Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science Amsterdam

Contour of a Senior Conservation Scientist

Published: June iv, 2019Fellow member Profiles, News

Agnes Brokerhof

What is your proper name? Agnes Brokerhof

What is your position called? Senior conservation scientist

Where exercise you piece of work? Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Amsterdam How many years have you been working in this capacity? 22 years (yet not all of them as 'senior' – once upon a time I was young)

When did you join SPNHC? 1994

What brought you to work with Natural History materials? It certainly was an indirect route. After my masters in chemistry (University of Leiden) I decided I knew too little about Fine art History and did my bachelors at the same academy. During that study I realized there is a lot of chemistry in works of art and so I got in touch with the CL/Key Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam and establish out that there is such a matter as 'conservation science'. They hired me on a projection to look into non-toxic alternative treatment methods to control mould and insects in heritage collections. That was my introduction into a field I came to honey. I continued the pest control piece of work at the Australian Museum in Sydney where I worked for a while at the Materials Conservation department. Next I studied time-temperature-bloodshed relationships of fabric moths at CSIRO's Stored Grain Research Laboratory in Canberra; the lab is one of the world leaders in stored product research. Their knowledge and expertise were highly inspirational for developing make clean and safe pest command methods for my somewhat unusual stored production: museum collections. Later on a course on 'Scientific principles in Conservation' at ICCROM/International Middle for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Belongings in Rome I returned to Amsterdam where the Fundamental Lab offered me a permanent position. I was asked to promote and innovate IPM and my newly acquired knowledge on pest control methods in Dutch museums. I also did a survey on conservation issues in Natural History and Ethnographic collections to determine what research needs they had. The onetime CL and its successors have always been the Ministry building of Culture's support unit for museums, libraries and archives, developing and disseminating knowledge and giving advice about preservation and collection management. Together with the Dutch natural history museums we fabricated an inventory of bug, knowledge and gaps therein. I looked abroad to meet what was known elsewhere already before initiating new research projects. That brought me in contact with the ICOM-CC/International Council of Museums – Conservation Committee's Natural History Working Group and SPNHC.

What practice you practise, and how do y'all work? I accept been actively involved with researching many aspects of collections care issues, e. k., my CSIRO work led me to freezing, high CO2 and low oxygen fumigation and heat treatment with the 'solar tent' as pest control possibilities. Then there's frequent consultation, oftentimes with other SPNHC members. My piece of work on introducing IPM in the museums profited greatly from input by the entomologists in various museums. Together with Jean Tétreault from CCI/Canadian Conservation Establish, I studied the effect of acetic acid on calcareous materials such as eggs and shells to notice preservation methods for Byne's disease. And with Dries van Dam of the Anatomical Museum in Leiden I looked at fluid preserved specimens and the dissolution of calcareous materials in buffered and not-buffered alcohol and formalin. Through SPNHC I got to know Rob Waller and his work on chance assessment. At the time we were working on a program to integrate the various research lines in preventive conservation into a more than holistic approach. I realized that Rob's model provided the perfect umbrella to assemble and use all our bits of knowledge to setting priorities in drove care and in our research plan equally well. There was a need for research producing data to be able to predict future losses. The past decade I take been fortunate to work together with Rob, CCI and ICCROM on promoting and instruction risk direction world wide. This year nosotros jointly did our first east-learning class 'Reducing risks to heritage'. Risk direction has drawn me into the area of assessing cultural value and accessibility too. Currently I am working on a model for cost-effectiveness of preservation activities, together with Anna Buelow from the National Archives in London. It is based on a model from health care economics, the QALY {note: the Publications of Interest section in this Newsletter has a reference to this projection}, and offers a way to quantify the effect of a handling on hazard, value and accessibility and weigh that confronting its costs.

What exercise you notice most interesting about your work? What I like most nearly my work is developing new knowledge and methods to support heritage institutions in doing their work effectively and efficiently. Helping others and gaining insight in render.

Might you tell us of i of your more significant natural history accomplishments? The most of import aspect of my piece of work for the natural history collections in Holland was facilitating the network and sharing knowledge. We did this in a serial of publications compiled in 'the green binder'. This was a sort of footling sis of SPNHC'due south 'Storage of Natural History Collections' books that has served equally a source of data for so many. And through the acetic acid inquiry I came in contact with Lorraine Gibson in Glasgow and Cecily Grzywacz at the Getty. As 'carbonyl girls' nosotros initiated the Indoor Air Pollution meetings in 1998. It great to see that Morten Rhyl-Svendsen and others have taken that forrard and that this yr the 10th Indoor Air Quality meeting is being organized at University Higher London!

What have yous learned from SPNHC to be helpful? Although I am no longer actively working with natural history collections, the experience that I accept gained from working with these 'athenaeum of nature', has enabled me to connect more easily to collection management problems in museums and galleries as well as archives and libraries. SPNHC is a source of information and contacts and has played an important office in my personal development from thinking in terms of molecules via object to collections.

How has SPNHC helped you? SPNHC has opened doors within the natural history community, and the piece of work with SPNHC members, to which I previously referred has been fruitful and insightful.

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