure of havingtwo Conservation Chemists on staff – Rajani Rai hasreturned part-time from maternity leave, and is job-sharingwith Alana Lee. Alana is continuing her ARC Grantresearch at the University of Canberra while working part-time at the NAA. Ellie McFadyen is acting as ExhibitionsConservator for the next several months, while KarenHolloway is on maternity leave. Cheryl Jackson is filling infor Ellie as our Preventive Conservator. Lab assistants Clair Murray and Jess Wignell, have been matting and


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framing many collection items for the re-hang in the maingallery space in the NAA’s public building at Parkes. Somefantastic original designs for wartime propaganda posterswill be on display, along with some of the more unusualitems to be found in the Archives’ collection.Sally Kneebone and Jess have been working on a group oflarge 19th century ledger books that were found to have aflaky brown/black residue in the gutters of almost everypage. FTIR analysis found that this was tobacco! We canonly surmise that the tobacco was either deliberatelydeposited in the books as an insect repellent, or that theclerk in that particular office was a very heavy (and messy) smoker.Caroline Whitley continues her treatment of a large numberof folios from our Tasmanian office, containing tidal andmeteorological information recorded at Port Arthur from1837 through to the 1850s. We understand these to be theearliest continuous records of such phenomena in Australia.

NEW SOUTH WALES

Australian MuseumAustralian Museum signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding with PIMA (Pacific Islands MuseumsAssociation) at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Vanuatu in June.At this time, and, in collaboration with PIMA, a workshopentitled Building for the future: designing new museums forthe Pacific was organised and presented at the VanuatuCultural Centre for participants from six Pacific culturalinstitutions. The workshop included presentations by Vinod Daniel and Steve King on issues of museum design,architecture and conservation. It also provided anopportunity for the participants to network and exchangeideas relevant to the Pacific environment. The conservationof four Lapita pots from excavations in Vanuatu wascompleted at the end of June and the pots were shippedback to the Vanuatu Cultural Centre for display. Michael Sietz, an archaeological conservator fromGermany completed the reconstruction and packed thepots, following on from the work of Takaronga Kuautongafrom Port Vila earlier in the year.The preparations for the building of a new Zoology ScienceBuilding at the back of the Museum are well under way. Thisincludes planning for moving off-site all objects too large tofit through the new access that will be created to our PacificAnthropology store, such as large canoes and a 16 m widebarkcloth. It also requires the installation of a vibrationmonitoring and mitigation program for sensitive collections.Sarah McHugh is organising these two projects withassistance from Susanna Collis. The building work will havea major impact on the Conservation Laboratory, as thewindows will be bricked up, a back wall demolished andtwo new doors cut at the front and back of the Unit. This willcause major disruption of the Unit’s functions from October

until March 2007 and will necessitate work on projects inother locations including storage areas. Susie has also beenworking on the re-housing of the extensive Pacific matcollection in preparation for installation in new custom-madestorage units, and creating an inventory of the Museum’scurrent disaster-response supplies in readiness for any minordisasters which might occur during the upcoming buildingworks in and around the Museum. Kate Jones and Tasha Brown have been preparingMalagan material from New Ireland for loan to threeinternational venues. The most challenging pieces are two 4metre long carved Malagan poles that are particularlycomplex shapes to pack and prepare for display. Kate hasbeen wrestling with PadCAD software to devise a packingsystem that will provide optimum protection for the polesduring their international tour. Michael Kelly will courier thematerial on the first leg of the tour, enduring a four dayjourney on freight planes, one leg of which is called the'milk run'. The loan material will be dispatched in October,just before construction of our new building begins. Michaelhas been carrying out the return of material that wasdisplayed in the Life Beyond the Tomb exhibition on tour forthe last 3 years. This exhibition was produced incollaboration with the Rijksmuseum, Netherlands andincluded artefacts from both institutions and from theNicholson Museum, Sydney University. Sue Valis hasrecently travelled to Queensland for the return of three loansfrom Gab Titui, Yarrabah and Tjapukai Cultural Centres.Michael Kelly assisted her in the de-installation of the PacificPatterns exhibition. Heather Bleechmore has commencedmaternity leave and will return to work in February next year.

ICSThe Antarctic team of Sarah Clayton, Ainslie Greiner andNicola Dunn complete their tour of duty in August - see thefeature article in this newsletter - and will be replaced byRobert Clendon and Amy Ng until February 2007. Threeconservators will then take over for the 2007 Winterseason, and Doug Rogan and Julian Bickersteth havebeen interviewing applicants from a world-wide short list.The program will continue for at least the next four years, socontact Doug Rogan if you are interested in beingconsidered ([email protected]).Archaeological collections have been keeping us occupiedin the conservation of artifacts and in-situ remains, and insite interpretation. Our major work in this area is the oldParramatta Hospital site, occupied as a hospital since1789, now being re-developed as the new ParramattaJustice precinct around some very important archaeologicalremains. Ian Trapnell, Ceri Kerkendoll and Liz Holt havebeen assessing the site and developing strategies for it andsome of the extraordinary finds there, such as a bone buttonmaking set from the convict hut remains.


People and Projects10

Nicole Rowney attended the IPC 5th International PaperConference in Edinburgh, and used the opportunity to catchup with European paper conservation colleagues.Meanwhile Marion Parker (objects), and Jessie Firth andSkye Firth (textiles) have been enthusiastic interns during thewinter recess from the Masters of Arts (Cultural MaterialsConservation) at The University of Melbourne. Skye isstaying on in the textiles department to work with Miriam Wormleaton on some large Naval Ensigns, one ofwhich is being conserved to display the shrapnel holes itreceived in battle during WWII. Felicity Turner, Emily Howard and Eleanor Sampaga havebeen busy working on a school archive collection of 1000A3 boards of ephemera including photos, invitations,newspaper clippings and playbills. Adam Godijn andAnna Diakowska-Czarnota have started work on twobeautiful altar pieces from Cowra. These were painted byan Italian POW during WWII and now require extensiveconsolidation to stabilise the paint surface.

State Library of NSWCollection Preservation would like to welcome Marika Kocsis. Marika is a recent graduate from TheUniversity of Melbourne's Masters of Arts (Cultural MaterialsConservation) by coursework and minor thesis. She hasjoined us from Melbourne where she has worked at theState Library of Victoria and the Centre for CulturalMaterials Conservation. Marika is on a one year contract,and has begun her work with us conserving sub-divisionplans for digitisation and work on the exhibition On the run:daring convict escapes.Following on from the information in the last Newsletter,Cecilia Harvey and Nichola Parshall completed treatmenton the large, unfixed pastel portrait of Rickety Dick(ca 1843-1846), in time for the Library’s in-house exhibitionEORA- Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770-1850. Once thepaper was released from the wooden plank, the central tearwas repaired and humidified. The recto edges were linedwith strips of Japanese paper that were used to reduce theseverity of the cockling by wrapping around a backboard,creating even tension. In July, Dana Kahabka and Guy Caron couriered a rarecopy of First Folio: Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories andTragedies to the Queensland Supreme Court Library. Thecopy of the first folio was on display in the Rare Books Roomduring the VIII World Shakespeare Congress. The first folio,which is widely regarded as one of the most importantbooks in the English language, was printed in 1623, sevenyears after Shakespeare's death. The State Library of NSWowns one of about 40 complete copies known to exist andthe only copy in Australia. A rare copy recently sold inLondon for $6.9 million.

State Records NSWElizabeth Hadlow has just completed the treatment of equityrecords that included parchment that had suffered waterdamage in the past leaving them shrunken, stiff and partiallyrotted where in contact with the water. The parchments werehumidified in a “Gore-Tex chamber” to allow enoughflexibility for gentle stretching and then light pressingbetween dry blotters. Conservation has been puzzled by another group ofparchment records that have shrunk to about a quarter orless of their original size – they are “welded” together intheir folded position, very brittle and yellowed. The writingis still beautifully in proportion, and where visible, can beread easily. Unfortunately we have not yet managed to un-weld or unfold them – we have tried varying solutions ofethanol and water mixtures and started humidification. Ourbest guess as to the cause of their shrunken state isprolonged contact with a stable heat source – perhapsstored next to the boiler in an old basement. If anyone hascome across this phenomenon we would be most interestedto hear about it – and even more interested if you havemanaged to return them to some form of usable state.Jill Gurney has been assessing some of the older and moresignificant collections of volumes held in the State archive,including original Tickets of Leave bindings and ConvictListings. The Tickets of Leave bindings are similar to achecque book, in that the ticket was removed leaving astub. This has resulted in significant distortion of the coverboards around the remaining text block. Jill has beencreating purpose built book shoes and boxes to try to gentlyremedy some of the distortion and prevent further damage.Frances Cumming has continued to treat the ferrogallicplans, as well as mouldy probates, divorce papers andequity records.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Artlab AustraliaHaving wished Anthony Zammit the very best for hisretirement in March, we are happy to welcome Colin Brown as our new rare book conservator. Colinbrings excellent skills and experience having run his ownstudio and taught book conservation for the last sixteenyears in Essex, UK. Getting down to work without delay hehas been treating some highly acidic 18th Century leathervolumes. The books by Thomas Gibson describe the‘silencing’ by an act of Parliament of 2,000 ministers inEngland on August 24 1662. Elizabeth Mayfield isrestoring a small photo album (c.1912) of a boy’s camp inPort Willunga, while Michael Veitch is working on acollection of acetate films for the State Library of SouthAustralia, preparing over 10,000 negatives dating from1935-1963 for cold storage.


11People and Projects

The Paper Lab has just finished its annual clean up and isreturning to its normal industrious state. Fred Francisco hasbeen conserving some important early albumenphotographs of Captain Samuel Sweet. He recently finishedtreating works of the artist George French Angas, which arenow being exhibited around South Australia. Jodie Proud isbusy removing tape from the fragments of a letter that willform part of the collection at Unley House in Adelaide. Theletter, dated 1869, was from an Adelaide father to hisdaughter urging her to study the Bible in order that she mayappreciate the beauty of the world. Charlotte Park has just finished reducing foxing on an 18th Century print ofCharles II.Eugene Taddeo has been developing a new hangingstructure for the large Brett Whitely painting The Olgassoon…. Chris Payne has revisited the painted ceiling of thesummer sitting-room at Ayers House, and he and Rita Bachmayer will be traveling to the Clare Valley toMartindale Hall to inpaint decorative wallpaper. Gillian Leahy has treated an oil painting by ClariceBeckett, which is a new acquisition of the Art Gallery ofSouth Australia, a large Fred Williams oil painting onmasonite, and two Gladys Reynell paintings for the currentexhibition. Marek Pacyna and colleagues have beentreating a dozen Clive Stoward paintings for an exhibitionof his work at the Greenhill Gallery. Clive Stoward is arecently rediscovered South Australian artist who paintedfrom the 1930s – 1960s. The objects team is now in post financial year traumarecovery. Sarah Feijen has returned from maternity leaveand is in the hot seat as Objects Manager with Anna Taddeo back on the team part-time. Now it is JoDawe’s turn for maternity leave with her baby boy, Edward.Team leader Renita Ryan has been preparing items ofAustralian modern art from the Art Gallery for travel toJapan, on loan to the Bridgestone Art Gallery. Justin Garehas thrown himself yet again into the preparations forScience Week, donning his Lord Carnarvon costume for thetale of Tutankhamen’s treasure. Sophie Parker has beenpreparing Tiwi Island objects for an exhibition for the ArtGallery and is currently treating a variety of objects for theHistory Trust.Kristin Phillips and Bee Flynn in the textiles lab have beenworking on Welsh, Greek and Chinese costumes for theMigration Museum. They have also recently completed thetreatment of a Coburn Tapestry, a new acquisition of the ArtGallery. The tapestry had been extensively insect damagedand was very soiled. The damaged areas were stabilisedand the tapestry was wet-cleaned. Stitch repairs werecarried out and a Velcro hanging device was attached.They have also been busy with the preparation for the TextileSpecial Interest Group meeting, which will be held inAdelaide in September.

Joanna Barr has recently overseen the treatment of an AkioMakigawa sculpture. After research into the originalappearance and a series of preliminary tests, an old teflon-based coating and years of accumulated grime wereremoved from the large marble elements and the finishoriginally intended by the artist was reinstated. Joanna,Sarah Babister, Rita Bachmayer, Helen Weidenhofer, Bee Flynn and Ian Page have just completed cleaning thestained glass windows in Scots Church - a tedious task withsplendid results. Joanna has also been working on aphysical assessment and conservation plan for the Talbot474 (the first car to drive overland from Adelaide to Darwin)in preparation of a centenary 'tour' in 2008. The staff of Artlab’s Business Services and Special Projectsteam has been frantic closing off the 2005/06 financialyear and preparing budgets for 2006/07. Severalimportant changes have occurred in the team in the pastmonth. We bid farewell to Chris Holtham, our CommunityServices and Education Officer and welcomed Morgan Paparella, Customer Accounts Officer and Martin Deckys, Technical Officer. Louise Stack will betaking up a new position in the team as Co-Ordinator,Marketing and Executive Support and we welcome our newreceptionist, Claire Le Duc.

State Library of South AustraliaBeth Robertson is continuing as Manager, Preservation untilMay 2007. Heather Brown has returned part time fromArtlab to develop the preservation components of a newsuite of Business Information Management courses intended,from the Library’s perspective, to train the preservationmanagers of the future. This arises from a partnershipbetween the University of South Australia, State Records SA,the State Library and Fuji Xerox to establish a Chair ofBusiness Information Management at Uni SA, which waslaunched in January this year. The Conservation team is back to full strength with theappointment of Amalia Alpareanu as our thirdConservation Officer. The advertisement for this non-professional position called for applicants withdemonstrated aptitude for tasks similar to conservationtreatments, including accurate measurement, use of crafttools and use of electrical equipment, as well as high levelmanual dexterity and the physical ability to contribute todisaster response and the installation of exhibitions. Itattracted 32 applications. Amalia is an accomplished artistwho is working towards an Information Studies Degree inVisual Arts, with Glass as her sub-major. With Amalia’senthusiasm for conservation work, this combination augursvery well for the team. Senior Conservation Officer, Peter Zajicek has been workingon a small but significant item acquired by the Library in June.It is believed to be the only surviving diary kept by writer,



preacher, reformer and feminist, Catherine Helen Spence(1825-1910). It documents the year she spent abroad in1894 meeting fellow progressives in North America andEurope and her return to Adelaide in time for the passage ofthe Female Suffrage legislation in the South AustralianParliament in December that year. The original stationer’s halfleather binding was in very poor condition, with the front coverdetached and several sections broken away from the fastbackspine. As the item had high priority for scanning, Peter decidedto take the book apart completely for that process and re-bindit afterwards. Sections were repaired with wheat starch pasteand fine Japanese tissue, consolidated and sewn backtogether in the original style. However the spine was convertedto a hollow spine in the interests of the long-term conservationof the item. As the book is A5 in size and bears little weight inthe text block, Peter decided that the hollow lining and thehinging of the endpapers would be sufficient to hold the textblock to the cover. Once these had been joined together, theremaining original leather spine had old protein glue removedand was re-adhered to the new leather spine. A final leatherdressing completed the process.Meanwhile, the State Library as a whole is gearing up forthe National Treasures from Australia’s Great Librariesexhibition that rolls into town in January 2007. Preservationstaff are focusing on the extra items being selected forsupplementary display in the Treasures Wall for the three-month duration of the main exhibition, which will be housedin the Spence Building’s Flinders Gallery.

VICTORIA

Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation,The University of MelbourneMarika Kocsis has left us to take up a position at the StateLibrary of NSW with Nick Selenitsch joining us to pick upMarika’s projects. Katy Glen is on maternity leave with hernew son, Eamonn. Caroline Kyi is also on maternity leavewith her second son, Michael. Petronella Nel has pickedup Caroline’s teaching commitments. Pam Dawson, aconservation graduate from Lincoln University, volunteeredwith CCMC for four weeks recently, working on a variety ofprojects. See Pam’s report elsewhere in this newsletter.A number of major projects have been underway overrecent months. Jocelyn Evans has co-ordinated a majorproject preparing the Groote Eylandt bark paintings fromthe University’s Leonhard Adam Collection for an exhibitionat the Ian Potter Museum of Art. She and Holly Jones-Aminsupervised the treatments of 32 barks carried out by ten staffmembers, and 6 volunteers. The latter included students:Rebecca Dallwitz, Georgia Harvey, Di Whittle, Kate Shepherdson and Karen Fisher, and Pam Dawson,all of whom ably assisted in the project. Holly oversawstructural treatments, which included repair as well asremoving previous mounting and display systems, while also

consulting on general treatment strategies. Pigmentconsolidation involved utilising 2.5 – 5% Plextol B500 indeionised water on some barks and 5% Rhoplex AC 33 indeionised water on others, pre-wetting with either ethanol oran ethanol and water mix with both consolidants. Jocelynmused that down the road, it would be interesting to surveythe collection as Nicki Smith did at the National Museum ofAustralia to compare the efficacy of the consolidationtreatments over time. For now anyway, job completed!Holly was assisted by Petronella Nel, Di Whittle and KateShephardson in treating 75 silver trophies and other sportsephemera for the Melbourne Cricket Club with prize worthyresults. She is about to depart for the IIC Munich Congress:The Object in Context: Crossing Conservation Boundariesand will present her paper, Gamelan: Can a ConservationConceived Protocol Protect it Spiritually and Physically in aMuseum?, based on the protocol she wrote in Singapore forthe Asian Civilisation Museum in 2003. She will present thetalk in Singapore as well, after taking the opportunity to visitconservation labs and teaching facilities in Europe. Cushla Hill orchestrated the treatment of the 27 panels ofthe Cavalcade of Transport mural from Spencer StreetStation, composed by Harold Freedman, State Artist ofVictoria, and the Melbourne Mural Studio. The panels werefilthy, covered with nearly thirty years of grime, pollution anddust associated with a transport hub which buckets of mildsolutions of tri-ammonium citrate, microfibre cloths andperseverance moved successfully. The panels were cleaned inthe IAS warehouse by Alexandra Ellem and conservationstudents Raye Collins, Janelle Wills and Rebecca Dallwitz,and Deeksha Bhardwaj, Pam Dawson and Kylie Symiester. Uncovered during the cleaning andconsolidation were artists’ annotations in the murals, andhidden under architectural features were test panels for paint,gilding and varnish. The process was carefully documented toprovide a guide for its re-installation. The team’s co-ordinatedefforts completed the project a week ahead of schedule.As part of the Masters in Conservation course two intensiveswere offered over the mid-year period, one focusing onMetals Conservation for objects students and Colour Theoryand Inpainting for paper and paintings students. Dr. IanMcLeod from the Western Australian Museum delivered theMetals Intensive. This week-long session that explores metaltypes, deterioration processes, treatment and managementwas also open to external enrolments. The Colour Theoryand Inpainting Intensive was co-ordinated and delivered byCaroline Fry with the support of Dena Kahan, Mary Jo Lelyveld, Juan Ford, (practising artist) Carl Villisfrom the NGV, CCMC PhD student Elizabeth Hinde, andProfessor Jaynie Anderson and Dr. Alison Inglis from theSchool of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaelology(AHCCA). Masters students and members of the industrywho participated offered very positive feedback. Also



during the semester break, other staff contributed to thedelivery of the Graduate Certificate in Art Conservation,delivered in conjunction with AHCCA. Director, Robyn Sloggett co-ordinated the delivery of a subject in theGraduate Certificate in Art Authentication.

Museum VictoriaThe conservation department temporarily farewelled Penny Nolton, who has taken the opportunity to miss mostof a Melbourne winter on a six month contract at MAGNTin Darwin. We welcome Melissa Gunter to our team as aConservation Intern. Melissa trained at the V&A/RCAprogram in London, specialising in natural historyconservation. Since arriving at MV she has worked onartefacts from the Donald Thompson ethnographic collectionand has also been preparing a thylacine for outward loan. Karina Palmer, formerly of Heritage Victoria has alsojoined us. Karina has been cleaning, repairing andcondition reporting objects for a travelling exhibition,Destination Australia. In sharp contrast to working witharchaeological pot sherds, she has started evaluating somegorgeous 1950s household items for a loan to The VictorianArts Centre where the home of Dame Edna Everage is to bere-created.Alayne Alvis has been involved with the change-overs atthe Scienceworks campus for the Sportsworks and HouseSecrets exhibitions, which included the odd experience ofbrush vacuuming several vacuum cleaners. Alayne alsoprepared and helped install historic communicationsequipment loaned to the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum tocelebrate the centenary of Australia's first overseas radiotransmission, which took place at Point Lonsdale.Helen Privett has been working with Melissa on theFreestyle exhibition. The exhibition showcases the work of40 contemporary Australian designers and features over550 individual objects, originating at Melbourne Museumand touring to four other venues. The logistics of such anexhibition are a challenge, but examining the wonderfulworks are more than adequate compensation for the longhours of preparation.Michelle Berry is beginning the assessment of objects forthe new exhibition on the mind, opening at MelbourneMuseum next year. The Trade Union Banner project wascompleted by Sharon Towns in May this year and thebanners exhibited to great acclaim in the Galleria atMelbourne Museum where they will be on show until November.

National Gallery of VictoriaThe textile conservation lab has just finished treating andinstalling textiles selected for the changeover program ofpermanent collection gallery spaces. Kate Douglasconserved a sampler from 1783 with numerous losses in the

linen ground fabric. Chrsitina Ritschel, a 3rd year internfrom the Universtiy of Delaware Winterthur ConservationProgram, wet-cleaned and compensated for losses in a 4.2 metre long 19th century Indian mordant paintedhanging depicting scenes from the Ramayana, and Bronwyn Cosgrove conserved the textile components offive Javanese puppets. The section is now preparing worksfor two exhibitions opening later this year. Kate Douglas ispreparing more than 50 hats for Thomas Harrison, Milliner,an exhibition opening at NGV Australia. Kate hasundertaken extensive analysis of the numerous and variedmaterials present in these hats for conservation records andfor exhibition labels. Bronwyn and Christina are working ontextiles selected for Ikat: Asian resist-dyed textiles, anexhibition of more than 50 works for the Asian TemporaryExhibition gallery of NGV International.The Paintings Conservation studio has been gearing up fora large exhibition on Australian Impressionism for next year.Michael Varcoe-Cocks is taking advantage of thisopportunity to examine, document and, in some cases, treatworks ahead of this important exhibition. Assisting him areMelanie Vella and Raye Collins. John Payne hascompleted his major restoration of Jacopo Amigoni'smasterpiece, The Singer Farinelli and his friends (c.1750).Carl Villis has completed Palma il Giovane's Portrait of anold man (c.1590), and has commenced a full-scaletreatment on Profile portrait of a Lady, a small Italian paneldated to around 1475.

State Library of VictoriaOur new lab is nearing completion, so by the time thisNewsletter goes to press we might already be ensconced –albeit surrounded by boxes of yet-to-be-unpacked stuff andtrailing computer cables. This should be the very last moveConservation ever has to endure (five moves in recentmemory); we will be moving back into the Swinburne wingof the Library – that runs down Little Lonsdale Street, withnice big windows. Unfortunately the windows only look outonto the new QV development now, but it is a vastimprovement on having no windows at all! We can’t waitto be moved in, but are not looking forward to the processof actually moving.Work currently underway in the lab includes preparation ofabout 300 items for an exhibition about Australian comicbooks, Heroes and Villains, to open in October. Allconservation staff will be involved in this project although itwill be managed primarily by our registrar Catherine McFarlane and paper conservator Alice Cannon. We have enjoyed reading little snippets ofthe adventures of Kazanda the Jungle Queen, SpeedUmplestoop and Captain Period (don’t ask) in between allthe condition reporting and other documentation. Not manyof the comics require extensive conservation treatment, butit has been interesting trying to discover what kinds of



treatment are considered acceptable in the comic-collectingworld – while there are many schools of thought, some ofthe more conservative groups are even opposed toflattening and other fairly routine treatments, and appearfairly hostile to the whole concept of conservation ingeneral. One internet discussion group participant evenincludes the following statement as part of his post: I dislike the Conserved vs. Restored concept. It reeks of theslimy underbelly of a big city on a hot summer night with athin rain drizzling through the humidity and the garishness ofneon being reflected off slick sidewalks. (Seeht tp://boards.col lectors -society.com/Post39734,accessed 17 July 2006)We have yet to decide which treatment approach to adoptfor our collections.In October a number of items from the Rare Book collectionwill be travelling to Adelaide for the Botanical Richesexhibition. Helen McPherson and Katrina Ben arestabilizing items and preparing custom housings andexhibition cradles. Helen is undertaking a leather underbackon a quarter-bound elephant folio, Les Liliaceés, publishedin 1807. The treatment involves removing the boards, spineand spine linings and partially lifting the leather on theboards. The paste-downs on the inside of the boards arelifted to allow a new cloth spine lining to be attached. Anew tailband will also be constructed. Pared kangarooleather will be attached to the spine and inserted under theold leather on the boards, which is reglued in position.Minor consolidation of board corners and cloth lining willcomplete the treatment.Our new Ballarat Off-Site store is now open and working;Sarah Slade is currently working with Building and Facilitiesand our OHS department to achieve an integratedemergency response plan for the Ballarat collections. If onlythere was such a thing as frequent driver points! Sarah hasalso recently helped revise the Disaster Plan for ourSwanston Street building.The opening of Ballarat has also meant that our newspapercollections are available again to Library patrons; Ian Coxhas wielded his mighty form-designing skills once more tohelp streamline the revised newspaper condition checkingprocedure for items coming in from off-site. Many of ourolder newspapers are quite fragile or are stored folded andrequire some conservation assessment so we can provideappropriate handling advice for the public.As proof of our long-held belief that you can find any typeof object in a library collection, Sarah Haselton has had torehouse several rather revolting models of Jeff Kennett andother political figures. (No political statement intended; theyare nude figurines made of something resembling Fimo).We have bid farewell to Marika Kocsis, who has beenemployed with us for about a year on a casual basis.

Marika assisted with many of our projects, including theinstallation of our Mirror of the World book exhibition, andwill be greatly missed. Marika has moved to Sydney to takeup a contract at the State Library of NSW, and we wish herall the best.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Patricia Moncrieff, Textile Conservator,Consultant and Educator With a project in Singapore delayed until late August,Patricia has been busy with local projects involving theconservation of two large 16th century Aubusson tapestriesfrom a private collection and several smaller projects, whichinclude an exquisitely worked 1830's pictorial sampler fromthe UK and a charming two dimensional Berlin wool workwith a glass beaded border worked in North Sydneyc1870. Two interesting consultations were carried out. (1)The Heraldic Banner presented to the Right Hon Sir PaulHasluck (1905-1993) upon his appointment in 1979 as aKnight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Sir PaulHasluck was a former Governor-General of Australia. Thebanner is located in St George's Cathedral, Perth. (2) TheBicorne (two pointed hat) worn by Captain James Stirling,from the collection of the Royal Western Australian HistoricalSociety. Captain James Stirling founded the Colony ofWestern Australia in 1829 and was its first Governor until1839. The consultations involved examination, conditionreports, and advice on conservation, display and storage.

Western Australian MuseumIan MacLeod has been travelling in Scotland where hegave a lecture on the current developments and futuredirections for conservation of historic iron shipwrecks inEdinburgh. Recent work in Chuuk in the Federated States ofMicronesia, saw the first collaborative research done onseveral historic World War II iron ships of the Japanesemerchant and military fleet. With support from Earthwatchand their volunteers, Maria Beger, an experienced marinebiologist from the University of Queensland, teamed up withIan to record the corals that have colonised the iron wrecksand compared the biological diversity and life forms withthe corrosion parameters. Preliminary results have shownremarkably fine correlations between the factors determiningcoral growth rates and the rate of decay of the wrecks. Ofparticular note was the experience of working on the SusukiPatrol boat and conducting corrosion measurements whilethe giant clams were spawning, creating a sea of gameteswith giant clouds of yellow sperm and eggs bonding tocreate new life as the fish went berserk with delight for thisfood source.




16

DISACT Seminar on Disaster PreparednessBernard Kertesz,Australian War Memorial

DISACT, the Disasters ACT Network, held a free seminar ondisaster preparedness issues on the morning of Tuesday the23rd of May, at the Australian War Memorial's TelstraTheatre. The seminar was programmed to coincide withRecords Management Month.

The seminar, titled Collections disaster preparednessplanning - anticipating the risks, consisted of two sessions.The first of these looked at the business continuity context ofdisaster planning for collections. Many institutions arepulling together business continuity plans to satisfygovernment requirements, however the integration of thevarious elements of emergency response, includingcollection disaster planning, can be difficult to properlyintegrate within the business continuity framework. For manyof us, the concepts and philosophy of business continuityare somewhat opaque and outside the range of ourprofessional experience. The keynote speaker to this sessionwas Les Whittet, a senior consultant on business continuityand convenor of the Business Continuity Institute's CanberraForum. His paper, Plans, plans and more plans was acomprehensive overview of the principles and practice ofbusiness continuity with the linkages between plans clearlyexplained. The real world examples he gave were graphicand very instructive. Implementation case studies on theintegration of disaster planning into the business continuityframework were presented by Erica Persak, AssistantDirector of Collection Services at the National Gallery ofAustralia and Lydia Preiss from Preservation Services at theNational Library of Australia.

The second session dealt with risk management issues indisaster response situations. This issue was one raised byDISACT network members who have participated in disasterrecovery situations but only later discovered the respondersafety implications of their response actions. Three speakersspoke to this session; Peter Heal, the Senior Risk Managerfrom the ACT Insurance Authority presented a paper titledDisaster response - Public Liability and Duty of Care issues,Matthew Harper, the Director of Emergency ManagementOperations at the ACT Emergency Services Authority, spokeon liaison and communication between emergency servicespersonnel and worksite emergency control organisationsand Alison Casey, Team Leader for OHS Projects in theWorkplace Health and Safety Division of Comcare (theCommonwealth Government’s workplace safety,rehabilitation and compensation authority), spoke on OH&SRisk Management in Disaster Preparedness.

The seminar was well attended by both public and privatesector representatives, with many of those attendingresponsible for records management. The disaster recoveryservice provider, BMS Catastrophe, generously sponsoredour morning tea refreshments. Several of the paperspresented are being transcribed and will be appended,with their Powerpoint presentations, to the DISACT websiteat http://www.anbg.gov.au/disact/

AICCM SEMINAR AND NATIONAL AGMSustainable Buildings- Cost vs Collection Needs

20 October 2006 Australian Museum, College Street, Sydney

In recent times, there has been a lot of major buildingdevelopment for the collection sector across Australia. Thesedevelopments often lead to a tug of war between the costand collection needs. All too often we look only at theimmediate impact both in terms of cost and the collection.

This seminar will look at some current approaches that are taking a more holistic look at the building environment addressing collection, economic andenvironmental sustainability.

Keynote Speaker: Steve King, School of Architecture,University of NSW

The seminar will be followed by a discussion with VeronicaBullock, Collections Council of Australia, who will discussthe conservation survey into staff and skill needs across thecollections sector that was completed earlier this year.

The day will close with the AICCM National AGM

For further information contact: Sarah-Jane Rennie, email:[email protected]

Phone: 02 9339 9908


17

A View from AbroadPam Dawson

Lincoln University, UK

It all began last September. I had decided to change careerdirection from nursing to conservation and had attained aplace on the Post Graduate Diploma in ConservationStudies at Lincoln University in England. The course waschallenging and comprehensive and covered all aspects ofthe conservation of objects. The need to consolidate theknowledge gained and extend our practical experiencewas part of the structure of the course. With encouragementand the networking connections of the tutors, we startedlooking for practical placement opportunities. I realised withsome joy that with a daughter living in Melbourne, I was inan ideal situation to combine a placement with a trip to Ozto see her.

I emailed the University and within a few weeks had beenallocated a voluntary placement for 4 weeks at the Centrefor Cultural Materials Conservation at The University ofMelbourne. I was thrilled and much envied by mycolleagues.

My time at the CCMC has been wonderful. I started on thetreatment of two oil paintings by the Australian painter W.D.Knox and then had the opportunity to work on-site at theVictorian Arts Centre with paintings conservator, Cushla Hilland objects conservator, Holly Jones-Amin to repair the 3Dpaintings by Colin Lanceley in the amazing Amcor Lounge.I was able to use my fledgling colour matching and in-painting skills using acrylics and observed Holly sculpt arepair using balsa wood.

My involvement in an ongoing large project managed byCushla involved joining a team of University of Melbourneconservation students to work on the cleaning of theSpencer Street Station mural by Harold Freedman. This wasan enormous task with the 27 panels, each approximately5m x 3m, being dusted and wet cleaned which involvedthe use of scaffolding, ladders and large buckets of water.This was excellent experience for me, not only in theconservation and treatment of the painting but also theinsight into the logistical processes necessary to make alarge project like this happen

The arrival at the CCMC of 32 Groote Eylandt barkpaintings from the University of Melbourne collection calledfor all hands on deck and under the guidance of Holly andJocelyn Evans, I was able to help clean and consolidatesome of these amazing objects, a unique experience for meand probably making me one of the few conservators inEngland with such experience. I am awaiting the call fromthe V&A to help them out with their collection!

Paper was the next challenge. This involved theconsolidation of damaged prison records from the 1840’s,an on-going project for the Public Record Office. It wasfascinating, not only the treatment, but also reading therecords gave an insight into the life and times of the peopleinvolved who were often dealt severe sentences for veryminor offences. My developing love of paper wasconfirmed when I was given the opportunity to work on a17th century leather bound book of Australian law and thenon the humification and tensioning out of a parchment. I am

Working on the Colin Lanceley in-situ

UV examination of the Freedman mural

indebted to Louise Wilson and the other paper conservatorsfor their patience and their generosity in sharing theirknowledge with me.

This has been a great learning experience for me. The roleof the CCMC as a commercial and academic centre ofconservation excellence in Melbourne has given me insightinto the running of a very busy institution that meets its

commercial imperatives without compromising the ethics ofconservation practice. But for me the real joy was meetingand working with a fantastic team of people whowelcomed me and supported me with true generosity andwho have confirmed to me that conservators rock!


Report18

Consolidation of a bark Tensioning out a humidified parchment

Guidelines for Selecting Display and Storage Products5 – 6 June 2006, National Museum of Australia, ACTMegan Phillips

Australian War Memorial / Conservation Works

I was lucky enough to attend this very entertaining workshopgiven by Jean Tetreault, Senior Conservation Scientist fromthe Canadian Conservation Institute, on the 5-6th June.Approximately 40 people attended the workshop, withparticipants hailing from every branch of conservation. Themix of people attending highlighted the importance of thetopic to conservation practice in Australia.

Jean did not provide a list of materials which were either‘bad’ or ‘good’. Instead he introduced broader conceptswhich could guide material choice. The major conceptswere: • Avoid pollutants from outside sources, • Block emissions from pollutants or objects, • Dilute and Filter pollutants in buildings or enclosures, • Reduce Reactions by reducing relative humidity,

temperature, oxygen and light, • Reduce Exposure Time of objects to pollutants.

Jean related these concepts in greater detail to plastics,wood products, coatings, and foams. Issues associatedwith the manufacture of different display enclosures, forexample time required for off-gassing, gave rise to livelydebate. Jean seemed to take great delight in playing thedevil’s advocate in these discussions. Jean demonstratedspot tests for chloride and sulphur, and other tests werediscussed.

The National Museum of Australia was a magnificent settingfor the well organised workshop. I found that the sessionsstimulated such a high level of concern and interest amongstparticipants, that finding oneself in discussion with fiveunknown people during a tea break was not at all unusual.

Boston and Beyond: Metals ConservationSummer Institute 2006Helen Privett, Museum Victoria

This year marked the third year of the annual MetalsConservation Summer Institute, held in Worcester,Massachusetts USA. This was the final year the course wassupported by a grant from the Institute of Museum andLibrary Services, an independent grant-making agency ofthe US Federal Government.

Worcester is approximately one hour west of Boston, so myexperience began with a beautiful summer’s day enjoyingthe delights of Boston. This included visits to the Museum ofFine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, PaulRevere’s house and finally a night with the Boston Pops.

Worcester is an unusual place, having had a prosperouspast which enabled the town to support the well fundedWorcester Art Museum, private collections such as theHiggins Armoury Museum and the MIT-rival WorcesterPolytechnic Institute. The WPI campus is leafy and spacious,with some lovely red brick buildings and the ubiquitous ivycovered walls. The surrounding town is now in a period ofeconomic depression, steel mills having been the primarysource of income and employment.

Upon arriving at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Idiscovered that two other Australians were participating inthis year’s summer institute – Jo Atkinson from University ofSydney Museums and Cathy Collins from National Galleryof Australia. The other 32 participants represented all othercontinents except Africa and Antarctica. While mostattendees were conservators working in institutions orprivately, there was also a heritage architect, severalmaterials science graduate students and a materials scientistfrom the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The course took place over eleven days and featured 30lectures by 19 presenters; Robert van Langh of theRijksmuseum was the facilitator for the event as well as apresenter on several topics. The course was roughly dividedinto several days studying metallurgy and alloy production;study of phase diagrams and sample preparationtechniques with the final days spent on conservation of iron,copper and silver alloys. Additional topics included anintroduction to risk management with Bart Ankersmit (ICN),the history of metals conservation and some more obscurelectures such as the metallurgical analysis of remnants fromthe World Trade Center Buildings. Laboratories were

opened before classes every morning to give everyone theopportunity to prepare samples and use the microscopeequipment. In between the intense lectures there were morerelaxed and social occasions including bronze casting andiron forging workshops and trips to visit conservationlaboratories at the Worcester Art Museum and the StraussConservation Centre at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard.

MCSI 2006 was a thoroughly enjoyable event, withintensive learning and fantastic opportunities for broadeningknowledge of metals and their conservation, but also forproviding the chance to meet so many colleagues. Highpraise must go to Christina Bauer of the Higgins ArmouryMuseum for her organisational skills, patience and generalgood humour. Additional thanks should go to Robert vanLangh, Jeffrey Forgeng and especially to Kent dur Russell,the director of the Higgins Armoury Museum, who handedover his house and backyard to the students on a cold andrainy afternoon for bronze casting; but more importantlyeating and drinking inside the warmth of his New Englandcountry house.

After leaving Worcester I returned to Boston for a day,where I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History andthe Peabody Museum. The HMNH was a highlight; theircollection of Blaschka glass botanical specimens isextraordinary and a must see for anyone visiting Boston.


19

Preparation for polishing of cast samples with George van der Voort of Buehler, supplier ofscientific equipment used for materials analysis

While the MCSI 2006 experience was fantastic, I wouldrecommend that those who wish to attend in the future doso aware that this is the high end of conservation; aimed atthose with resources including materials scientists, analyticalequipment and time at their disposal. While I now feel Ihave an increased understanding of the possibilities foranalysis and treatment, this does not necessarily translateinto the immediate application of the skills learnt on thiscourse. There was an assumption that those of us attendingwould be spending large amounts of time on any projectthat was undertaken; this would certainly be an unusualexperience at my institution, and I suspect the same is truefor many other participants. To this end, the most practicaland useful lectures for me were those on preventiveconservation techniques and risk management for collections.

On a final note, Yancy Riddle, metallurgist and originalinstigator of the course, gave a good tip: don’t be shy aboutapproaching others for help. If you have an interestingobject that requires technical examination or analysis, takethis as a proposition to a local lab or university to see if thereis the potential for doing some of the work at no charge.Who knows who you might meet, who might be inspired towrite a paper on your analytical problem, or who might justhave an abiding love for that particular type oftractor/sculpture/jewellery/period. If you seek out theserelationships it is likely that continued contact may provideopportunities for analysis and treatment of objects that youcould never ordinarily afford to experience.

I’d like to thank Museum Victoria and my colleagues for supporting my attendance of MCSI 2006. For further information about this and previous year’s coursecontent and application forms to attend seewww.wpi.edu/Academics/Summer/MCSI/.

Editor: See Vanessa Roth’s review of the 2004 MSCI in theAICCM Newsletter No.92 September 2004

Research Opportunity:Getty ConservationInstitutePurpose: The Conservation Guest Scholar Program at theGetty Conservation Institute supports new ideas andperspectives in the field of conservation, with an emphasison the visual arts (including sites, buildings and objects) andthe theoretical underpinnings of the field. The programprovides an opportunity for professionals to pursue scholarlyresearch in an interdisciplinary manner across traditionalboundaries in areas of wide general interest to theinternational conservation community.

Eligibility: These grants are for established conservators,scientists, and professionals who have attained distinction inconservation and allied fields. Grants are not intended tofund research for the completion of an academic degree.Applications are welcome from researchers of allnationalities.

Terms: Conservation Guest Scholars are in residence at theGetty Center for three to nine consecutive months. A monthlystipend of $3,500 is awarded, prorated to the actual datesof residency, up to a maximum of $31,500.

Application Deadline: 1st November 2006.

Additional information is available online atwww.getty.edu/grants/research/scholars

People and Projects addition

Preservation Australia

The next few months will be busy at Preservation Australia.The project with the Department of Lands is taking up 3days a week at the moment as we prepare to start scanningthe large collection of plans. We have also moved theoffice into the warehouse and that has introduced all sortsof organizational issues, especially as hands-on work is alsoincreasing. Frances Cumming has started working with usfor two days a week which will make it all a little easier forus. On her first day we went to Goulburn and completelyfroze while assessing the collection of the lovely St ClairMuseum, but it doesn’t seem to have put her off. The next 3months will also see a concerted effort to finish the web siteand develop the product range – so now is the time to sendus the ‘wish list’ for conservation products, tools etc that youwould like us to stock.


Reviews20

Aaron Shugar of Buffalo State College pouring bronze into a sand mold

IPC Fifth International Conference / ICON Bookand Paper Group First Conference26-29 July 2006 Edinburgh UKNicole Rowney, International Conservation Services

Lisa Stoddart, Conservator in Private Practice, Malaysia

In late July, some of us left the chilly southern winter andwere greatly relieved that Edinburgh was having adecidedly Mediterranean summer. On the 26th-29th July,the IPC 5th International Conference and the first conferencehosted by the Book and Paper Group of the Institute ofConservation took place. This is the first conference heldsince the merging of all disciplines under ICON and washeld at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Edinburgh, with its volcanic hills and architectural grandeurincluding 16th century tenement buildings, Georgian andVictorian masterpieces, provided a wonderful backdrop forthe 402 international delegates.

Anna Southall, Chair of the ICON Board of Trustees,opened the Conference, a comprehensive programme ofthirty-four lectures. The keynote address by Helen Shenton,Head of Collection Care at the British Library was about thechanging nature and relationship between practicalconservation and preservation of a collection. The newCentre for Conservation at the Library’s St Pancras site,which will combine book and sound preservation studioswith behind-the-scenes tours, display and visitor centre,together with conservation training was also previewed.See www.bl.uk/about/collectionscare/blcc

Gunilla Tornvall from Lund University Library in Swedenrecounted the extraordinary expedition of a Swedishexplorer who met an untimely death on the ice and therecovery of his diary 33 years later. Gunilla worked throughher decision to abstain from any treatment and focused onpreventive conservation.

Peter Bower, forensic paper historian and analyst spokeabout interdisciplinary collaboration, illustrating his lecturewith examples from his own work on two separateinvestigations; the first of recently discovered watercoloursby Jacqques le Moyne de Morgues and secondly hisinvestigation into the papers used for a series of cartoons ofThe Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.

The openness of conservators in Amsterdam whendiscussing a treatment that went wrong was refreshing. The

large format contemporary work with acid staining wastreated with hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, it broke outin a million tiny brown spots 3 months after treatment. Thequestions of whether this reaction could be foreseen and thereliability of material provenance, as well as the analysis todetermine what had happened – provided lively debateand positive feedback to the presenter.

Rachel Mustalish from the Metropolitan Museum of Art inNew York discussed the characteristics of synthetic polymersand how they can be easily manipulated and blended withpaper fibres, making them more attractive to the papermaking industry. The synthetic components, not visible to thenaked eye pose a real problem for paper conservators asdeterioration varies greatly between plastics and naturalpapermaking materials.

The changing nature of artifacts from functional tocommemorative, to a museum piece and the role ofconservators were highlighted by a small but unsettlinginsight into the September 11 2001 attack on the WorldTrade Center in New York. The presentation given byWalter Newman, Director, Paper conservation of theNortheast Document Conservation Centre, discussed the40 wall panels outside the Bellevue Hospital NYC, whichbecame one of the posting sites for missing persons. Theimpermanence of the materials was a major preservationproblem as there were different types of media, tapes andadhesives. Understandably, whatever materials at handwere used. Photo documentation was an essential elementto preserving the information for future research, as theconservation treatment required each item and tape to beremoved, treated, barrier layers applied and then returnedto its original position.

Again the collaborative nature of conservation washighlighted by work carried out on a diary that wasrecovered from the Colombia Shuttle crash. The diarybelonging to the Israeli astronaut aboard the shuttle wasfound two months after the crash. In conjunction with theIsrael Police forensics department and paper conservationdepartment at the Israel Museum, the diary was preservedand facsimiles made for future reference.


21

Microfibre cloths for dry cleaning paper.Bernard Kertesz.

Australian War Memorial

In their paper on electrostatic and micro-fibre cloths,Commoner and Wiegandt (2001)1 note the effectiveness ofthese cleaning cloths and discuss the properties that makethem so effective. They observe that those cloths with adeep textured, non-woven structure are particularly effectiveat picking up dust on flat surfaces with less pressure thanflat, woven, micro-fibre cloths. They provide a useful listingof the brands available at that time with a listing of theirmain characteristics and composition.

One of the products listed, “Pledge Grab-it” electrostaticdusting cloths (S.C. Johnson and Son Pty Ltd), is readilyavailable from supermarkets. The packaging notes on thesedisposable dusting cloths state that they are “electrostaticallycharged” but the “Cloths contain no sprays or polish so theywon’t leave a residue”. The scented Pledge cloths clearlycontain another additive and these were avoided.

The material safety data sheet2 for these cloths does list a“film agent” at a concentration of 1-5%. In phonecommunication with SC Johnson, I was advised that it had5% "mineral oil" in it. This would almost certainly be aparaffin oil. This quantity seems unlikely since 5% by weightwould leave it feeling somewhat oily however this figuremay be to allow for the extra additive in the scented cloths.The commonly available yellow Chux “antistatic” dustingcloths do indeed have about 5% of a “special emulsion” inthem (again almost certainly paraffin oil) and leave a visibleoily gloss on hands and surfaces.

Over the last year I've done several extractions using a varietyof solvents to gauge the level of oil content in the Pledgecloths. Using the most effective of these solvents, Shellite, a

common solvent for paraffins, the most I’ve extracted fromthese cloths is 2.8% by weight and the least, 2.4%.

The significantly oily feel of the Chux cloths is also due totheir flat paper-like structure which would providesignificantly less surface area than the very open micro-fibrous structure of the Pledge cloths. The available surfacearea of the latter is very high so there is no sensation ofoiliness and no offset onto smooth glossy surfaces. Fromburn tests on the Pledge cloth, the major componentappears to be nylon fibre whereas the Chux is a felted,mixed fibre (mainly cellulosic) with a greater density.

From exploring a variety of uses for the Pledge cloths, I’mcomfortable with the use of this product for dust and mouldremoval from sheet paper materials, as long as one avoidspencil and similar abrasion-sensitive media. Pressure is notrequired for the dusting effect to be effective and the nettmovement of materials is clearly that of loose particulates tothe cloth surface. Any movement of mineral oil to the paperwould be negligible and probably significantly less than theresidues of hand greases deposited by handling.

I’m not aware of anyone else who is using these cloths routinely and would consequently welcome any comments. I can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

1. Lucy Commoner and Ralph Wiegandt, 2001, A preliminary overview of electrostatic and micro-fibercleaning cloths. AIC News 26 (5); pp13-15.

2. http://www.hescoinc.com/Msds/dr3281.pdf

Jim Bloxam, senior conservator at Cambridge UniversityLibrary, UK shared his passion for 15th and 16th centurygirdle books. The research project covers a full descriptionof the bindings, structure of the books, bibliographic detailsrecorded, textual origins and provenance of all 23 girdlebooks in the library.

The posters are always an integral part of conservationconferences and again provided interesting conservationprojects such as• Conservation of architectural plans from London’s West-

End theatres.• Manufacture and treatment of blueprint, gel-lithograph,

aniline process, ferrogallic process, wet Photostats anddiazo prints.

• Developments in using magnets for display of largeformat works and portrait miniatures at the Victoria andAlbert Museum.

• Mounting a Chinese scroll in Emperor Huizong style, astyle of hanging scroll suitable for calligraphy andpaintings of a wide rectangular or square format.

• Zeolite chambers to significantly reduce disturbingodours such as fire-damaged materials.

• The 17th century alum industry in North Yorkshire.

The conference was informative and diverse in its subjectmatter. It will be interesting to see how the future conferencesof the ICON Book and Paper group take shape.


Reviews22

Endangeredd Heritagee Ptyy Ltd Saving valuable and sentimental heritage from extinction because the next generation deserves the opportunity to cherish its past.

Endangered Textiles has expanded, new staff, new skills and new products so we changed our name to better reflect our growth.

Endangeredd Heritage can now offer a holistic and comprehensive consultancy service Specialising in:

�� Conservation of textiles and objects by qualified conservators. �� Project management for large jobs and small ones, co-ordinating with your

team and resources or creating the right professional team for your heritage project

�� Strategic planning in collection management for large and small institutions or even private collectors.

�� A fully equipped lab, with vault, specialising in conservation treatment of textiles and objects

�� Professional development training of heritage staff and volunteers by, University experienced lecturer.

�� We have extensive documentation, condition assessments and reporting experience, to help you expand the knowledge of your collection on your database.

��Conservation support for your staff we can prepare, dye silk, paint out Stabltex or make ethefoam mannequins to free your staff to do their work.

We also know how frustrating sourcing materials and supplies can be so we decided to stock it ourselves

We are distributors for:�� Stabltex, conservation support fabric $125per meter, for repairs encapsulations,

chemical resistant of suspension of items in solutions etc. �� Albox storage and archiving solutions and photographic supplies �� 3mm worry free double-sided acid free tape in large rolls! �� And Intercept corrosion control products for scavenging of Cl and S. Long-

term CD-rom storage, film storage and sensitive item storage solutions. Intecept has new foam, covers, linings, bags, cardboard and cling-wrap film.

There are a million ways the private sector can help you meet deadlines and goals and we are fully accountable for the quality of work. Call Victoria Gill

Shop 4 Duffy place PO box 7257 Duffy ACT 2611 Ph 02 62871291 Fax 02 62871209 www.endangeredheritage.com

The AICCM National Newsletter is thequarterly newsletter of the AustralianInstitute for the Conservation of Materials(Inc.)

It is issued to all members as part of amembership entitlement in March, June,September and December.

Deadlines for copy are:1 February1 May1 August1 November

Contributions are welcomed and should besent to:Jude Fraser, EditorThe Centre for Cultural Materials ConservationUniversity of MelbourneMelbourne VIC 3010AustraliaTel: (03) 9348 5748Fax: (03) 9348 [email protected]

Advertising is accepted.

Positions Vacanthalf column $55.00 incl. GSTfull column $110.00 incl. GSTCommercialhalf column $110.00 incl. GSTfull column $220.00 incl. GSTfull page $300.00 incl. GSTDiscounts10% for 2 issues, 15% for 3 issues, 20%for 4 issues.InsertsPositions Vacant $110.00 incl. GSTCommercial $220.00 incl. GSTAdvertisers must supply their own inserts. Classifieds$0.88 per word including GST.Notices pertaining to AICCM activities arefree of charge.Advertising for inclusion in body ofNewsletter accepted until the 1st day ofthe month in which the Newsletter is due.Early booking preferable.Disclaimer: Publication of technical notesor articles with reference to techniques andmaterials does not necessarily represent anendorsement by AICCM. Whilst everyeffort is made to ensure the accuracy ofcontent, the Editor and the AICCMNational Council accept no responsibilityfor the content or opinions expressed in theAICCM National Newsletter which aresolely those of individual contributors.The AICCM National Newsletter ispublished with the assistance of a grantfrom the Commonwealth Department ofEnvironment and Heritage. (GVEHO).

AICCM NATIONAL COUNCIL2005 – 2006

PresidentTamara LavrencicPh: 02 8239 2360Fax: 02 8239 [email protected]

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SecretaryJenny DickensPh: 0403 978 [email protected]

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20317 aiccm newsletter #100

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