The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (The Met) Department of Scientific Research is embarking on an Institute of Museum and Library Services funded project to evaluate a wide variety of commonly used conservation, storage, shipping, and building supplies that are readily available and used in North America. The goal is to determine the appropriateness of those materials for use near or in contact with cultural heritage objects, including natural history specimens. All results and data will be made publically available at no cost online.
We are currently seeking lists of the materials used by museums, libraries, archives, private conservators, collections managers, or anyone whose main business is the preservation, exhibition, transport, or handling of cultural heritage and natural history collections. After collating and selecting a broad range of the most widely used and promising materials, we will conduct both the Oddy test and a chemical analysis of volatiles for each material.
If you are willing and interested in sharing information about materials used in your practice of preserving, displaying, storing, or shipping objects, please reply to to Eric.Breitung@metmuseum.org. The call for materials will be ongoing throughout the project, however, the main selection of materials for testing will occur by August 2017. Those interested in contributing will be sent a basic spreadsheet where information such as make, model, supplier, and material type can be recorded. Kindly note that we will select materials for testing based on this call; even if you utilize only a handful of materials, please consider contributing.