[Nhcoll-l] Lichen collection storage

[Neisskenwirth, Fabian]

Dear all,

Here at the Ruhr Museum we are currently moving lots of our collections into a new "exhibition storage building" that will be opening next year. The main issue about this, is that for safety reasons against possible pest damage, we decided to avoid storing certain objects in paper or cardboard materials. These could become be a nutrition source for different  organisms.

As the Ruhr Museum is mainly a local cultural history Museum and holds an immense collection of artefacts made of wood and other materials susceptible to pest damage, everything is stored on ethafoam mats and Tyvek® sheets, as these are not problematic to pest infestation. The natural history collections consist mostly of paleontological and geological specimens. But it has also a few collections of more recent specimens.

One of this collections is an lichen collection of the 1990´s, with thousands of specimens stored in little cardboard boxes and paper envelopes. This is why we can't move them in to the new collection building.

I was asked to look for advice in how to store them in alternative materials that present no nutrition source. As far as I know herbaria are usually stored between paper sheets and cardboard boxes (archival quality of course), so I wanted to know if anyone has had experience using different materials for herbal storage. As I mostly work with the conservation of zoological specimens, this is a new field for me.

As you can see in the pictures attached the actual storage is not very ideal either, very few are stored in little plastic cases, which I think are not very good for conservation purposes.

What solution would you suggest?


All best from Essen and many thanks in advance!

--
Fabian Neisskenwirth
Zoologischer Präparator
MA Student Restaurierung und Konservierung von Kulturgut

+49 (0) 201 24681 470
Stiftung Ruhr Museum
Fritz-Schupp-Allee 15
45141 Essen
www.ruhrmuseum.de<http://www.ruhrmuseum.de/>


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