[NHCOLL-L:3661] RE: Deep Freezing a Museum's Exhibit Hall

[White, Rich]

My guess is that keeping a constant, above freezing temperature would be best.  I also suspect that your insurance carrier will absolutely forbid you to use standard space heaters throughout the building, especially when the building is unoccupied, so you might want to check with them.


Richard S. White, Jr.
Director
International Wildlife Museum
4800 West Gates Pass Road
Tucson, Arizona 85745
520-629-0100 extension 252
Fax: 520-618-3561

________________________________
From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Mary Beth Prondzinski
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 1:17 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:3660] Deep Freezing a Museum's Exhibit Hall

Greetings:

My Vermont Victorian museum will need to replace its furnace in January, a procedure requiring the heat be shut off for two weeks.  Where there is no guarantee the ambient temperature will be/remain below freezing the entire two weeks, we thought that the extended cold might help kill off any pest activity that has been previously encountered.  Most of the specimens are in glass and wood cases, but some of the larger taxidermy mounts are open to the elements.  The main exhibit hall has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with the historical/anthropological/ethnographic artifacts exhibited on the upper level balcony, again encased in glass and wood.

Would such an uncontrolled freeze be damaging to the artifacts/specimens as long as they remained closed in their cases?  Would it be advisable to "bag" the taxidermy mounts to contain them during the two-week freeze and subsequent thaw?  Or would it be advisable to keep the ambient temperature as consistent as possible (i.e. above freezing) during the two weeks without central heat and use space heaters throughout the museum?  For the record:  the current ambient temperature of the museum is cold, regardless of the furnace, because the building is very old and constructed of stone.

Has anyone ever experienced this in a museum setting???   Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!

Mary Beth Prondzinski
Director of Collections
Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium
1302 Main Street
St. Johnsbury, VT 05819
(802) 748-2372 x110
mprondzinski at fairbanksmuseum.org<mailto:mprondzinski at fairbanksmuseum.org>

http://fairbanksmuseum.org/
http://vermonttv.net/


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