Modern materials, especially synthetic polymers and plastics, had a significant influence on industrial, domestic and cultural life through the 19th and 20th centuries. The Smithsonian's museums and collections are repositories for many different forms of modern materials, from decorative and fine arts in the Cooper-Hewitt and Hirshhorn museums to industrial objects in the National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of American History. Now some of these modern materials are exhibiting signs of deterioration; past exposure to light, heat, moisture, chemical, and gaseous pollutants are reducing their integrity and longevity. The Museum Conservation Institute (MCI) studies modern and industrial materials, such as plastics and space age materials, with the aim of understanding why they are deteriorating and learning how to mitigate the deterioration. Without scientific investigation and new collections care strategies, priceless artifacts from the “Greatest Generation” will be forever lost. This research area relies heavily on advanced analytical instrumentation and imaging techniques in order to uncover how these materials were manufactured and how they will be conserved for future generations.
Deterioration of modern materials - finding the cause, finding the cure
Modern materials, especially synthetic polymers and plastics, had a significant influence on industrial, domestic and cultural life through the 19th and 20th centuries. The Smithsonian's museums and collections are depositories for many different forms of modern materials, from fine arts in the Cooper-Hewitt and Hirshhorn museums to industrial objects in the National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of American History (NMAH). Now some of these modern materials are exhibiting signs of deterioration; past exposure to light, heat, moisture, chemical, and gaseous pollutants are reducing their integrity and longevity. The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute’s (MCI) modern materials program is examining the deterioration of polymers and plastics in industrial plastics, painting varnishes, conservation adhesives, and sculpture coatings. In one project, MCI researchers have studied a set of 1930s Lumarith cellulose acetate samples from the Division of Medicine and Science of the NMAH to discover why a few of the 49 color samples on a salesman's ring are weeping and crizzling. This research is reported in Studies in Conservation. With a better understanding of these materials and their degradation, MCI will help Smithsonian museums find ways to extend the longevity of 19th and 20th century art and objects.
New and improved analysis for modern paintings and pigments
Artists’ pigments are a source of information for understanding and safeguarding art objects. They are key elements in dating paintings and painted objects, attributing them to artists, and detecting fakes and forgeries. Their chemical identification is also crucial for finding safe conservation treatments and environmental conditions for display, storage, and transport of valuable art. Modern synthetic organic pigments and paint formulations are rife with problems — aging, cracking, fading — that are different from those of traditional painting materials. Therefore, it is vitally important that these modern pigments, along with their synthetic binders and additives, are characterized before problems arise. The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute scientists and fellows, in collaboration with international colleagues, have developed complementary analytical methods using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy that together allow improved identification of these modern synthetic organic pigments in acrylic and alkyd paint formulations and oil media, respectively. Raman spectroscopy, as a non-invasive and portable technique, allows the analysis to come to the painting. This research will be reported in an upcoming issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.