Archaeological Collections Management, Step One: Taking Control

Archaeological Collections Management,
Step One: Taking Control

PaperTitle & Picture of a Curation Mess

Paper delivered at the
Society for Hawaiian Archaeology
Conference

October 7, 2000

Jo Lynn Gunness. M.A.
Archaeological Labs Manager
University of Hawai'i, Manoa

Just as archaeologists are expected to produce reports on their field work so that records are available of what they did, they are also charged with conserving the materials produced by their work so that the materials can be re-studied at some time in the future.

To that end, once the report is written, the materials are generally packed up and stored away for those unknown future researchers; and are promptly forgotten as the next project begins.

Sadly, just because the collection was boxed up and stored away doesn’t mean it will be there when the future arrives.

As the years go by, storage areas become filled with these forgotten remains of archaeology past, many of which were stored under less than ideal conditions, and which begin to deteriorate immediately.

A fundamental truth about collections management is that:

When It's Out of Sight, and Out of Mind,

It's On It's Way to Being--

Gone For Ever

Without ongoing curation and preservation efforts, few, if any, materials in archaeological collections will last into the future.

Federal archaeological projects are required to comply with a set of curation standards that were passed into law when it became apparent there was a burgeoning disaster in our Nation’s cultural heritage closets. Many of the objects and materials in the care of repository facilities were in very poor states of preservation, or completely lost. With the implementation of 36CFR79 ("Curation of Federally-Owned and Administered Archeological Collections"), Federal agencies were required to make sure that collections produced by their undertakings are managed and preserved according to professional museum and archival practices.

This means:

1. Inventorying, accessioning, labeling and cataloging a collection;

2. Identifying, evaluating and documenting a collection;

3. Storing and maintaining a collection using appropriate methods and containers, and doing this under appropriate environmental conditions and physically secure controls;

4. Periodically inspecting a collection and taking such actions as may be necessary to preserve it;

5. Providing access and facilities to study a collection; and

6. Handling, cleaning, stabilizing and conserving a collection in such a manner as to preserve it.

However, 36CFR79 only covers Federal collections, and the great majority of collections in Hawaii aren't covered by the law.

Following the lead of a number of other states, the Hawaii State Historic Preservation Division has begun developing guidelines for curation for all collections resulting from archaeological work undertaken in Hawaii.

Right now, archaeological repository facilities in Hawaii are, for the most part, short of space, under-funded, and short of personnel with the knowledge or training to properly curate collections. Gaining control of the situation will often require facing up to the mess in the back room, garage, attic, EZ Access storage units, or wherever the stuff’s been put over the years.

What I'm going to address today are the first steps to take in worst-case situations. The following advice and examples are based on having gone through some of the worst of it myself:

So, where to begin..........

Before you can do anything else, you need to know:

(1) What collections you’ve got,

(2) Where the stuff is, and

(3) What condition it’s in.

To achieve this, I recommend the following:

Make One Person Responsible for Overseeing the Work. That person needs to have some knowledge of curation procedures, and should know where to go for additional help. Besides people trained in museum and archival methods, there are any number of written sources for this information—books, articles, and an increasing number of very good web pages.

Computerize Your Inventory--Use a widely-used database program (such as MS Access or File Maker Pro); which can reasonably be expected to be supported by its maker for some time into the future, and which provides at least some conversion capabilities for older data.

Determine & Write Down Your Goals--no matter how simple. At least this will keep the work on track.

Establish & Write Down Priorities.   They WILL change as you work, but that’s OK.; they probably should change as you encounter conservation, or other, problems.

Make a Record of the Steps You’ve Followed (no memory is perfect, and personnel changes do occur).

A lot of people don't understand that archaeological collections consist of more than just artifacts. Collections consist of everything produced by the project. That can include a large quantity of "STUFF" consisting of many different kinds of materials:

Artifacts Ecofacts

Midden Materials Charcoal

Sediments Faunal & Floral Remains

Field Records Maps

Lab Records Reports

Photographic Materials--Slides, Prints, Negatives

Related Paperwork--Permits, Grant Proposals, etc.

Electronic Media of many kinds

Electronic media is an often forgotten, and extremely important part of the list.

So, how do you deal with all this "STUFF?"

First, (if you haven't already) do a Preliminary Inventory. Record at minimum:

Provenience Information--Where the Material is From

The Date of Project

Name of the Principle Investigator

List what the Collection Includes--List all categories and provide as many details as possible without completely unpacking boxes, etc.:

Written Records & Maps

Photographic Materials (Negatives, Prints, Slides)

Artifacts (Ceramics, Lithics, Etc.)

Midden, Dirt, Charcoal

Etc., etc., etc.

Take notes on the Condition of Collection Materials; and

Record the Present Location of Materials

After the Preliminary Inventory, you should Make a Closer Evaluation of the Condition of Collection Materials, (particularly the ones noted as critical during the inventory) and take immediate actions to deal with serious conservation problems.

Being unaware of preservation problems that impact collections, and/or not knowing what to do about them, can quickly lead to serious collection losses.

Curation problems are wide-ranging, and there's only time to mention a few here today. I'll show some examples of some critical ones that nearly every collection in Hawaii has, or will, experience.

Lack of Space/Crowding/Stacking causes things to get scraped, banged-up, and squashed.

Poor housekeeping allows dust to collect on and around materials, abrading surfaces, and providing a living and breeding environment for destructive insects.

When housekeeping isn't good, rats & mice start making nests in boxes in dark corners.

Poor housekeeping also encourages molds & fungus in paper, and photographic materials--slides, negatives & prints.

Many people aren't aware that using improperly sealed wood shelving in storage areas damages their collections. Gases escaping from the wood destroy paper products and photographic materials.

Insects--Termites, Silverfish, Cockroaches and Book Bugs of all kinds are a constant threat to collections.

Silverfish are extremely destructive to paper records.

Paper Box Label Eaten by Silverfish

Wooden cabinet fragment showing extent of termite damage. Upper picture shows outside. Lower shows wood broken open.



Close-up of cabinet fragment--nothing left but the paint.

Termites Eat Paper Bags, Too--Mixing and Contaminating Bag Contents

Paper Records, Photographic Prints, and Packing Materials with high acid content is an on-going and very serious preservation problem. The familiar Bishop Museum "Write in the Rain" Field Book is a good example of the result. The paper has an extremely high acid content which causes the paper to deteriorate over the course of a very few years. It appears that sweat and body oils accellerate the deterioration. This book is from a project conducted in 1979. Most pages are beyond salvage. I've recently discovered others from 1982 in nearly the same condition.

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Migration and Crystalization of Soluble Salts in artifacts can be a rude surprise to those who are unaware of the problem. Damage is caused by pressure of salts crystalizing within objects as they slowly dry, or as temperature and relative humidity fluctuate in their storage area. In fairly porous materials, the salts move to the surface, often causing the surface to slough off in a powder.

Click here for
VERY large
view (232 KB).

In denser materials, the salt crystals can't migrate to the surface, and pressures eventually build to bursting.

Slingstone

Poi Pounder

Waterlogged Organic Materials Require Specialized Care. If possible, keep them wet. If you want (or need) to dry them out, consult with experts.......keeping them wet is still the best idea. Wood Shrinks, Warps, and Splits as it dries, doing irreparable damage to valuable artifacts.

Waterlogged Tapa Beater

Same Tapa Beater Accidently Dried Out

Using Inappropriate Packing Materials is probably one of the most common errors in storage.   Using boxes that don't protect their contents, shopping and garbage bags that are Designed to biodegrade, and using acidic paper in packing materials (newspaper, non-archival quality cardboard, cheap copier paper, etc.) all combine to shorten the lives of your collections.

The photo below shows a box of Sediment Samples contaminated because of using a box that doesn't cover the contents, and using biodegradable plastic bags for packing. Those two problems were then compounded by termite droppings falling from wood mouldings near the ceiling of the storage room.

Data that exists only in Obsolete Electronic Media is wasting space in your collections area. It is no longer accessable, and is therefore gone for good.

Punch cards and data on tape can no longer be read....even if it could, can you find the code sheets? Remember 8" Wang disks? They don't make 5.25" floppy drives anymore. Who today can read a WordStar file?

Computer Data--Can it be accessed?

Lastly, and usually the most unrecognized and biggest problem—Unstable Temperature & Relative Humidity—This is arguably the most important conservation problem because it is the underlying cause of so many other problems. Warm temperatures and high humidity accelerate disintegration of acidic paper, provide pleasant living conditions for bugs, rats and mice, and molds and fungus. And when temperature and relative humidity fluctuate, the problems with soluble salt crystalization is greatly increased.

Take Immediate Actions to Deal with Serious Conservation Problems

Get some control over the Temperature & Relative Humidity. If you can’t provide museum quality environmental control, at least install air conditioning that runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If you can’t do it for all your storage area(s), consolidate the critical stuff in one room with an air conditioner (that runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year).

Get Rid of Wooden Cabinetry and shelving if at all possible. Use metal cabinets and shelving that have an enamel finish. If you must use the wood, make sure several layers of an appropriate sealant have been applied and allowed to cure for at least two weeks.

Always be on the lookout for evidence of Termites, and treat infestations promptly when they’re found.

Improve housekeeping in your storage areas. Schedule regular, thorough cleaning which includes removing the dust buildup under and behind storage units, and cleaning air conditioning filters.

Take steps to limit access to your collections by bugs, rats and mice, etc. Seal spaces around windows and doors; and try to avoid working at night with the windows and doors open, particularly when termites are swarming.

Immediately Photo Copy onto Archival Quality/Acid-Free Paper, records that are showing signs of deterioration.

You can make Digital Copies of deteriorating records, but be mindful of how useful these electronic files might be--remember they will need to be systematically migrated to newer formats.

Systematically upgrade all electronic/digital media as technology changes!!!

Use only Archival Quality Materials for records and storage.

Monitor your collections--Create a Schedule, and stick to it. Deal with problems as soon as they are discovered.

One last recommendation:

Evaluate Security and Improve It !

Enforce limited access to your collections areas. Even if theft weren’t a concern, accidents do happen, and the more people who have access to storage areas, the more accidents are likely to happen.

IN CONCLUSION:

Providing the best possible repository conditions for our archaeological collections is something we should all be concerned with. Not only are they our legacy to the future, but they will be increasingly relied upon by researchers as sites disappear, and funding for fieldwork becomes even more limited.

I know that some of you here today have already dealt with the critical aspects of collections organization and management I've just detailed. I urge you to serve as resources for those who are just facing up to the task. We'll also be putting information about curation and conservation matters up on the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology website in the future. Please be watching for these new pages, and feel free to contribute information we can add to them.

Thank you.