It is not only the inside of the museum that is being refurbished, the outside is also undergoing a few changes too. The planting has been restored to the original 1934 scheme and the original entrance into the museum has been reinstated.

The front door onto Lensfield Road open for the first time since 1967.

Rehanging the restored front gates, 5 May 2010

The gates had to go off site to a company called Rupert Harris to be restored as they had not been opened since 1968 and the locks were rusted shut. The posts were restored in situ.

We have had a number of companies on site this week putting the final touches to our external objects.

SPRI has a comprehensive archive of documents and objects relating to the whaling industry. For at least the last 25 years the whaling gun and trypot have been outside the museum in all sorts of weather and therefore needed a little wash and brush up.

Final touches to the whaling gun.

Having a bath in the trypot, formerly used to render blubber.

By removing old paint and corrosion, the objects can be treated with a corrosion inhibitor and then painted. This gives the objects protection against the elements, and they can happily live outside for another 25 years.

It has been a bit quiet on the blog front recently due the amount of frenetic activity happening here at the Museum.

The case installers have been in for a number of weeks now and it is good to see the museum taking shape. We have been very fortunate to have a team of mount makers from The Museum Workshop on site and they have been steadily working their way through more than 300 objects going into the new displays.

Roy Mandeville and his team making mounts.

Of course this means now we can put objects into cases!

Initial layout in Transport model case.

Sometimes it reassuring to know the objects fit …

The museum opens to the public on 2nd June 2010, so I must get back to the Conservation workshop to conserve the last few objects!

Hello and welcome to my first post for the SPRI conservation blog. My name is Janette Dutton, and my job here at SPRI includes a mix of conservation, moving objects into the new museum store, and putting objects that are at risk of pest damage through the freezers (as Fiona explained in her entry about interesting smells!).

One of my recent tasks has been to find new homes in our museum store for a group of Inuit art pieces that have been acquired thanks to the HLF Collecting Cultures scheme. A selection of the sculptures and artwork will be going on display when the new museum opens later this year. They range from early pieces (from the late 1940s and early 50s) to more contemporary sculptures and a wonderful collection of stonecuts from communities across the High Arctic.

Three of the pieces in the store

The sculptures are made from a range of materials, including stone, relic whalebone and caribou horn. Some of the stone pieces are large and extremely heavy, whilst the relic whalebone and caribou pieces are fairly small and light; all need to be handled with care.

As with all new acquisitions and loans, a condition check of each object was carried out to ensure that they all arrived without any damage and a note was made of any previous repairs.

Condition check

All of the objects had arrived in one piece thanks to our team of couriers who carefully packaged them for transportation and ensured they arrived safely. Now the pieces will have to sit in their new home and wait in anticipation before going on display!

We are so fortunate to be able to show some very significant and impressive pieces of Inuit art and we hope to see you there when the exhibition opens!

Earlier on I posted a blog entry about one of our objects being included in the regional selection of ‘The History of the World in 100 Objects’.

Heather and I had a visit from Radio Cambridgeshire. You can listen to the broadcast online.

I always wear gloves when handling and conserving objects. The main reason for this is that I don’t want to leave my fingerprints on the objects I am working on, especially metal. Sweat is predominately water but also contains salt, two ingredients that are not very good for metals. Although the damage is not instant, over time, if the metal is not cleaned, the fingerprints become etched into the surface.

On this ulu (Inuit woman’s knife) you can see where someone has held it with the full four fingers on one side. There is a corresponding thumb imprint on the other side.

On this flint holder the finger print has etched through the lacquer and into the metal.

Cigarette box, pre-conservation

The silver cigarette box is a rather severe example of poor handling. Due to the nature of the object, it was very much used in its time and was probably polished on a regular basis. This would ensure that the water and salt in the sweat did not start to damage the metal.

However, once the object was no longer in use and was stored in unsuitable environmental conditions, the silver tarnished very heavily and the fingerprints were easily visible all over the box. Although polishing is a good way of cleaning silver it does mean that a small amount of silver is removed every time. It is not possible to completely remove etched fingerprints apart from grinding and buffing the surface of the metal. As this would remove too much of the original material is not carried out as a conservation treatment and is more of a restoration practice.

Cigarette box, post-conservation.

As you can see, it is not only metal that is susceptible to fingerprints. The fingerprints left on this bottle are more likely to be caused by someone having dirty hands when handling the object and leaving a greasy deposit behind.

Wearing gloves during conservation and handling not only protects the objects but my hands, too. Sometimes in the past, objects were treated with solvents and materials that we wouldn’t consider using today. So by wearing gloves I am preventing anything that may be on the object being absorbed into my skin.

(Images: Fiona Cahill)

As you may be aware, the British Museum and BBC have collaborated in a project called 'The History of the World in 100 Objects'. Due to its popularity the BBC are highlighting iconic objects from regional museums, too.

From the many iconic objects we have in the Institute's collection, Captain Oates' sleeping bag was chosen for the website.

Heather Lane, Librarian and Keeper of Collections, and I were also interviewed for a radio piece on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

From conservation perspective the sleeping bag is in remarkable condition considering its age. It is made from caribou fur that sheds magnificently every time it is moved. Saying that, there is minimal damage and no insect activity at all. Needless to say, it will be going on display when the museum reopens.

In this economic climate the trend has been to 'make do and mend', repairing and adapting objects rather them throwing them away.

Of course this isn't a new concept, and sometimes location has more of an influence than money!

Front of spoon

Back of spoon

This spoon belonged to E.A Wilson and was used during the Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913). As you can see in the images, the handle of the spoon has broken near the bowl. Rather than throw the spoon away the handle was turned round and riveted to the bowl. As an added improvement wire was twisted around the end to make a handy hook.

(Images Fiona Cahill)

As I mentioned in my last posting, we are in the middle of moving objects from the old to the new store. Some of the objects have been in the old store for quite some time and have developed their own very distinctive odour!

When moths strike

We soon realised that in some cases the smell was in fact the by-product of moth activity. Moths are problematic in stores as they eat a variety of materials and can be very destructive, especially in textile collections.

Seal skin boot from East Greenland

We found moths had attacked a number of our textiles and this was evident when they were assessed prior to moving into the new store. Typical signs of moths include 'grazing' (essentially bald patches); small silk cocoons and frass (insect poo!). To prevent moths from doing further damage the objects are wrapped in plastic sheeting and frozen. At SPRI we are very lucky to have two walk-in freezers, one set at –30^oC and the other at 4^oC.

Walk-in freezers

After spending a week in each freezer the objects can be safely moved into the new store where they are unpacked and conserved. Freezing can also be used as a precautionary measure, too. In the end we decided to freeze all the textiles just in case they were hiding any beasties, hence the large number of wrapped boxes in the new textile store.

New Textile Store

Objects have been deposited in the Institute since its inception as a place for polar study and research. The museum of the Institute has always had a section of these objects on display but a large percentage has been in storage, much for some time.

However, as the Institute was not originally conceived as a museum there has never been what could be called a museum storage space. Objects have been squirreled away throughout the building, with most of them being stored in a room called B5. Of course, over time B5 has become too small to hold the entire collection and is one of the main reasons why our brand new store was built.

However, the objects will not move themselves, so I rely on other staff members of the Institute and my trusty volunteer Ronald to help me relocate objects from various locations in the museum to their new home.

Jeanette and Willow going camping	Mark and Ronald moving trunks

My main role here at SPRI is to conserve the objects going into the new museum. However before that could start I had a few other tasks to complete first, namely setting up a dedicated conservation workspace.

In the past, conservation at SPRI has been mainly carried out in situ on an ad hoc basis. Therefore, as the first SPRI conservator it was my duty to squirrel out a space I could call home for the next eight months. After looking behind many doors I found the Textile Store. Luckily for me, there is a brand new store waiting for these textiles, so I moved them out and moved my workbench and equipment in.

Former Textile Store Room	New conservation workspace

The inaugural object to be conserved in the workshop is a wet bulb thermometer for a loan going to Athy in Ireland. It is one of a group of objects which will form part an exhibition in conjunction with the Annual Ernest Shackleton Autumn School. The thermometer was used during the Nimrod Expedition (1907-1909).

As you can see, amongst the more sophisticated pieces of equipment there is always room for an empty jam jar.

The thermometer is in good condition, considering its age and the extreme environment to which it was subjected. The metal fittings have a blue green coloured patina, or corrosion layer, commonly known as verdigris. This usually occurs when a copper-based metal, such as brass, is exposed to air and seawater. This type of corrosion fits in with what we might expect from objects exposed to the marine environment at Cape Royds, and it is also possible to see salts on the surface of the wood, too. In the picture above I am removing the loose corrosion with a glass fibre brush. I don't want to remove all of the patina as it protects the metal underneath from further corrosion. Also, I am not restoring the thermometer to make it look like new, so I don't want to make the fittings bright and shiny. When the thermometer comes back from Ireland it will be going into the new museum display.