The U.S. National Park Service (a bureau within the Department of the Interior) performs a great deal of preservation-related activities and has developed a number of leaflets about caring for various types of objects. These Conserve O Grams detail specific steps to care for various items depending on their material makeup and construction.
Here are a few the pertain to our work:
Bellman, D. (2009). Flag rolling and storage. Conserve O Gram 16/5. Washington, DC: National Park Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/16-05.pdf: One-sided flags may be rolled, fly-to-hoist, around a tissue-covered tube, wrapped in plastic or muslin, tied with cotton twill, and labeled.
Care and identification of objects made from plastic. (2010). Conserve O Gram 8/4. Washington, DC: National Park Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/08-04.pdf: Suggests segregation of deteriorating plastics from other materials and storage in cool, dry, dark, ventilated space with adsorbents but without buffered tissue paper. This may apply to the football and plastic tiger from the room's display case.
Keifer, K. (2000). Dry cleaning museum textiles. Conserve O Gram 16/2. Washington, DC: National Park Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/16-02.pdf: This leaflet offers advise for identifying gray, grimy, oily, or greasy stains on textiles that may be suitable for treatment via dry cleaning. We have a number of school uniforms pieces that may need attention.
Merritt, J. (1993). Causes, detection, and prevention of mold and mildew on textiles. Conserve O Gram 16/1. Washington, DC: National Park Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/16-01.pdf: Detection of mold and mildew may be made by smell (musty) or visually, under UV light. Gentle vacuuming is the first and most productive step in removing active growth, but vacuum should have a HEPA or water-intake filter so that microorganisms aren’t exhausted into the surrounding environment. Merritt mentions freezing as a technique but comments that it has not been thoroughly researched, but it seems likely that this changed in 26 years. Dry-cleaning is also an option (see Keifer, 2000). Stains caused by microorganism growth are irreversible.
Paulocik, C., & Galban, M. (2002). Synthetic fibers in costume collections. Conserve O Gram 16/4. Washington, DC: National Park Service. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/16-04.pdf: This leaflet guides the identification of nylon, polyester, acrylic, polyurethane, and spandex materials, and suggests that odoriferous or sticky items be segregated or removed from a collection.
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