EEEEEEEKKKK! You should never dry clean historic textiles. Dry cleaning requires heat and chemicals, both of which are harmful to the artifact. Plus, you and the dry cleaning company would feel awfully bad if that historic textile were ruined as a result of the cleaning. Contact a textiles conservator for their advise. A conservator would be able to tell you the best method for cleaning. If the article is very dusty, you might want to try vacuming it. Lay it down flat and put piece of soft nylon screen (make sure the edges aren't loose) then on the lowest setting (least amount of suction) gently use a vacuum hose over the article. If you need more information, let me know. I'll get my notes from my textiles conservation class. I'll probably have more references too. Good luck. H. Carroll > >I am doing research on the pros and cons of drycleaning extremely dusty and >dirty textiles. Does anyone know of references besides CCI Notes 13/13? I >am having trouble finding references for the application of drycleaning in >museum collections. Any help is appreciated. > _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).