Commentary the Museum of Toulouse pampers and preserves its collections
With the management of two million specimens in its collections, the Toulouse Museum deploys a whole arsenal of treatments.
How are the two million specimens of the Muséum de Toulouse maintained? A few strokes of the feather duster are not enough. On the other hand, preventive conservation is a real mission of care for the permanent and temporary collections.
“These diverse and varied collections range from zoology, botany, prehistory, minerals or entomology (study of insects), explains Alexandre Mille, heritage curator and head of the collections department. Collections made up of specimens very diverse: skin, stone (very sensitive to humidity), paper, leather, wood, feathers, etc. Each of them has its own constraints and one of our consistent missions to preserve them as long as possible. This is preventive conservation”.
The shock of cold and hot
If every visitor knows the distancing with the collections, through a showcase, for example, other more complex observations are less known to evaluate the climatic (humidity), physical (shock), biological (dust, mold, insects). The latter are also subject to very extensive monitoring with the installation of insect traps scattered around the museum: “For example pheromone traps, the most commonly used, intended to trap mites in particular. There are also glue traps to catch passing insects, not to mention light traps or crawling insect traps.
Traps raised each week to determine the species of the intruder, the observer, the analyzer. In a word, know his reactions. So if a lot of insects are lining the trap it means that a lot are proliferating in the museum. And that it is necessary to act. These insects can also multiply through the specimen, which must therefore be treated. “No chemical product is used but a freezer, a cold room version at – 40° to cause an “artificial winter” where the affected specimen will be deposited before raising the temperature to cause “an artificial spring”. “Cared for” by the cold and warm contrast, the specimen can be returned to storage or to exhibition. The Punch elephant or the Twiga giraffe, mascots of the Museum. A gesture made by authorized personnel, heritage curator or taxidermist. “By luck and vigilance, the Museum of Toulouse knows few losses. These collections must be preserved for future generations.”