Research project on preservation of parchment

The Collection Care department at The National Archives, Kew, has
been awarded a post-doctoral Fellowship by the Science and Heritage
Programme to investigate preservation environments for parchment
documents.  The award will enable the Fellowship to be supported for
three years from June 2010.

The interdisciplinary research project, a collaboration with Cardiff
University, aims to make a significant contribution to the evidence
base for managing parchment collections. The Fellow, Dr Lee
Gonzalez, based at Kew, will examine the microscopic changes to the
structure of parchment which occur under different storage
conditions and result in visible damage. The outcome of this
practice-led research will inform future collection management
strategies and guidelines for the storage of historic parchment
documents--a much-needed resource with wide application both within
and beyond The National Archives.

The Science and Heritage Programme is jointly funded by the AHRC
(Arts and Humanities Research Council) and EPSRC (Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council).


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:8
                   Distributed: Sunday, July 11, 2010
                        Message Id: cdl-24-8-002
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