AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

There are always challenges for collection care, particularly in a historic building. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is no different. The building was constructed as a museum, music hall, and a library in 1898. There have been several expansions and reorganizations since then, including a major expansion in 1907 and an expansion for Art in 1974. The building complex now houses a public library, music hall, Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh (CMP) offices, the Museums of Art (CMOA) and Natural History (CM). The library and music hall are part of the complex but are separate entities. The museums and the music hall facilities are taken care of by the CMP Facilities, Planning and Operations (FP&O). The building complex is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. 

 
In preventive conservation, we consider the building envelope as the first line of defense for collection care. Finding the time, resources (staff and money), and setting priorities for repairing gaps in the 125-year-old building is challenging. The roof, walls and windows leak and the numerous environmental systems undergo constant repair. FP&O does an incredible job, but their priorities often differ from ours. 
 
We recently had the opportunity to prototype a new method for improving some of these leaks in the bird collection. The bird collection has large casement windows original to the 1907 building. The windows were covered with black-out shades. Cabinets were backed up to the windows and radiators, exposing collections to temperature extremes. When I arrived in 2009, the blackout shades were disintegrating. The windows behind the cases leaked – both air and insects. Working with the new collection manager (Serina Brady) and our head of operations, we developed a strategy to improve the situation, while respecting the historic structure. 
 
We approached the problem as a collaboration between the conservator, collection manager for the bird collection and new operations manager, discussing each step as we moved forward. Interior storm windows were constructed, and new blackout curtains were made, all in-house to save money. 
 
This paper will examine the efficacy of the strategy we employed. It will look at process, resources, and the advantages/disadvantages of what was done. Did the methods we used make the much-needed improvements to the environmental conditions of storage? Was the time and money we spent worth the effort? There are several other collection storage spaces that are faced with the same challenges. Can we use this strategy to make improvements in these spaces as well?