Week 3

In week three of Museums and Archaeology, we visited the storage collections of Manchester Museum. The tour and seminar were lead by Bryan Stitch, who is the Curator of Archaeology and the Head of Human Cultures at the Manchester Museum.

In this seminar, we covered four major topics: storage and conservation (focusing on preventative conservation), documentation, archiving, and other aspects of collections management. Our first stop was large objects from the ancient and prehistoric collections. These were all in boxes with the area and accession number written on them. As Bryan explained, many of the boxes were not ideal for conservation: they were flimsy and had staples that could rust. Fortunately, the conservation team at the Manchester Museum was beginning to replace these with boxes that were more suitable to both longevity and access.

We then visited the climate-controlled room with the collection of metalwork. This collection had to be kept at below 30% humidity due to the rate of deterioration. Bryan explained that before loaning or exhibiting any of the objects (especially the metalwork collection), the conservators had to analyze the site, transportation, and display of the object to make sure that the object would be safe in its surroundings.

After the talk on storage and conservation, we moved on to the computer documentation demonstration where Sue spoke about and showed us the KE EMu system. This system not only keeps track of all data about the object (including size, weight, provenience, and accession number), it also allows users to cross-reference and see pictures of the objects. In all, it is an extremely important tool in collections management.

We then moved on to tour some of the other collections, stopping at the paper collections (with data on archaeological sites) and some examples of good and bad storage systems. We also spoke with Bryan about acquisition and disposal of artifacts, as well as the need for policies on each. In all, it was a very informative and helpful seminar.

This week was also the deadline for our group project outline, which was handed in on Friday. We designed the idea and scope of the project, and will be working next Tuesday to find objects for our catlogue.

-Erika