Essay on Conservation for Museum Collections

Conservation of collections is the act of efficient preservation, careful handling to avoid damage and loss to the collection. When conserving collections, we do not rely on received wisdom or procedures rather we consider ways of reducing possible risk to the collection at acceptable cost and the importance of the collection over time. Addressing all risks is critical because if resources are focused only on a few risks, the collection is left vulnerable in areas unaddressed. There many risks to put into consideration when conserving collections for example theft, fire, physical forces that may result to wear and tear, temperatures, war, floods, pests, and contamination. Many professionals such as security staff, maintenance staff, conservators, facility managers and collection managers should work as a team to ensure efficient conservation of collections.

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This report presents a review of the article, Creating Voices: Ancient to Modern at the Petrie Museum in the Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies by Debbie Challis. Challis claims that Oral histories have created voices in the museum; they provide a platform to understand more about the actual objects, or they act as the objects in their rights. When creating the oral history for Ancient Egyptians, it is apparent that no Ancient Egyptian or Recorded Actual voice can give us insight into their lives or history. The closest we can get to hearing Ancient Egyptians voices is the hieroglyphs. The UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology boasts a vast collection of Papyri from mainly from the Middle Kingdom. The writer stresses that papyrus gives us a glimpse of the ancient Egyptian peoples lives and literature and therefore it should be well conserved.

Challis enlightens, Hieroglyphs are a visible language placed between writing and drawing, so it can be argued that monuments and stelae emblazoned in them are the vocal objects hence bring voices of this ancient civilization to life. The writer says that Digital Egypt for Universities is a website introduced to familiarize Petrie Museums artifacts of Ancient Egypt to higher education students and bring sound to papyrus and scripts. The article adds that the site also illuminates the mystery surrounding the Ancient Egyptian language due to the lack of vowels in the early hieroglyphs, and it gives practical experiments in the pronunciation and use of it as a Human Language.

The writer reveals that Petrie Museum has been involved in a project to bring voice to ancient Egyptian Objects for example Creating Traditions which is a creative writing/speaking workshop based on papyrus fragments of literary compositions which helped people to create their stories in the Museum and interact with the collections. Soundscapes is another project of Petrie Museum that is brought to the light by the writer who says it is a digital learning environment. The final product is an interactive and educational resource for learners. In further explanation, Challis maintains that it allows for the integration of media such as images, sounds, and videos about Ancient Egyptian without exposing the artifacts to potential risks. The objective of Soundscapes was to let the students engage, see and hear what they read. The article concludes by predicting that with these projects and future projects, Petrie Museum is aiming to build a platform in which Ancient Egypt objects, histories and museum will get a voice and help to conserve these objects for present and future generations.3

References

Challis, D.,(2012). Creating Voices: Ancient to Modern at the Petrie Museum. Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies. 10(1), pp.35-38. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jcms.1011205