Re: Refrigerated Storage

["Mary W. Ballard" <BallardM@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To textile discussion list participants: For another point of view, I forwarded the inquiry about refrigerated storage to the co-editor of Storage of Natural History Collections: A Preventive Conservation Approach ((Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, 1995). With permission, here is her reply:

Frankly, I think cold storage should be used only when its efficacy for 
particular objects has been clearly demonstrated. I do not doubt for a minute 
that it works well for film-based materials and for color images in 
photography, because all of the considerable research seems to support this. 
It also works well for material that is preserved in alcohol, provided the 
material has never been fixed in some other substance. Again, this is based 
on some very solid evidence.

There is evidence that it is NOT a good idea for skin and furs (see Hawks, 
C., S. Williams, and J. Gardner. 1984. The Care of Tanned Skins in Mammal 
Research Collections. Museology 6. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock. 32 
pp.; and Pool, M. 1997. Preliminary analysis of the effect of cold storage on 
fur garments and mammal skins. Collection Forum 13(1):35-39). 

I suspect that there are other categories of materials that would suffer more 
harm than good from cold storage. Also, there is always the problem of 
bringing material out of cold storage and into warmer environments without 
damage, even when cold storage is warranted. It is amazing how readily people 
forget that this matters, especially when pushed for immediate access to an 
item. 

What was the initial purpose of this cold storage, anyway? Was it somehow a 
magic bullet for 'preservation' or was it perceived as pest control (the 
latter, as we both know, might have simply produced some really temperature 
resistant bugs, depending upon how cold the storage actually was).

Cathy


Catharine Hawks
Conservator
2419 Barbour Road
Falls Church VA 22043-3026 USA
t/f 703.876.9272
cahawks@xxxxxxx