We are currently recruiting housekeeping volunteers at St.Fagans to help look after the displays in the historic houses and Castle. This is a new scheme that is open to anyone who would like to get involved and learn more about traditional housekeeping techniques. Many of which still have a use today, such as using natural herbs and flowers to repel moths from precious woollen jumpers.
With your help we would also like to enhance the interpretation of the buildings by putting more of the collections on display and reintroduce traditional crafts to create replica items, such as rag rugs, baskets and wicker carpet beaters.
Training will be provided, so no previous experience is required, all we ask in return is a few hours of your time a week. This is a pilot project, so even if the days currently on offer are not suitable please do still get in contact and register your interest.
As part of the project we have converted one of the cottages at Llwyn yr Eos farm into a base for housekeeping volunteers, with studios and a comfortable place to relax.
If you are interested in becoming a housekeeping volunteer please follow this link and we look forward to hearing from you.
Why are we concerned with boxes whose lids don’t close properly?
This is not just curators and conservators being pernickety; we really do have very good reasons to make sure that every closed box stays shut.
Museum collections contain a lot of valuable things that are easily perishable. Swords are made to be tough, but - believe it or not - even swords are not indestructible.
Iron rusts when it gets wet. Iron also rusts because of moisture in the atmosphere. Other metals can corrode in much the same way. If we are not careful we would end up with merely a bag of rust!
Therefore, we store all manner of sensitive objects (including cannonballs!) in what we call “micro-environments”. While many of our stores and galleries are air-conditioned, the humidity in the air is often too high to prevent these delicate objects from rusting.
Micro-environments are boxes or plastic pouches that contain one or several objects, plus a chemical that regulates the humidity within the box or pouch. This chemical is silica gel – if you have ever bought an electrical item the packaging probably contained a little sachet saying “Do not eat!”. The little granules in this sachet are silica gel. It is very widely used to keep things dry. Including in museums.
Once we have packaged our objects with silica gel we do not want moisture from the atmosphere to get into the box; that’s why we make sure the box closes properly. Only then will the objects be safe and dry, and ready for display or study.
As part of the redevelopment project at St.Fagans National History Museum, we wish to open our doors to volunteers and invite them to work alongside the Preventive Conservation team, helping to care for the collections on open display in the historic houses. There are hundreds of objects on display ranging from furniture, textiles, pottery and agricultural equipment. Providing plenty of opportunities to share a skill or learn something new.
Caring for this site is no mean feat, we currently have 26 furnished properties including a castle. Plus there are 4 new buildings on the way, including a medieval hall and the Vulcan pub! So plenty to keep us busy. The Museum is also open throughout the year and can have up to 700,000 visitors during that time, which means we are kept on our toes making sure everything continues to look good, day in and day out.
This work is a combined effort, involving staff from many different sections, which often goes on behind the scenes unnoticed by visitors. However, we wish to change this and provide opportunities for volunteers to assist us, not only in the care of objects, but also contribute to interpretation and help inform the public.
We are currently refurbishing one of the cottages on site, aiming to provide a comfortable and creative work space for our new collection care volunteers. We hope to start recruiting in May so if you're interested, I'll be posting more updates as the project continues to progress.
Dust, dust, dust, where ever you look! Museums are dusty places - dust is on top of shelves and underneath cupboards, it covers objects, books, specimens... Keeping our heritage in tip-top condition is a constant battle against dust.
What is dust? Dust in the atmosphere is made up of lots of tiny particles of soil, pollen, pollution, volcanic eruptions etc. Inside buildings, such as museums and your own office or home, dust is mainly bits of human (and pet) hair and skin, textile and paper fibres.
Why is dust a problem? Fresh dust, in small amounts, is not a problem other than making objects look unsightly. Over time, however, dust has a tendency to become really sticky. How often do you clean the tops of your kitchen cupboards? Only when you move houses, like most people? Then you'll know how difficult it is to remove the dust.
In addition, dust it hygroscopic - it absorbs moisture from the air. And because dust is really nutritious - just think of all those yummy skin cells - once it gets damp it is the PERFECT substrate for mould. Mould is really bad. Mould is responsible for damage to an awful lot of museum objects across the world.
Dust also attracts pest insects. They hide in dust, sometimes live of it – or the mould that grows on dust – and generally thrive in environments that are dusty, messy and neglected. There are some insects that cause a lot of damage to museum collections.
So we keep dust at bay in the museum because we want to maintain your heritage in as good a condition as possible. We are fortunate to have the support of some brilliant volunteers to help us keep the collections clean. Rachel, Vicky, Meredith and Elizabete - all students at Cardiff University's Department of Archaeology and Conservation - have just helped us clean one of the Library stores and one of the Art stores. Thank you to the volunteers for their help keeping dust, mould and insects under control in the museum.
Insects love eating dead things. In nature, they are important decomposers. But in museums (and in your house) they can be a right old nuisance. Museums - who look after and preserve your heritage - need to keep a constant watchful eye on their collections; sometimes, this work hits the news, such as last week at Bakewell Old House Museum in Derbyshire.
Museum collections contain a lot of dead things. Wood is eaten by the larvae of furniture beetles (woodworm) who create very attractive tunnels; that is nice if you like tunnels, but not so good if you like that historic picture frame more than the tunnels inside it. Mould in archives and libraries provides a nice little food source for booklice. Carpet beetle larvae and clothes moth caterpillars aren’t fussy – they will eat wool, fur and feathers.
There is hardly a museum that does not have pest insects in its stores from time to time. These are the same insects you will find in your home. Your wardrobe at home is irresistible to moths. And did you ever have to throw away a bag of flower or cereal because it contained a healthy population of weevils or flour beetles? This is annoying, but you can easily buy a new pair of socks, or a new packet of flower. But can you imagine a WWI flag or a specimen of the extinct quagga being destroyed by moths? These are irreplaceable objects.
So insects like organic things. Parts of museum collections that are susceptible to insect infestations include entomology (yes, insects even love to eat insects!), taxidermy, botany, furniture, costume, shoe and library collections, and anything containing wood. It is often the larvae of insects that feed on organic objects. Insects also like not being disturbed. At home, you are more likely to find weevils in flour that is several months old than in a bag you bought last week.
To deal with an insect infestation does not mean fumigating the place with chemical insecticides; instead, it means not letting a problem get out of hand. It means regular checks and audits of the collections to spot any problems early. It means setting up pest traps around the entire building and checking them regularly. It means collecting data on insect activity across the site to spot patterns and relating them to particular problems, for example high humidity. It means setting up pest control zones with different restrictions in various parts of the building and a quarantine facility, which is something more and more museums are doing. It means good housekeeping: regular cleaning of stores, avoiding rubbish accumulating, putting specimens and objects safely away immediately after using them. And should any infestations be spotted we kill insects usually by freezing the object rather than using chemicals.
We are not quite "waging war on hungry bugs"; our approach to dealing with insect pests is called “Integrated Pest Management” (IPM). A couple of years ago the BBC made a helpful programme on this: What's eating the museum?, featuring museum pest management specialist David Pinniger. Work on this at National Museum Cardiff has only just started but IPM will receive a lot of attention in the next couple of years. Because of its general interest, pest management at the museum is also an area where we will involve the public through workshops, exhibitions and volunteer programmes. It will help us keep safe the collections we care for on behalf of the people of Wales while giving everyone an opportunity to learn about the fascinating world of insects.
