RE: Refrigerated Storage

["Ellis, Shirley" <shirley.ellis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Beatrice,
You may want to have a look at Stefan Michalski's (Canadian Conservation
Institute) articles on temperature and humidity.  One in particular talks
about the rate of chemical deterioration, "All the temperature studies of
chemical deterioration in museum objects show that rate is halved each time
the temperature drops about 5 degrees C." (Stefan Michalski, "Temperature
and Relative Humidity: The Definition of Correct/Incorrect Values", CCI,
Symposio 92, Madrid).  Lowering the storage room temperature (even a few
degrees lower than 22'C) is a good idea but if people are working in that
space their comfort also needs to be consdidered. 

I'm not sure how cold you are thinking when you say "cold storage" because
there are some materials that should not be put into very cold environments
(eg. glass and some painted artifacts and others).  Generally textiles are
safe in cold or cool environments and some plastics and rubber materials
really do benefit from lower temperatures, as they are often on a faster
track of deterioration.

Other considerations might include having an acclimitization space if the
cold storage room is very cold.  (Again, Stefan Michalski has written about
this "Retrieval from Cold Storage", Report No. EDR 1612). 

Shirley

Please note NEW area code of 780
Shirley Ellis, MAC, CAPC
FSO/Conservator
Department of Human Ecology
B-20 Human Ecology Building
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2N1
ph (780) 492-7678  fax (780) 492-4821
email:  shirley.ellis@xxxxxxxxxxx
www.ualberta.ca/~hecol/txcons.htm


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-texcons@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-texcons@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Beatrice Hulsberg
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 6:04 PM
To: texcons@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Refrigerated Storage


I hope that someone on the list can refer me to current literature on the
use of "cold storage" rooms for textile storage.  I am the Assistant
Curator in a State Museum and there is a possibility that our storage areas
will be renovated and expanded.  At present, I am fortunate to have a cold
storage room that handles about two-thirds of our textile collection
(several thousand objects from costume to quilts).  Everything is jammed
both in the cold room and in the regular cabinets.  We are looking at
high-density storage units.  The problem is that I insist that we keep the
cold room; however, our conservators (who are not textile conservators)
have informed management that we do not need the cold storage and it could
be eliminated.  We do have textiles like a buffalo robe, furs, feathers,
etc. that I believe benefit from the colder temperatures as well as the
wools.  By the way, we have 32,000+ objects including furniture that will
also require new storage.  I have had the freedom for several years to be
responsible for the textiles and would very much appreciate any advice
regarding storage that the list members could give.  Thank you.  Beatrice
Hulsberg