They should be stable at this point (after 100 years in dry ash!).  What I
suggest is that you purchase some good quality canning jars (e.g., Ball
jars) and the white plastic lids that now available for these jars (the
white plastic lids are designed for re-use of the jars, not for canning).
Place the materials you wish to preserve, along with some of the ash, in
the jars and screw the lids on tight. Monitor them for any evidence of mold
growth for the first few months. If the jars are not opened, the internal
RH should remain stable.

If you prefer a jar with no markings (to better see the contents), then I
recommend purchasing flint glass specimen jars and lids from an archival
supplier such as Gaylord.

The advantage to home canning jars or specimen jars is the quality--these
jars will seal better. Many jars now on the market are designed for
decorative use or for candy, and the tops are not even and as a result,
they don't seal well.

--John


John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
[log in to unmask]
303-681-5708
www.museologica.com
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
and
Lecturer in Art
Juniata College
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania


On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Julie Leone <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello Listserve,
>
> I work at a 1915 historic house.  It was recently discovered that one of
> the fireplace ash pits has never been cleaned out.  We spent a day getting
> very dirty and picking though a lot of fireplace ash to discover that the
> fireplace has also been used as a defacto garbage bin.  The house has many
> fireplaces but this one is special in that it is the fireplace that sits in
> the domestic staff dining room so we know the materials we are discovering
> tell us something about the people who worked on property.
>
> My question is that we found a number of fruit rinds and peels - oranges,
> lemons, limes, banana, corn on the cob, cantelope, pumpkin seens, cinnamon
> sticks, etc.  I would like to include these in the museum's collection but
> I have never worked with these types of materials before and want to see if
> anyone has advice on storage, possible future decomosition, etc.
>
> They have been packed (and in many ways preserved) in ash for 100 years.
>  Are they stable at this point?  Do they need to be kept at cooler
> temperatures?  Any advice or thoughts are welcome.
>
> Julie Leone
> Director of Museum Services/Curator
> Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens
> Akron, OH
>
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