Hello! My name is Shannon and I am a 2nd year student on the conservation of museum and archaeological objects masters at Durham University. Currently I am undertaking a 10 month placement with National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.
Three months have passed since I began my placement and I am excited to share all about my experience so far! This is especially the case as I remember prior to applying to the programme at Durham that I followed this blog and would read the posts made by placement students with great excitement and maybe even a little jealousy… So it feels very special to be able to write my own post!
I commenced my placement alongside a fellow student, Sunčana ‘Sunny’ Marochini from the UCL conservation programme.
The internship began during a period we fondly remember as ‘The Silver Age’ owed to the amount of silver objects we treated! Archaeological Viking silver ingots, silver dining sets, silver jewellery, gilded silver…We were first allocated an assortment of silver kitchenware which had tarnished while on display and required treatment. This was a great initial project as it eased us into the practice and procedure of the lab, such as their documentation process and the interworking of their online database Adlib.
From the start of the placement I encountered a variety of treatments and approaches new to me. I learned how to prepare electrolytic reduction treatment, how to employ alkaline Rochelle salt treatment and I often made use of a new method of localised electrolytic reduction using the pleco pen!
My colleagues within the artefact conservation team (and in fact all those working within the museum) ensured that both Sunny and I felt welcomed upon our arrival. During the initial month of the placement we were given the opportunity to take part on a variety of courses and we were toured across all corners of the collection centre and museum. This allowed us the opportunity to meet colleagues from other departments and gain insight into their work.
There are several museums within National Museums Scotland. One of which is the Museum of Rural life which has a historic farmhouse onsite, as well as working farm. I worked with the preventive conservation team to clean the farmhouse and came face to face with museum pests and assisted in their eradication…
I was given the opportunity to visit the Museum of Flight. Here I worked to assist one of the preventive conservators, Tatiana Marasco, to calibrate their monitoring equipment and I also assisted in the cleaning of the aircrafts on display.
Working within a large national museum has allowed me a fantastic and helpful insight into the process of exhibition organisation. I am currently working under the supervision of artefact conservator Lydia Messerschmidt to conserve artefacts for an upcoming exhibition which will be held within Edinburgh Castle. During this I have liaised with curators and attended meetings with those involved in display such as mount makers, preventive conservators and the exhibit design team.
I worked under the supervision of Artefact conservators Charles and Diana to aid with the de-installation of a Roman alter from Trimontium Museum in Melrose and also with the de-installation of the ‘Wild and Majestic’ exhibition held at the museum. These were great, formative experiences and I thoroughly enjoyed working as part of the team.
Another facet to working within a museum which I had yet to experience whilst in Durham is encountering the ways in which visitors engage with objects on display. My most recent work involved urgent treatment on a Nisga’a memorial pole which had sustained damage whilst on display. I am beginning to consider the organisation of display and the facilitation of particular forms of visitor interaction with museum objects and the role of conservation within this- I am excited to research this further during my time at NMS!
Looking forward, I know that 2020 will be an exciting year! I am, among other things, working on several objects for an upcoming temporary exhibition.
I worked alongside Charles to survey the artefacts to be displayed as part of this exhibition and so I am very excited for the objects that will find their way into my station in the New Year. I am currently involved in an exciting research project in collaboration with the Scottish History and Archaeology department involving a large Roman alter stone…. Watch this space!
It’s impossible to completely predict the projects that I will find myself involved in, in the New Year, exemplified by the Nisga’a memorial pole, but I know for a certainty that the New Year will bring with it new challenges and I cannot wait!
Shannon