Today was a big cataloging day. Michelle gave me a mountain of boxes of artifacts and said ok, go! Before I delve into the pieces that I worked on, here is a glimpse into the process known as “cataloging.”
(Disclaimer: This is the mountain of boxes that need to be shelved and organized in the basement… NOT the ones that Michelle had me work oh. Phew)
When you start off with a garment, you first lay it out flat on a table that is covered with tissue paper. But you can’t just see any old tissue paper – like the kind you use to wrap presents, oh no. For museums there are two types of tissue paper; buffered and unbuffered. Buffered tissue paper contains an agent that combats acid. You can use it on all plant-based materials such as cotton. Unbuffered tissue paper is used for animal-based materials such as silk and leather. Unbuffered paper is used for most of our garments, especially if you are unsure of what the fabric used. So anyway, put the garment on the paper, check.
Next you collect all of the information to input into the PastPerfect museum catalog software. This entails taking the measurements – i.e. length and width – noting the condition of the piece, being sure to look for any discoloration, holes, wear and tear etc. You also write down the information on any labels or other information you can gather from examining the garment – fabric, style etc. Whew, okay so you’ve got all of your deets – now for the more hands-on stuff.
All items in the museum collection need to be labeled with the catalog number so they can be identified. This requires that we CAREFULLY sew a label into the inside of each garment piece in the museum. When I was growing up my mom wanted me to sign up for sewing classes. I was never interested in sewing or doing anything domestic like that. Well, those sewing classes would have come in handy right about now! With some instructions from Michelle and through a little bit of trial and error I successfully sewed in a label into the fur coat – score! The important thing to remember when working with objects is that all work and conservation must be REVERSIBLE. Therefore all of my stitches must be loose.
Another way to label an artifact is with a paper tag – i.e. for those items that you cannot sew a label into. Once again, however, you can’t just pull out of scrap of paper and a string from your drawer. Tags with cotton strings cannot be used because plant fibers contain acid so we must use nylon strings. And the third and last way to label an artifact is by gluing a label on. For example, today we were cataloging some ash trays from the Dunes Casino here in Las Vegas. We assigned the item a catalog number and printed it onto a piece of paper. Then, we used polyvinyl acetate glue to adhere the paper to the item. This specific glue is water soluble and therefore, yes, reversible.
Now that you’ve got all of your details, a catalog number that you have fixed to the item, we take a picture of it and we can upload all of the details into PastPerfect, viola! Cataloging is a bit of a process but is fun to examine each piece and try to figure out how it was used or worn and the story behind it. I’ve decided that being a museum registrar is kind of like being a forensics technician. Ever seen the television show “CSI” or “Bones”? Yup, kind of sort of somewhat like that.
Allison
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