Consultation with Textile Conservation Specialist to Develop Plans for Rehousing Collections and Assessing Conservation Treatment Needs

With the assistance of a NEH Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, proposes to contract conservation specialist Nancy Love of Philadelphia Textile and Object Conservation to conduct a general preservation assessment of the museum's textile and natural fiber-based collections. This assessment will allow the development of detailed plans for improving storage and rehousing the collection in a newly designed museum facility in the near future. Of the approximately 350 textile and natural fiber-based collections, conservation treatment needs of selected items with pest damage, extreme wear, or other preservation problems will be assessed. The museum's collection contains a range of items including ca. 3000-year-old prehistoric textiles from archaeological sites in Kentucky and nineteenth and twentieth century ethnographical items (clothing, fabric, dolls, puppets, and basketry) from various parts of the world. These materials represent the museum's most vulnerable collections that have been stored in wooden cabinets without adequate climate control and improperly handled over the years. This assessment will allow the museum to move forward with requesting new storage furniture, archival supplies, and developing protocols for the treatment and handling of perishable materials.