[Nhcoll-l] mercury in collections

[Ann Pinzl]

Greetings,

                You didn’t indicate for which collections  receiving mercury
that you were interested in.  I’ve been gathering references to herbarium
materials & methods for a while now, and I can  say that there are numerous
mentions in the latter part of the 1800s, but the earliest reference I’ve
come across is :

Franklin Society of Providence, R.I.  1829.  General directions for
collecting and preserving articles in the various departments of natural
history respectfully submitted by the Franklin Society of Providence, R.I.
to the attention of travellers, seafaring men and all lovers of nature and
of nature’s handy works, who are willing to lend their aid in promoting the
cause of science, and advancing the progress of the arts. Franklin Society
of Providence R. I. 8pp.   (Since. I have been concentrating on
plants/herbaria I noted only pages 6 & 7 as dealing with them.)

            As for tests, I am aware of the following:

Odegaard,N., D.R. Smith, .V.Boyer,, and J. Anderson.  2006.  Use of handheld
XRF for the study of pesticide residues on museum objects.  Collect. Forum
2220(1):42-48.

Purewal, V.  1999.  The identification of hazardous pesticide and fungicide
residues on herbarium material.  Scottish Society for Conservation and
Restoration Journal.  10(4):5-9.

Purewal, V.  2001.  The identification of four persistent and hazardous
residues present on historic plant collections housed within the National
Museum and Galleries of Wales.  Collect. Forum 16(1-2):77-86.

Purewal, V., and B. Colston.  2006.  New approaches to the identification
and treatment of contaminants in  P.57 in: Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections Program and Abstracts. 21st  Annual Meeting,
23-27 May 2006.  

Purewal, V., B. Colston, and S. Röhrs.  2008.  Developing a simple screening
method for the identification of historic biocide residues on herbarium
material in museum collections.  X-Ray Spectrom. 37:137-141.

Use of hand-held UV lamp as screening method; PIXE analysis for details on
mercury and arsenic contamination.

Purewal, V.J.  2012.  Novel Detection and removal of Hazardous Biocide
Residue Historically Applied to Herbaria. 192 pp. (Doctoral dissertation,
University of Lincoln).
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__eprints.lincoln.ac.uk_13573_13_Purewal-5FPhD-5FApril-5F2012-5Fv2.pdf&d=DwIFAw&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=yIRQqbTguMPoWiNONyA1QA0XEGAt58kSYEDDjhz8SQ8&s=sOW7heQt77wKoiAh7GsbvPAyZNy4Nq82So5Jw6riaJQ&e=

The Odegaard et al. paper covers cultural objects, while V. Purewal has
pretty much restricted herself to herbarium specimens.

 

Good luck,

Ann Pinzl

 

From: Nhcoll-l [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Peter
H Wimberger
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2018 10:34 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] mercury in collections

 

Hello all,
We have been doing some work on mercury in museum specimens and are
interested in finding more reports/papers that document the use of mercuric
chloride or corrosive sublimate in museum collections.  In addition we would
be interested in learning the results of mercury tests done on specimens, if
folks are willing to share those.  
Does anyone know who produced the mercury products that were used in
collections in the 19th and early 20th centuries?

Thanks very much,
Peter

 

Peter Wimberger

Director, Slater Museum of Natural History

Albertson Professor, Biology and Environmental Studies

University of Puget Sound

Tacoma, WA  98416-1088

 

 

 

Peter Wimberger

Director, Slater Museum of Natural History

Albertson Professor, Biology and Environmental Studies

University of Puget Sound

Tacoma, WA  98416-1088

 

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