Treatment Case Studies in the Consolidation and Adhesion of Cellulose Nitrate

ABSTRACT

Cellulose nitrate artifacts from the collections of the Queen’s University Master of Art Conservation Program and Glanmore National Historic Site were examined and treated by graduate students in the Master of Art Conservation Program at Queen’s. Each object was in a varied state of degradation with unique condition problems. Under the supervision of the artifacts conservation professor, graduate students identified the materials constituting their objects and tested various treatment methods for consolidation and structural repair. Paraloid® B-67 in n-butanol and Aquazol® resins in isopropanol and distilled water were found to be effective in different roles, depending on the object and its state of degradation. This paper will discuss the factors that influenced decision-making for each object, with the aim of expanding interventive treatment strategies for cellulose nitrate objects.

KEYWORDS:

• Cellulose nitrate
• treatment
• adhesion
• consolidation
• plastics

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Meaghan Eckersley at Glanmore National Historic Site for providing access to their objects and encouragement and to Scott Williams, Adjunct Professor of Conservation Science, for providing FTIR training and support. Our generous donors provided the tools for much of the students’ work, including the Leica stereomicroscopes, funded by Bader Philanthropies, and the ThermoFisher FTIR, funded by the Jarislowsky Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).