A Safer Work Environment for Stabilization of Moldy Collections

Abstract

The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is an actively collecting museum, and collections stewardship preservation activities include treatment of objects affected by mold. Mold adversely impacts the physical stability and esthetic qualities of collection objects and creates unsafe conditions; providing a safe treatment environment is part of an overall risk-reduction strategy. Federal standards for working with moldy museum objects do not exist therefore disaster recovery-type practices are utilized, but it is unknown if basic isolation tents provide the safest environment for protecting those treating the objects. Prolonged use of a disaster-type isolation tent at NMAAHC proved unsatisfactory and unsafe; defining the optimal specifications and identifying applicable standards were key to designing a safer solution. Input from the museum industry and engineers, along with an examination of standards for similar hazards, impacted the overall design of an improved enclosure. Comparisons between the disaster-recovery isolation type enclosure and the new negative-pressure enclosure are compared for appropriate applications, context, and scale of different situations.