History 5090: Care and
Management of Historical Artifacts
Wednesday 1:00 – 3:30 pm with additional “lab” time (4:00 p.m.)
Instructor:
Dr. Debra A. Reid, Office: 2572 Coleman Hall, phone: 581-7272
e-mail:
cfdar2@eiu.edu
Office
Hours: Tuesday, 11am-
1pm; 4pm-5pm, Thursday 11am-1pm; and by appointment
Locations:
Classroom (2250 Coleman Hall);
Contact
information for instructional partners:
Linda
Norbut-Suits, linda_norbut_suits@ihpa.state.il.us
Matthew
Mittlestaedt, matthew_mittel@hotmail.com;
lincoln_log@ihpa.state.il.us
Mike
Watts, cfmw@eiu.edu
Course Description:
This course focuses on the steps necessary to mitigate
the deterioration of artifacts held in the public trust, particularly in small
to medium size historic sites and museums. Curators and collection managers in
these institutions face challenges such as inadequate storage, non-controlled
environments, collections-intensive programming, and other natural and
human-made hazards that threaten collections. How can they gain and then
maintain physical and intellectual control?
The course
begins with an overview of the philosophy of curatorship, collections care, and
preventive conservation, followed by the details of museum registration
including computerized systems and the processes of collection acquisition,
cataloguing, and inventorying. Then the course shifts focus to explore the
characteristics and needs of ten artifact groups: wood, metal, stone, ceramics,
glass, textiles, skin/leather/bone, historic structures, living collections,
and composite materials. The course concludes with discussion of the importance
of research and collections development plans and long-range planning to extend
the life and usefulness of collections.
You will get
practical experience in collections care at Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic
Site, predominately, with forays in collections at the
Texts:
Rebecca A. Buck and Jean
Allman Gilmore, The New Museum
Registration Methods, 4th ed.,
Dwight P. Lanmon, compiler, Evaluating Your Collection: The 14 Points of
Connoisseurship.
Reader – Collections Care at Historic Sites. This reader includes articles from Conserve O Gram, an NPS publication; the
iO,
an “amazingly easy collections management software developed by
PastPerfect Museum Software, version 3.0, an integrated
relational database (collection and membership management) Windows based;
includes access to an on-line version of Chenhall’s Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging (see below) and a User’s Guide (downloadable). http://www.museumsoftware.com
Course Schedule & Readings
Week 1 Course expectations; Philosophy;
Terminology Classroom
August 25 Job
Descriptions
Accessioning
& Deaccessioning
NMRM: Appraisals, 303-307
Reader: Preventive Conservation (goals & staff roles)
NMRM: Acquisitions, 157-65; Deaccessioning, 167-76.
SECTION I
(Sept. 1-29): Record & Object Control:
documentation; automation, record
keeping, space allocation
Week
2 Registration and Documentation – Manual &
Automated
September 1 Paper Trail - Legal Requirements of Collections
Records
Introduction to IHPA
cataloging worksheets; Data Content Standards
Collections database (iO Willoughby.com; Past Perfect)
Linda Norbut Suits & Matthew Mittlestaedt
Week
3 Registration and Documentation – Record
Keeping Applied
September 8 Filing Records
Numbering & Marking
Condition Assessment:
Documentation, Monitoring; Condition Reports
Practicum
Focus:
complete catalog worksheets & condition reports at Lincoln Log
(an opportunity for students to update worksheets
for objects already catalogued)
(LLC will select artifacts – 7 to 8 students with
2-3 objects each)
READINGS: NMRM: Numbering, 43-44; Handling, 45-48; Measuring, 49-52; Marking, 65-93; Storage, 116; Condition Reporting, 53-62
Reader: Physical Control - Record Keeping, Care & Handling
Evaluating Your
Collection
Week
4 Inventory
September 15
Practicum Focus: work with location records generated by IHPA to complete the inventory
record current locations through
digital photographs of rooms/walls
We will take digital images of the Lincoln Log Cabin artifacts in situ
Collection
Policy and Procedures
Week 5 Agents
of Deterioration; Tarble
Practicum Focus: I'll be in the
NMRM: Preventive Care, 103-07; Pests, 255-66
Care
of Staff
Week 6 Storage:
Designing Ideal and Low-Cost Collections Storage
September 29 Packing,
Moving, and Shipping Collections
Reader: Care and Handling; Collections Storage: Moving and Hauling
(Oct. 6-Nov. 17): Collection Characteristics & Care Requirements –
Practicum focus: for each artifact type we will
complete catalog worksheets and condition reports, assess preventive
conservation needs, and analyze storage needs -- (We will meet at Lincoln Log
Cabin and will work with Shiloh Church materials: church supper dishes, glass
& silverware, visitor sign-in books, portraits of early ministers, archival
materials, etc.; and with the items from “Tom’s Collection”)
Week 7 Collections Care/Preventive
Maintenance (CC/PM)
October
6 CC/PM: Organic Objects; Wood
& Composite
i.e. Furniture, Wagons
Week 8 Collections
Care/Preventive Maintenance (CC/PM)
October
13 CC/PM: Metal & Composite –
Tools, Machinery
Week 9 CC/PM: Ceramics; Glass, Stone
October 20
Week 10 CC/PM: Textiles & Costumes
October 27
Week 11 CC/PM: Natural Plastics / Polymers
November
3 Skin/Leather/Bone/Ivory
Living Collections -
Animals, Plants
Plastics
NMRM, relevant pages under Handling, Measuring, Marking, Storage
Week 12 Archives (Books; Photographs)
Practicum
focus:
[I'll be at the MOMCC Board meeting this class meeting, but the class will
apply information from the archives class to the archival material in the
Week 13 Structures / Landscapes
Reader: IMLS Environmental Survey Grant
[In preparation for this class, refer to your notes from
HIS 4920: Historic Preservation in the
Consider how treating a building as the largest artifact
may affect collection preservation.]
completion of worksheets, storage recommendations, and preventive conservation suggestions
November
24 NO CLASS
THANKSGIVING
Section III
(Dec, 1 & 8): Physical and Intellectual Management
Week 14 Managing Collections for Use
December 1 Exhibits; Tiering Collections; Outdoor
Storage
Artifacts
in Programming
Reader: Managing Collections for Use
in Exhibits
in Interpretation & Ed. Programming
Reader: IMLS Conservation Training /Housekeeping
Week 15 Risk Management:
Emergency Preparedness
December 8
Reader: Emergency Preparedness / Disaster Planning
Long-Range Planning for Collections Stewardship
Accreditation &
Collections Stewardship
Collection
Plans
MAP Collections Assessment;
Conservation Assessment Program (CAP)
FINAL December
15
Culminating Project - conservation suggestions and prioritization Lincoln Log
Reserve
James R. Blackaby, Patricia Green and the Nomenclature
Committee, Revised Nomenclature for Museum
Cataloging. A revised and expanded version of Robert G. Chenhall’s System for Classifying Manmade Objects.
A. Bruce MacLeish, The
Care of Antiques and Historical Collections, 2nd ed., revised
and expanded version of Per E. Guldbeck’s The
Care of Historical Collections.
Kenneth D. Perry, ed. The Museum Forms Book. 3rd
edition.
Daniel B. Reibel, Registration
Methods for the
·
PROJECT
COMPLETION:
(100 points for each segment; 300 pts. TOTAL).
Collection Documentation: Automation,
Record Keeping, Space Allocation (Sept. 8-Oct. 6)
Include:
Accessioning/Deaccessioning; Legal Requirements
Records management (manual
and computerized/automated)
Numbering/Marking
Condition
Reports
Storage/Pest
Management
Collection Characteristics & Care
Requirements (Oct. 13-Nov. 10)
Include:
Textiles Wood;
Composite Artifacts
Metal; Composite Artifacts Ceramics; Glass;
Stone
Living Collections Plastics
Natural Polymers; Leather,
Skin, Bone, Ivory
Structures/Landscapes Books/Paper
Physical
& Intellectual Management
(Nov. 17-Dec. 15)
Include:
Collections and Programming; Housekeeping
Emergency
Mitigation
Intellectual
Management
You will receive verbal feedback and three written evaluations following completion of each phase. I will assess: knowledge of recommended processes; application of recommended processes; technical abilities; ability to work independently and in a group, and the quality of the finished worksheets/reports/treated objects, etc.
·
VERBAL REPORT on the collection care and preventive conservation requirements related
to one type of material, i.e. living collections, plastics. . . You will select
the material to explore in depth. On the day we cover this material in class,
you will share your findings – in ten minutes or so – including the basic
characteristics of the material as well as the recommendations to care for the
material in perpetuity. You will be the “expert” for the day, fielding other
students’ inquiries about care and handling procedures as we work at Lincoln
Log Cabin (50 points TOTAL).
·
WEEKLY QUIZZES over material drawn from the readings (both NMRM, the course Reader,
and items on Reserve). 12 quizzes total.
Each quiz will consist of at least 10 questions including multiple choice, true/false,
and fill-in-the-blank answers. Each quiz will be worth 25 points. (300
points TOTAL).
·
FINAL EXAM over material covered throughout the course of the semester. This will
be an open-book final in which you will receive one question and will have to
prepare a verbal response within twenty-minutes (50 points TOTAL)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Higher
education has high standards. Academic dishonesty threatens the system. This
applies to every faculty and student at EIU. Students must assume responsibility
for their performance and should not plagiarize other’s ideas or words or cheat
in any other way on any exam or written work. Such activity will not be
tolerated. If I catch any student
copying someone else’s work without attribution and appropriate punctuation, or
if I catch any student cheating in any other way on any class work, I will fail
the student and report her/him to the Office for Academic Misconduct for
further discipline.
Ignorance
is no defense. Remember that legal caveat.
For
your protection, become familiar with the Student Conduct Code:
http://www.eiu.edu/~judicial/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
N.B. The
instructor reserves the right to revise the syllabus and schedule of
assignments over the semester as need arises.