My questions would be... how important is the soap to telling the story of
your community? Are you obligated to take this as a part of the donation [ie
will the donor withdraw the donation if the soap is not selected]? If it
isn't vital to your story, then why would you want to keep it?

If you still feel the soap is worth the risks to your collection, I would
suggest accessioning it is not the real issue, but you are more concerned
about the storage issues. In that case, the soap can be stored in a separate
container away from sensitive artefacts.

Cheers

D




Darryl MacKenzie, BSc, MA
Museum Director/ Administrator
Oliver and District Heritage Society
Box 847, Oliver, BC
V0H1T0
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Sylvia Bruner
Sent: April-21-11 9:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Soap as an accessioned artifact?

Greetings Museum-L members,

I am looking for any personal experience that anybody may have of old lye
soap in a collection.  We have recently had an offer for donation and a part
of that offer was an old bar of lye soap.  

Here are my thoughts thus far:

Seeing as it (the bar of soap) is already old and does not seem to have
disintegrated much, it may be fairly stable. 

But! It is composed of mostly (all?) organic materials which are notorious
for breaking down, and the last thing we need is a bar of soap wasting away
in storage or on display.

I have no idea how the ingredients in the soap will react with any other
surfaces or environments.  We are located in what is normally a very dry
climate - currently our RH is at 29% which is probably the highest we will
see (It is finally Spring!), not regarding a day long spike from a snowstorm
or rainstorm.

We have not accessioned this soap yet, and it has been tabled until we know
a little more.

I have always had great feedback to the questions I have posed here and I
appreciate any help.

Regards,
Sylvia B.

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