[Nhcoll-l] lighting guidelines for fluid preserved specimens in exhibitions

Mon Dec 17 10:21:48 EST 2018

Dirk summarises the situation well. Lux measures light intensity, which then gets used as a value to judge potential light damage to an object or specimen, but this is based around tungsten lighting which has a wide spectral band with many damaging wavelengths so lux as an estimate of damage is not necessarily a comparable factor across different lighting sources. Fluid specimens will suffer fading and there is the potential of initiating other chemical reactions that may affect the specimen through the initiation of free radicals etc. Thus repeating the advice already given avoid daylight and remove UV, and Iâ€™d suggest using a good quality LED system which have tight wavebands and produce less heat. 150 lux is a generalised value balancing the needs of seeing a specimen/object to those attempting to protect its long term stability and condition. Understanding these parameters better with respect to fluid collections is indeed an important research question and one raised at the recent fluid symposium in Paris the other week.

All the best

Jules

Prif Gadwraethydd, Gwyddorau Naturiol
Principal Conservator Natural Sciences
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From: Nhcoll-l [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Bethany Palumbo
Sent: 17 December 2018 11:32
To: neumann at snsb.de; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] lighting guidelines for fluid preserved specimens in exhibitions

Hi Esther,

I would simply continue to follow the guidelines on lighting regardless of the type of display, be it dry or in fluid.

Iâ€™m curious to know if there exists any research comparing the fading rates of fluid specimens in comparison to dry specimens? One for you Dirk!

All the best,

Bethany Palumbo,
Conservator, Life Collections
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW

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From: Nhcoll-l [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann
Sent: 17 December 2018 11:10
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] lighting guidelines for fluid preserved specimens in exhibitions

Hi Esther,

to preserve the (living) colouration of specimens usually requires specific preservatives (which usually are not allowed to be used on exhibition anyway); what is still recognisable in preserved specimens is mostly the pigmentation pattern. Melanophores can be easily damaged by UV radiation, so the question is not so much how much lux would be appropriate (or not), but how high the UV radiation inside the gallery would be. Usually, light levels should be kept as low as possible, a rough estimate is "150 lux or less". If you have lamps that emit UV light, UV filters should be considered. Also (even faint) sunlight exposure should be avoided as best as possible (but you surely considered this).

Hope this helps,
best wishes to Leiden
Dirk

Am 17.12.2018 um 11:42 schrieb Esther Dondorp:
Dear all,

For our new exhibitions we have some fluid preserved (ethanol) specimens that will be on display for the public. For dry mounted specimens we have lighting guidelines but for fluid preserved specimens it is thought that there are no restrictions because ethanol does fade the colors anyway. I think that light can decolorate a fluid specimen too so that we need some standards for them aswell.

I am curious what others use as a light regime for fluid specimens. How long and under what lightstrength (lux) do you exhibit an alchol specimen to make sure it does not fade too much?

Many thanks,

Esther Dondorp
collections manager
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