When is it shiny enough? Conservation of a Dividing Engine
Over the summer, staff at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science are preparing for their exhibition ‘Astronomy and Empire’ opening in October 2017. Kirstie Williams, University of Cambridge Museums Organics Conservator, was asked to conserve the Dividing Engine for the exhibition. First off, what’s a Dividing Engine? A dividing engine is a device that is used to mark…
39 microtomes… but which looks best?
Jack Rajack, our latest work experience student at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, recently helped to reinvigorate an old Whipple work experience tradition: that the student would get to sample aspects of exhibitions, curation, and collections management by creating their own display case in the museum. We are currently redeveloping our New Gallery, which will shortly be…
‘It’s amazing what you can do with pegs’: the conservation of a Papua New Guinea skirt
Recently the conservation lab at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has been a hive of activity with conservation students and project conservators. Here is one challenge we have tackled: the conservation treatment of a Papua New Guinea grass skirt. The grass skirt was conserved so that it can be displayed in the MAA Spotlight Gallery as part of the…
