[Nhcoll-l] WG: Animal bone collection and temperatures

Wed Sep 7 02:05:46 EDT 2022

I am sorry – I did it again: I hit the reply button, not the reply-to-all button.

N.

Von: Nadja Pöllath <poellath at snsb.de> 
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. September 2022 07:37
An: 'John E Simmons' <simmons.johne at gmail.com>
Betreff: AW: [Nhcoll-l] Animal bone collection and temperatures

Hi Valerie and John,

many thanks for your input and the links.

I meanwhile talked to the curator of the other collection housed in the same building (who didn’t know a thing about these plans). They even have to work in the storage part during wintertime meaning that the temperature should certainly be kept above freezing. 

We (our collection manager Carla and I) will collect all data so that we can discuss with the administrators of the building how we can help with saving energy and still have temperatures and humidity at reasonable levels in the collection.

Many thanks again for your help.

John, finally ... yes. This issue called for the collective wisdom of this list.

Nadja

Von: John E Simmons <simmons.johne at gmail.com <mailto:simmons.johne at gmail.com> > 
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. September 2022 04:29
An: Nadja Pöllath <poellath at snsb.de <mailto:poellath at snsb.de> >
Cc: NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu> >
Betreff: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Animal bone collection and temperatures

Nadja,

There is a very good, brief section on the preservation of "Bone, Antler, Ivory and Teeth" by Christopher Norris and Robert Waller on pages 852-852 of Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage, edited by Lisa Elkin and Christopher Norris. To summarize what they say, you are correct to be concerned with freezing temperatures and relative humidity due to problems with fracturing, mold growth, chemical aging rates, and migration of oils. Brief excursions of temperature to near freezing are not too harmful except as temperature affects relative humidity. Low relative humidity will cause fracturing of teeth and long bones, and frequent variations in relative humidity may do the same. The recommendations Valerie provided are good. Keep in mind that teeth are far more susceptible to damage from fluctuating relative humidity and low relative humidity than bone.

In addition, what I suggest is talking to the building engineers or administrators or whoever controls the thermostats and heating equipment about how to go about the energy saving measures and try to convince them that rather than simply prevent the temperature from going below freezing, they need to investigate ways to conserve energy while still maintaining a relatively stable storage environment to minimize humidity excursions. There has been some work on this in various museums in different climates, ranging from simply turning off heat or cooling over the weekend when the collection storage areas are closed (which, in an adequately insulated building, usually keeps the temperature and humidity within a desired range) to establishing a lower temperature (hence less energy use) that still keeps relative humidity within an acceptable range. This latter method is often more energy efficient, depending on the building design and materials, as it is usually more efficient to use a steady temperature of, say, 10 or 12 degrees, than to allow a large space to cool down and then heat it back up (which causes serious changes in relative humidity). Another solution is to use microclimates for very susceptible materials (such as teeth) by placing them in polyethylene boxes with treated silica gel, but that may be prohibitive for a large collection such as yours.

There are a number of publications available that address these issues. Three that are available for free download include:

Padfield et al. 2013, Low energy museum storage

 <https://www.conservationphysics.org/storage/low-energy-museum-storage.html> https://www.conservationphysics.org/storage/low-energy-museum-storage.html

Maekawa and Garcia Morales 2006-Los-cost climate control system for museum storage facility

 <https://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/science/climate/valle_de_guerra_PLEA_2006.pdf> https://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/science/climate/valle_de_guerra_PLEA_2006.pdf

Kerschner 2008-Providing safe and practical environments for cultural property in historic buildings

 <https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.568.1438&rep=rep1&type=pdf> https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.568.1438&rep=rep1&type=pdf

No doubt other people on this list have either had experience with these sorts of strategies or perhaps can recommend other useful publications to address this issue.

Glad to see you posting to nhcoll!!

--John

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant

Museologica
and
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
and
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima

On Sat, Sep 3, 2022 at 2:16 PM Nadja Pöllath <poellath at snsb.de <mailto:poellath at snsb.de> > wrote:

Dear all,

this is my first post to nhcoll listserve – so please bear with me, if I am not following the conventions of this list.

I am a curator at a collection housing archaeological animal bones and modern reference specimens. With the energy crisis, the Bavarian state ordered that the heating system in the collection shall only be working before room temperature drops below 0°C. According to the Preventive Conservation ‘bible’ temperatures in storage rooms generally should not drop below 15°C. I’d like to hear about the guidelines regarding room temperature limits in comparable collections.

More critical for archaeological and subfossil bones apparently are low RH values. As RH and temperatures are dependent variables, it would be good to know at which RH values damages are induced.

Many thanks,

Nadja

(Staatssammlung für Paläoanatomie München, Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns)

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