Alarm as bookworms devour historic museum collections

BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT

BEETLES, worms and lice are causing such damage to historic manuscripts and other objects
that the British Library has organised a major conference to try to find a solution.
Moths, flees, booklice, woodlice and termites are among bugs that thrive on organic matter.
Entire objects — even entire collections — have been lost in museums and libraries.

Silverfish have ruined an 1880s leather-bound arts and crafts book and left gaping holes in
wallpaper designed by William Morris. Moths have eaten textiles while silverfish, along with
booklice, have devoured a number of 19th-century watercolours. The gelatine on a collection of
100-year-old photographs proved so tasty that silverfish ate the entire archive, leaving behind
just the bare paper.

The situation is worsening because museums and libraries have not only cut down on cleaning,
they have also stopped fumigating their collections. Global warming and central heating enable
the pests to survive winter.

The head of conservation at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Robert Child, who
advises the National Trust and historic collections worldwide on pest control, said the problem
was extremely serious as “all damage is irreversible”. The extent of the losses is unknown as
public collections tend to keep quiet about them, he said.

Vanessa Marshall, director of the National Preservation Office at the British Library, said that
pests such as silverfish and beetles “enjoy a nice meal”.

Their activities create worm-shaped holes and there are manuscripts that now resemble a game
of snakes and ladders, she said.

The bugs particularly relish gelatine in the glues of older books and the modern equivalent of
rabbit glue, wheat starch paste. “They live on it,” she said. “They then lay their eggs and it’s an
ongoing problem.”

The damage is so alarming that around 150 conservators, curators and archivists from libraries,
museums and historic houses in Europe, South America and Australia will be attending the
three-day conference — A Pest Odyssey: No Collection is Safe from Pest Attack — at the British
Library from October 1. It is organised in collaboration with English Heritage and the Science
Museum.

Dr Marshall said they wanted “to expose the silent creatures. Pests are a major cause of
deterioration of collections worldwide.”

Museums used to fumigate their collections every six months, until they discovered that
insecticides were damaging the objects they were trying to protect.

Mr Child warned: “Nature used to be on our side with cold winters and cold museums and
libraries. Now, with mild winters and central heating, a lot of the insects are finding life more
comfortable.

“The same pests tend to occur throughout the world. In this country, we’ve had occasional
outbreak of termites. Tropical pests exist just as happily in colder climates.”

Recent losses include important wooden sculptures and altarpieces in Guatamala City, destroyed
by termites, and an entire collection of historic paintings of the Royal family in Antigua eaten by
silverfish. The backs of the paintings were lined with new canvas; silverfish loved the glue and to
get to it, they burrowed through the pictures.

David Pinniger, a consultant entomologist who advises museums and historic houses, criticised
those establishments that clean only the front-of-house areas, while leaving the rest “absolutely
filthy”. Accountants are making short-term decisions to save money, he said: “In reality, they
create all sorts of problems.”

While the food industry faces prosecution if beetles are found in a box of biscuits, “there isn’t that
same stick to beat people with” in the museum world — even though an object that has been in a
collection for 200 years “won’t be there for another 200 years”, he said.

Among various pest-control devices is the deep-freezing of objects, which kills insects. Another
way of catching them and stopping them breeding is a sticky trap with a pheromone sex
attractant. It is used for bugs such as moths.

Mr Child said: “The males sniff the air and, thinking there’s a haven of free sex around the
corner, rush round and get caught.”

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
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