[Nhcoll-l] How to display herbarium specimens without color fading

Mon Mar 7 13:00:00 EST 2022

Hi Rob and all,

interesting point about the presence of oxygen; doesn't this point to 
oxidative degradation of carotenoids and chlorins and oxygen as an 
mediator for fading ?

With best wishes
Dirk

Am 07.03.2022 um 17:58 schrieb Robert Waller:
>
> Hi Rebecca,
>
> Always good to try some informal experiments. Indeed, it is not 
> surprising that filtering UV would not reduce fading rate. It is 
> interesting to compare how chlorophyll “sees” light with how people 
> see light (see, for example, 
> https://www.demegrow.com/blogs/research/70623171-what-plants-see-separating-lumens-from-effective-par-epar)
>
> In a broad Getty Conservation Institute study (attached) removing 
> oxygen during exposure led to a 10 to 20 times reduction in 
> discoloration of herbarium specimens provided by the Canadian Museum 
> of Nature. That seems like a pretty good reduction but, when you think 
> about it, that just changes the lifetime on exhibit from a few months 
> to a few years. Strategies to limit light levels and exposure times 
> would help and I can imagine some other strategies to reduce loss in 
> value (perhaps protecting a part of the specimen from light would 
> reduce the loss of value by keeping that part unaltered). I think that 
> would be interesting to discuss with curators, researchers, and other 
> collection users but I think we do best to consider display of 
> herbarium specimens  a consumptive use of the color of those specimens.
>
> Rob
>
> Robert Waller, PhD, CAPC, FIIC
> President and Senior Risk Analyst
> Protect Heritage Corp.
> 622 Simoneau Way
> Ottawa  ON  K4A 1P4
> email: rw at protectheritage.com <mailto:rw at protectheritage.com>
> internet: www.protectheritage.com <http://www.protectheritage.com/>
> phone: 613-883-2707 (Canada)
> phone: 303-872-9739 (USA)
> http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9500-4113 
> <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9500-4113>
>
> skype: rrwaller
>
> /and, /Research Associate, Canadian Museum of Nature
> /and,/ Adjunct Assistant Professor, Queen’s University
> iic_fellowship_logo_2019
> ProtectHeritage_logo 
> <http://www.protectheritage.com/>QueensLogo_colour cmn_logo 
> <http://www.nature.ca/>
>
> image007 
> <http://www.facebook.com/ProtectHeritageCorp?ref=tn_tnmn>image009 
> <https://twitter.com/#!/ProtectHeritage>
>
> *From:*Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of 
> *Hawkins, Rebecca Keanni
> *Sent:* March 5, 2022 5:11 PM
> *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* [Nhcoll-l] How to display herbarium specimens without color 
> fading
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Is there a way to display herbarium specimens without color fading? As 
> I understand it, exposing an herbarium specimen to sunlight (and maybe 
> even artificial light?) will cause the specimen's colors to fade to 
> various shades of brown. This question isn't for any specific project 
> or exhibition, just something I've been curious about ever since I 
> helped an herbarium make a small university display and its specimens 
> turned brown after a few months of summer sun.
>
> I did try an informal experiment where I put an herbarium specimen in 
> a glass picture frame with UV blocking window film. However, the 
> specimen's color faded just as fast as a control specimen without the 
> film. This suggests that there was fault with the film itself or my 
> application of it, or even that UV light alone is not what is causing 
> the color of herbarium specimens to fade.
>
> Any ideas? Thanks!
>
> Rebecca Hawkins (she/her)
>
> M.A. Student in Museum Studies
>
> University of Kansas
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. Seehttp://www.spnhc.org  for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

-- 

Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

Postanschrift:

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Zoologische Staatssammlung München
Dirk Neumann, Sektion Ichthyologie / DNA-Storage
Münchhausenstr. 21
81247 München

Besuchen Sie unsere Sammlung:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/

---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Storage
Muenchhausenstr. 21
81247 Munich (Germany)

Visit our section at:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1221 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 28913 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 39650 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 10846 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 21440 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.png
Type: image/png
Size: 50261 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image007.png
Type: image/png
Size: 22085 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0004.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image008.png
Type: image/png
Size: 24715 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0005.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image009.png
Type: image/png
Size: 34674 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0006.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1Y9H8O0lTZrVFVCU.png
Type: image/png
Size: 23308 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220307/33f201c1/attachment-0007.png>