Safe Home = Happy Artifacts

Safe and orderly housing of an artifact is something that every museum professional holds at the utmost importance. As the caretaker of a collection, museum registrars such as Linda Collins stress the proper steps necessary for an artifact to enter its long-term storage space. The Artifact below is a new addition to the collection at the national Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center! As a large artifact, there were a few additional steps that Linda, Kaitlyn, and I took to ensure the safety of this piece.

As you can see from the above image, this is portrait of our current president, Barack Obama. This beautiful piece of art is unique because it is a mixed media of acrylic paint and quilting! To ensure the safely and long-term care of this artifact, there are a few key steps we need to take before it reaches its new home.

 Step one: Cleaning!

First and foremost, we must clean each artifact to make sure it is in the best condition possible. This will prevent damage to the work. I used the hose from our vacuum to lightly clean the surface. Don’t forget about the cheesecloth! We put this barrier between the vacuum and the artifact to make sure that if anything were to come loose from the artwork, it would not get sucked into the hose.

PS. Remember to always wear gloves when handling. :)

The next step is documenting. We filled out a catalog record sheet documenting the artifact’s information. Just to name a few of the documented attributes:

·      Catalog Number

·      Object Name

·      Date Made

·      Materials

·      Maker

·      Historical, Biographical, and General Notes

We will later input all of this information into the computer database, but having a hard copy is never a bad idea.

You can also see the cloth label that we sewed onto the back left corner.

Finally, because this object was larger than any of the acid free boxes we had, we were able to gain a little experience in making our own. I must admit that there is a bit of a learning curve (aka, I was too challanged by box making to take photos of this process) but overall, a great learning experience. Above, you can see our final home for this unique work of art. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

When in Rome, Right?

That’s what we thought too. While we were on a roll making boxes, we went right ahead and made three for these smaller artifacts. All of these cosmetic products belong to the From Victory to Freedom collection at the museum. However, these three gems needed a little extra TLC. To ensure that they wouldn’t fall over while in their larger permanent collections box, we made small acid free boxes for extra stabilization. Linda also showed us that lightly lining the interior of these boxes with tissue paper would give extra support in the case of movement.

NOTE: There is no one right way to do this. That being said, I will add that Kaitlyn’s preferred method is an L shaped template.