I wish to respond to Jack Thompson's reply to the question
    posed by Anita Cohen-Williams.  I admit, as a museum person, I
    found the question posed by Anita odd.  However, I found Jack's
    innapropriate response typical of that which I and several others
    have received from museum conservators over the years (eight years
    in the field).

    Let me clarify, I know of many museum conservators
    who are delightful people, who spend time explaining and workiung
    with museum staff, and their cooperation is greatly
    appreciated.  The difference, I think, is that those individuals
    care for people as well as artifacts.

    Jack, it may come as a surprise to you, but most of the museum
    profesionals I know are greatly concerned for the care and
    preservation of artifacts.  We are also concerned with seeing
    that artifacts are displayed and made available to the public in a
    way that is educational and meaningful.  I have seen artifacts sit
    in the conservation lab for years (no joke) receiving "treatment."
    In reality, they receive no treatment at all.  This is an
    ongoing problem and yet when we try to hurry the process along
    the response is similar to that which Anita got from you.  In the
    meantime, museum staff are told to leave objects alone, to
    stay out of the way, and leave conservation to the professionals.

    To combat this problem, I did my masters work on exploring ways
    that museum staff could be trained to carry out simple procedures
    to preserve doll and toy collections in museums (I had to focus my
    work on a particular subject).  My work showed what "untrained"
    staff could accomplish with a little training.  A little training
    does not transform one into a conservator--however, it does much
    to further the goal of preservation.

    The reality is that registrars and curators are the eyes and hands
    of the museum.  We are in the field because we love history, art,
    and objects.  Many of us also love people.  If we work together,
    we can share our special talents and work together for the greater
    goal of preserving museum objects and making them accessible to
    the public.

    Finally, for those outside the profession, we do them (and
    ourselves) no favors when we bash them for asking innocent
    questions.  Let's try another approach in the future.


    John Handley
    Museum of Ophthalmology
    San Francisco

    (The opinions expressed here are all mine)    Have a good day!