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Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature
Close.Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature
By taking excellent care of the specimens in our collections, staff of the Canadian Museum of Nature preserve a fascinating historical and genetic record for generations to come. In fact, conservation is one of the principles governing all our activities. However we use our valuable resources, we must look after them.
The primary concern of conservation is providing conditions that are suitable for the safekeeping of the specimens in the collections. This requires both active and passive measures in order to minimize or prevent damage or deterioration that may occur during their use or storage. It is important that conservation methods don't take away from the usefulness of the specimens, whether they are used for exhibits, research, reference or education.
Passive measures do not depend on anything else while they do their work of protecting the collections. For example, storage cabinets with good seals around the doors supply passive protection by keeping the inside relative humidity constant even if a power failure temporarily shuts down the active environmental controls of the building.
Specimens come in all shapes and sizes, may be fragile or robust, and need different environmental conditions in order to keep them at their best. Some specimens must be prevented from drying out while others must be kept dry, some must be protected from damage by insects and many deteriorate when exposed to light. The acids in paper made of wood pulp can damage many specimens, so linen mounting paper and Mylar storage boxes are used. Radioactive minerals require a special room to protect staff from radiation.
The museum's collections are stored in our Natural Heritage Building, which was designed with all such requirements in mind.
The science of conservation has identified no less than 10 categories that sort all the possible causes of damage to specimens. View an example of each of these agents of deterioration at work in our photo gallery.
Active research is necessary to support passive conservation measures in order to meet all the challenges of preserving such a diverse array of specimens. The museum's collection specialists are leaders in research into specimen preservation. While they communicate this information at international seminars and forums, their primary interest lies in applying what they have learned to the museum's own collections. Innovative solutions to satisfy the needs of our internal clients are constantly being developed.
As a recognized leader in conservation, the museum offers a number of specialized products and services to our outside customers.
Good record keeping is important in specimen conservation. The procedures used to collect each specimen are noted, along with the methods used in preparing, preserving and using the specimen. If a specimen deteriorates, these records can tell us why, may allow us to repair damage, and prevent it from happening to others. This level of care is also applied to our institutional records, which cover the history of this important national institution.
The Collection Management and Conservation Research Centre serves as a professional focus for the museum's unique expertise and extensive experience in the fields of preventive conservation and collection management.
Anne Botman © Canadian Museum of Nature
These three cards started out covered with identical horizontal stripes of different colours of blue wool. Called Blue Wool Standards, they are used to gauge the extent of fading caused by exposure to light and ultraviolet light. The left-hand card is unfaded. On the middle one, a lengthwise section is protected from light by aluminum foil (Al). The next darkest length on this card was protected with an ultraviolet filter (UV), while the most faded length was not protected at all. This card is shown uncovered at right. Placed in a south window for eight months, this Blue Wool Standard shows fading equivalent to several decades of exposure under controlled exhibition lighting conditions.
Marjorie Courtney-Latimer © Canadian Museum of Nature
Marjorie Courtney-Latimer’s historic sketch of the living coelacanth.
High levels of care are also applied to any object that complements, or gives additional information about a particular specimen. For example, to add to what we know about our rare coelacanth, we have an actual hook, line and sinker commonly used by the fishers of the area where it was caught, as well as copies of the first drawing of the first extant coelacanth studied by scientists and of the poster used by another scientist in his successful search for a second one. Read the remarkable story of the extant coelacanth in Our Amazing Treasures.
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