Rubber fire bucket

I'm Christen Runge, a grad student in George Washington Univ's Museum
Studies program. For a research project, I'm working with Historic
Alexandria, Virginia's Archaeology office. I am in search of
information on a Civil War-era fire bucket made of (vulcanized)
rubberized canvas. One of these was excavated last year from a site
in Old Town Alexandria and we want to learn more about it.

History and use info would be great. I'm also looking for
conservation treatment and storage suggestions from anyone with
experience in archaeological rubber. The bucket is currently
waterlogged and is in wet storage; it was excavated from a wet,
anaerobic environment--it was in a privy! Thank you,

Christen Runge

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:39
                Distributed: Wednesday, October 28, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-39-021
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