Analysis of food containers

Tom King is looking for people who might assist with the analysis of
an artifact from Nikumaroro Island. He writes:

    Nikumaroro is an atoll in the central Pacific, where The
    International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has
    been conducting archeological surveys and excavations in the
    hope of throwing light on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in
    1937. I'm one of TIGHAR's archeologists, and am responsible for
    coordinating analysis of recovered artifacts.  The great bulk of
    the artifacts have nothing to do with Earhart, but reflect the
    history of the British/Gilbertese colony that was established on
    the island in 1938 and lasted till 1963.

    This year, among the artifacts we brought back is a fragment of
    paper--naturally a very rare sort of discovery in such a wet
    climate.  The paper was preserved by being partly burned, and
    sealed in the remains of what appears to have been a firepit. It
    appears to be part of a can label.  We'd like to verify whether
    this is what it is.  If it is, we'd like to be able to identify
    the kind of can from which it came, the probable contents of the
    can, and its approximate date.  It almost certainly dates from
    sometime between 1938 and 1960, but we'd like to nail it down a
    lot tighter than that.

    I feel sure there are people who specialize in the study of food
    containers, but I don't know who they are.  Any assistance you
    can give us in identifying such specialists would be very much
    appreciated.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:93
                  Distributed: Friday, April 25, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-10-93-014
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