The best preservation decisions are based on first-hand knowledge. NCPTT is creating new technology-based information for people active in hands-on preservation and conservation.
NCPTT contributed its first-hand knowledge to the Department of Defense in 2009. Recently, the DOD wished to establish a series of standard rehabilitation treatments for better management of its built heritage. Initial drafts [...]
Ohio State University is looking to provide ethnobotanists, archeologists and analysts with a new way to identify fibers found in prehistoric artifacts. Through a grant from NCPTT, the university is creating an online database containing digital images, explanatory text and terminology that is designed to give researchers important information about artifacts.
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A live webcast of the Nationwide Cemetery Preservation Summit was streamed on October 19. 2009.
Read more →Chemistry and Materials Research at the Interface between Science and Art: Thoughts from an NSF Workshop co-sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Northwestern University
In July, I was invited to participate in a National Science Foundation workshop entitled “Chemistry and Materials Research at the Interface between Science and Art.” I had the good fortune [...]
In this episode, Jason Church speaks with Curtis Deselles, an intern with the Materials Research program at NCPTT, discusses the use of eddy currents and eddy current technology in conservation science. Mr. Deselles has built several eddy current analyzers, custom software, and presented on this topic at a non-destructive conference in St. Louis.
NCPTT has been using eddy current technology in preservation and will be bringing this tool to the iPhone platform in 2010. Download Episode 8 as an mp3 or subscribe via iTunes.
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The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is creating a new, interactive way of preserving historic landscapes. Slated for launch in October, the PTTGrant-funded “What’s Out There” project will raise awareness about the wide range and diversity of historic landscape design through a collaborative Wikipedia-style website. The site will enable users to directly contribute information, resulting in a comprehensive catalog of significant landscape designs.
Ultimately, the What’s Out There project seeks not only to make design landscapes more visible on a national scale, but also wants to encourage original scholarship aid in future NR and NHL nominations, encourage state and local landscape inventories, generate cultural landscape reports and inspire design professionals.
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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.
Read more →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’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.
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