Hello Leslie,

 

                Everything takes a toll on collections, even if it can’t initially be seen. Moving will certainly take an additional toll on the furniture versus leaving them where they are but that’s pretty much everything in any of our collections. As we use, display, store, and treat collections they wear down. There’s a fine balance between preservation and public access. Since nothing will last forever, all we can do is minimise the damages and slow down the deterioration. Professional art handlers, especially if they have experience working with furniture should be able to minimise any toll, either it be direct physical forces such as bumping something into a corner of a wall or strain on the joints of the furniture from incorrect support. I’d speak with them initially to find out their plan of attack, how they will be packing and moving everything. If everything seems good, let them do their thing but keep an eye on the process as it’s happening in case something comes up they didn’t notice.

 

                One other thing to keep in mind, especially since the furniture is so old, is to seal and acclimatise the furniture during the move. I’m not sure what the temperature and humidity level is in storage, the outside world in Massachusetts, or in the historic house but if there’s a drastic change in temperature and especially humidity it could cause expansion/shrinkage damage such as cracking.

 

                Good luck!

 

 

 

My supervisor wanted me to post a question concerning moving furniture by professional art handlers.  Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to move historically significant furniture with direct provenance and significance to the mission of our museum?  We will be moving it from a climate controlled storage unit of another institution and will most probably be moving it directly to a historic house, unless there is another storage option.  Most of the furniture originally came from this historical house, and was there for nearly 100 years, but has been in a climate controlled storage unit for the last 10 years or so.  The historic house has heat but no air conditioning.   We will be moving the furniture sometime in September or so.  A lot of the furniture will be on exhibit at the house on the lower two floors which are heated in the winter, but some of it will  probably need to be stored on the third floor where it might not be heated.

 

Here is my supervisor’s question.

 

Question: Does packing, moving and unpacking take a toll on furniture?  We have heard that this might be the case—but would like to get your thought on this.  In our case the work would be done by professional art handlers, not by museum staff or by general moving contractors.  Thank you. 

 

 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Leslie A. Vollnogle

Collections Manager

Longyear Museum

1125 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

T 617.278.9000 x315| F 617.278.9003  | www.longyear.org

 

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