Introduction to the Special Issue on Practical Approaches to Technical Research

Conservation practice, in all its diverse forms, is anchored by the scientific investigation of materials. Technical research informs everything we do for our shared heritage, from care and preservation to materials testing and analysis. Conservators and scientists perform this research in a variety of settings – in the laboratories of major art museums, the seasonal workspaces of archaeological excavations, and everywhere in between. Yet there is an undeniable disparity between much of the high-level research that is published and how the findings of this research are applied in the real world, especially in places that are under-resourced. It is a gap that leaves many practitioners and accessible, adapted research tools underrepresented in the conservation literature.

This issue, part one of a double issue on the topic, aims to help bridge this gap by highlighting some of the more “practical” technical research approaches currently being used in the service of cultural heritage preservation. It builds on a concurrent general session I chaired at the 2019 AIC Annual Meeting, where authors discussed challenges and solutions to undertaking their work in unconventional research settings. Some of these challenges include working with limited in-house analytical equipment and expertise, collaborating with scientists outside the heritage field, and providing technical research support for fieldwork projects in remote places. My work at a small academic museum, where I perform preventive care, conduct research, and support archaeological field conservation, has also spurred my curiosity about this topic. I have been eager to share notes with like-minded researchers and to learn more about how other conservation professionals are “making it work” in their investigative efforts.

The editors at JAIC were enthusiastic about an issue focused on accessible approaches to research, and the overwhelming response to our call for papers affirmed a collective desire to showcase rigorous-yet-practical research in a peer-reviewed venue. While the papers featured in this and the next issue represent a wide range of conservation specialties, they are thematically linked. Some present simplified tools and techniques for materials investigation, while others discuss collaborations that bring research to new or under-served places. They share projects that made the most of available resources, that developed or optimized research methods that can be easily replicated elsewhere, and that embraced any uncertainty that remained from the results of their research.

In their article on the application of in-situ soil testing for anticipating corrosion risk in excavated bronzes, Ian MacLeod and Alice Boccia Paterakis discuss how such tests may be used to guide conservation interventions at the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology. Erik Farrell’s paper presents a “low-tech” profile measurement technique that enabled his team to safely clean the interior of an historic Dahlgren gun at the Mariners’ Museum. Keats Webb, Stuart Robson, Roger Evans, and Ariel O’Connor’s study shows how a simple tool – a modified DSLR camera – coupled with infrared wavelength selection, can be used to optimize image-based 3-D object reconstruction for condition monitoring. Lisa Imamura and Roxine Dunbar’s rapid communication details their conservation and collections care collaboration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, where they leveraged low-cost environmental testing and openly available preventive conservation resources to develop better storage solutions for the collection. Noa Kollaard and W. (Bill) Wei outline their development of an accessible, easily replicable peel-test adapted from an industrial testing standard to evaluate adhesive strength in consolidants for flaking paint. Teresa Duncan, Edward Vicenzi, Thomas Lam, and Shannon Brogdon-Grantham evaluate dry-cleaning methods for soot-damaged papers using a range of techniques, many of which – including cleaning experiments, microscopy, and color spectrophotography – were conducted from home at the height of COVID-19. And finally, Ellen Carrlee shares highlights from her many years of research at the Alaska State Museum and discusses the core principles that have guided her projects: comparative observation with known positives, preponderance of evidence, and collaborative consensus.

Although diverse in their subject matter, these papers share a practical, reflexive research philosophy: one that fully acknowledges both the benefits and limitations of the methods discussed. The accessibility of this research makes it all the more valuable, and I believe it will open doors to new conservation solutions and discoveries. I would like to thank each of this issue’s invited authors for their contributions, including Raina Chao (2022), whose article detailing a new wet chemical test for magnesium corrosion can be read in Volume 61, Issue 4 of JAIC. I would also like to thank Suzanne Davis for supporting this multiyear project, Gwen Stewart Manthey for her invaluable input on abstracts, and Bonnie Naugle for all of her help in bringing “Practical Approaches” to print.