Old Poisons, New Problems: A Museum Resource for Managing Contaminated Cultural Materials by Nancy Odegaard

by Nancy Odegaard

Old Poisons, New Problems is a timely and welcome practical guide to identifying, testing for, and dealing with contaminated cultural materials archived in museum collections. With increasing indigenous involvement in the collection, handling, and_more recently_the repatriation of cultural artifacts formerly held in museum archives, there is an increasing need to educate both the museum community and tribal members about the potential risks of pesticide contamination on museum collections, and provide the means to test for, identify, analyze, and safely handle these artifacts. Special features include worksheets for performing basic tests, charts of scientific and historical information on known pesticides, data resources, and illustrations. This book will be widely used by members of the museum community, as well as the tribal groups, involved with the managing of these collections.

Genres: Museums

Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew? As a person outside this field, I find it fascinating that museum professionals have needed guidance for removing poisons during repatriation of tribal items to Native Americans. If I were in this field I would get copies for all of my colleagues - this is a practical guide with a wealth of information on the various toxins used to treat artifacts and how to handle said toxins and how to deal with the various stakeholders.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good primer on dealing with cultural collections contaminated by pesticides with information for tribal partners and museum professionals