The purpose of this project was to develop improved consolidants for restoration of stone damaged by weathering. Conventional consolidants are organic polymers or silica gels, which are simple materials that do not permit matching of a range of properties of the stone.
Later improvement of the suspension procedure resulted in consolidants that are much more stable and fluid. Stone treated with the particle-modified consolidant (PMC) increases dramatically in stiffness and strength. Most impressively in a sodium sulfate test, the PMC provided better protection than a commercial silicate consolidant.
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Planetizen is offering a webinar on preservation and sustainability tomorrow, July 30, 2009, at 11:00AM PDT/2PM EDT. This $49.95 course defines sustainable development as keeping what is “valuable by meeting our needs without prejudicing the ability of future generations to meet other own needs.”
This course shows how sustainability and historic preservation work hand-in-hand to meet the goals of both.
The instructor, Hector Abreu Cintron, is well known in the preservation community as a cultural resources management expert.
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NCPTT has completed the rewriting and editing of 12 Standard Treatments for the DOD.
Sixteen additional treatments are under review, and DOD comments will be incorporated as they are received.
This effort is directed at improving the technical content of the draft DOD treatment standards and the stewardship of DOD cultural resources.
Read more →NCPTT joined Tulane School of Architecture, Preservation Trades Network and Save our Cemeteries to host “Cities of the Dead: Above-Ground Cemetery Preservation, Conservation, Documentation Methodology and History,” July 13-31, in New Orleans, La.
Read more →NCPTT’s Executive Director, Kirk Cordell, joined representatives from the Southeast Region and the Washington Office to review current NPS policy and treatment of historic national cemeteries and to make recommendations to Deputy Director Quintana.
The review included site visits to Andersonville National Cemetery (ANDE), Andrew Johnson National Cemetery (ANJO), Fort Donelson National Cemetery (FODO), and Stones River National Cemetery (STRI) to examine operations at the national cemeteries managed by those parks.
Read more →NCPTT’s Mary Striegel participated in a National Science Foundation/Andrew Mellon Foundation workshop held to examine and improve the state of science used to study, preserve and protect cultural patrimony.
Forty participants met to identify areas where new research in basic science can provide a foundation for significant improvements in understanding the way art and artifacts were created and how best to preserve them.
Read more →NCPTT’s Andrew Ferrell and Kirk Cordell served as guest instructors for the University of Florida’s Preservation Institute: Nantucket. They lectured on the role NCPTT plays in facilitating research and training in innovative technologies for historic preservation.
Particular topics included NCPTT’s grants program, sustainable preservation, preservation trades training, and disaster response and planning for cultural resources.
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Today we are joining NCPTT’s Jason Church as he speaks with Claire Dean of Dean Associates of Conservation Services about using lasers to remove graffiti from rock art. Rock art or rock imagery is the common term for paintings and carvings on rock and in North America that is mostly associated with native communities.
Download Episode 7 as an mp3 or subscribe via iTunes.
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A variety of materials and methods have been used to preserve ceramic vessels. Many have proven successful, while others are damaging. Monitoring and evaluation of past treatments is a documented research priority in the conservation field. The Arizona State Museum (ASM) has examined, recorded and analyzed the performance of past treatments on 20,000 southwest vessels and a modern storage facility.
This research has afforded the opportunity to look forwards and backwards to identify patterns in archaeological methods, museum management and conservation.
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