Week 12: November 4 and 6


    Good evening everyone! For my internship this week, I got the opportunity to act as a museum conservator and got to work on the restoration of a number of artifacts recently acquired by the museum. On Monday, Holly and I got to work on a multi-step process for the restoration of a handful of metal artifacts in the museums collection. Due to the nature of metals, rust has a tendency to build up quite a lot on certain artifacts over long periods of time, so it is up to the conservator, or in this case the curator and curatorial staff, to prevent any further damage from happening to the artifacts. So, after putting on some gloves and some face masks, we got to work on stage one of the restoration process. The first thing we did on an item was to brush every inch of the rusted artifact with toothbrushes to remove flaking rust, dirt, and dust from the surface of the metal. Then, he took some soft-bristled paint brushes and applied a nice, even coat of a chemical called Kroil, which is a penetrant and degreaser designed to loosen up and remove the much finer elements of rust and corrosion from the artifacts surface. After briefly letting the Kroil dry, we then wiped the entire artifact down with some mineral spirits, another chemical that helps to remove any leftover Kroil from the artifacts. Finally, we then wiped the entire artifact down with some rubbing alcohol to ensure that the entire artifact was clean and devoid of any excess chemicals. 

    On Wednesday, we once again got to work on the artifacts laid out before us, but we also took another step in the restoration process. For certain artifacts that have rusted far more than others, we used another chemical called rust converter to seal in the surface of the artifact and prevent any more corrosion from peaking through. The chemical doesn't necessarily remove any of the artifacts rust, but will create a seal around the artifact that will prevent any more damage to the artifact in the long-term.

    This was how I spent both days at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse this week and it was certainly very exciting to get to participate in. I enjoyed being entrusted with these artifacts and getting to see the process of conservation up close was super interesting, even if it was only limited to metal objects. It certainly taught me the importance of chemistry in a museum setting, which is a skill set I don't think I would have expected to be utilized in this field very much. 

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