to go a bit more into detail on this - from what I understand, this was on display* in a house for a number of years. This particular piece comes from the home of the harbormaster (a lovely man), and was exposed to light and about 50+ years of cigarette smoke. The boat in the photo is an early ferry in my area, and the cardboard it is mounted on seems to be some sort of church(??) yard sign(???)

we are still deciding the best course of action for this piece, but in all honestly, as a smallish museum/historical society with a laundry list of pieces with urgent conservation needs, we don't have the manpower to do anything other than keep it in a dark and temperature controlled space.

There are a lot of things that make me sad when I see pieces like this, because its so easy to see how important it was to its former owner, and it hurts me that we can't pour all of our time and resources into every piece that needs help. There are pieces even in this intake (which I cannot show because they contain identifying information about my location) that will be prioritized as they demand more immediate conservation efforts. Time can be a cruel opponent - and all we can do is our best.

anywho!!! all this is to say Support your local historical society!!! they are trying their darndest to preserve your local history and can't do so without community support! (and support does not always mean money!!! genuinely just interacting with your local historical societies can mean so much)

I've had a wonderful exercise in class today doing analytical imaging of specimens. Here's some pieces of taxidermy (and a rock) photographed under UV (ultra-violet) lighting - a blacklight.

First up: a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). Using a hand-held UV lamp first, my partner and I saw the legs, face and underside of the wings fluorescing. Unfortunately our photo setup did not allow us to showcase the underside of the wings, but that could have been attempted with a different plan - and would have, if we were only photographing the one specimen. I do not believe the specimen has been painted, but that's a commonly used trick in bird taxidermy, as skin tends to lose its colour as it dries. The fluorescence can also potentially stem from pesticides or other chemicals used in conservation, such as glue (the flourescence under the wing is most certainly glue), but it would require further testing to say for certain.

Next up: the Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus). This is quite frankly a beautiful mount of the fish! It's lost its colour over the years, but the UV-flourescence completely distracts from that fact. Our lecturer suspects it may be coated in a form of tree sap-based varnish, since this tends to flouresce blue-green as it ages. If you look closely on these images, you can see metal tacks holding open the fins, and ventrally along the tail you can see a seam for closing the skin around the form.

Finally: calcite. And what a finale it is! UV fluorescence is a common ID-trick for minerals as some shine really brilliantly, and this chunk of rock really shows how that works. In daylight (this photo is lit only from one side, to better show the surface texture) the mineral is a plain white colour, but the UV-lighting brings out a red and purple shine from deep inside it. We were joking that it looks like a video game asset as we set up the photo! I've used UV for geological specimens before, but only in microscope slides.

The Roman mummies in Egypt were most beautifully wrapped. It seems to have been a skill or art that grew over time. Of course, we don’t have mummies from earlier periods in such pristine condition, and I may be lying without knowing it. Nevertheless, the Roman mummies are gorgeous things.

Julian Carter, Prif Gadwraethydd yn Gwyddorau Naturiol, yn dangos llysywen bendoll y môr a ddarganfuwyd yn ddiweddar.

Francis Picabia’s materials and techniques - “Edtaonisl (écclesiastique)”

Picabia’s monumental abstract painting Edtaonisl (écclesiastique) (1913) (image 1), includes two unusual pigments: a vivid cobalt violet (image 2) and a metallic gold (image 3). Both are “precious” in different ways. Cobalt violet is expensive to buy and the metallic paint has actual gold particles suspended in the oil paint medium.

All this week we’ll be sharing stories about Francis Picabia’s materials and techniques. Find out more at mo.ma/picabia_conservation.