This division

• serves as the primary authority on the preservation of all artifacts in the collection and has responsibility for all remedial treatments
• recommends standards, policies and procedures for conservation and restoration
• is consulted on all Museum uses of artifacts
• assists Collection Management by recommending conditions for artifact preservation
• prepares incoming and outgoing artifact condition reports
• determines environmental standards for the Museum
• manages the preparation of artifacts for exhibit and loan.

Conservation involves measures taken to prevent or reduce deterioration of artifacts. These measures are taken to stabilize, clean, repair, strengthen or reassemble an artifact, or to return it to its original state through a process of restoration. A conservation policy and procedures have been developed by the Collection and Research Branch to establish the physical conditions under which objects will be acquired, lent, exhibited and stored.

Click on McLaughlin Piano Box Buggy to find out what was involved in restoring this late nineteenth-century horse-drawn buggy.