This document summarizes the current care practices for museum objects made from leather and skin materials. Its intent is to provide a general understanding of these materials and to offer guidelines for curatorial care. This article will attempt to familiarize museum staff with the differences between skin products since the manner in which a skin is processed determines both its physical characteristics and susceptibility to deterioration. At present, the conservation fiels can offer only a limited array of solutions to the problems these collections are facing since advancement in the treatment of leather and skin products has not kept pace with the progress made in other areas of museum object conservation. Fortunately, conservators and the scientific community have begun to focus more specifically on the preservation of leather and skin and new information is rapidly being made available through publication like Leather Conservation News. An overall review, however, of current laboratory treatment and recommendations for interventive techniques would require a more thorough discussion than is practical here, but will constitute the subject of a future article.