Food products in museum collections

Beatrice Colastin Skokan <bskokan [at] miami__edu> writes

>I was asked to add a wrapped cookie to one of our archival
>collections and am very hesitant to proceed without further
>guidance. Are there preservation methods/guidelines for adding food
>items to collections? ...



I have been asked to preserve historic/commemorative biscuits and
cakes before and have freeze-dried them.  This renders them somewhat
brittle so they have been consolidated with a thin (5%) solution of
paraloid B-72 in acetone.  If there are chocolate bits, raisins or
candied peel present this might present a longer-term problem but
generally I have not (yet) found this so.  I have also heard of
people soaking them in acetone or iso-propanol to dissolve out
lipids and similarly freeze-resistant molecules.

Simon Moore, MIScT, FLS, ACR,
Senior Conservator of Natural Sciences.
Hampshire County Council,
Department of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs,
Museums and Archives Service,
Chilcomb House, Chilcomb Lane,
Winchester SO23 8RD. UK.
+44 1962 826737




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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:67
                   Distributed: Friday, May 15, 2009
                       Message Id: cdl-22-67-007
                                  ***