Rehousing all day

This morning, I worked on rehousing a bunch of small objects. I learned a lot from rehousing three souvenir makeup compacts. One of the compacts still had a powder puff inside, which was filthy from powder. I used a vacuum to suck up excess powder from inside the compact while I gently loosened the powder with a brush. I removed the powder puff from the inside and housed it in a small ziploc baggie, into which I placed a piece of acid free paper with the catalog number. 

Another one of the compacts had a small compartment that still contained what appeared to be either bright red lipstick or rouge. Bridgette and I weighed the pros and cons of leaving the makeup or removing it from the compact. Pros of leaving the makeup: it makes the compact more interesting and it doesn't seem to be damaging the compact (yet). Disadvantage of leaving the makeup: it could damage the metal in the compact. 

The compact with the makeup inside

Bridgette suggested I consult Colleen, the curator, about what to do. She said I should remove the makeup by scraping the bulk of it with a special tool and then rubbing the rest out with a q-tip. This suggestion worked really well, and soon the makeup was removed. As I removed the makeup, I discovered writing underneath, which read "For a refill, send 25 cents to Elmira, 2355 Fifth Ave., New York City." We all thought that was a pretty interesting discovery. 

The newly clean compact

The writing underneath the makeup

I rehoused the cleaned compacts in a custom made rectangular box lined with a thin sheet of ethafoam. Into another sheet of ethafoam, I cut out the shapes of the compacts so they would not shift when storage drawers open and close. 

The newly housed compacts

I was also given several pieces of silver to rehouse. Because they were very tarnished, I decided to house them in special bags that prevent further tarnishing. I knew that we have several pieces of silver in the collection which would be well served by these special bags. I decided to rehouse them all into Hollinger boxes in upright shelving, a better location for them once they were in the bags. The regular storage areas are visual storage - the bags prevent the objects from being seen, so placing them in upright storage is a better use of the space. I made a floating tray for a Hollinger box and began housing the silver in the special bags. I tied a tag around each bag with the catalog number on it so that the bags would not need to be opened to identify each object. I placed the bigger pieces on the bottom of the box and the smaller ones in the floating tray. I still need to pull a lot of pieces from storage and rehouse them in this way, but the following pictures show what I have done so far:

Some of the tarnished silver I rehoused

The bottom of the box holding larger objects

The floating tray holding smaller pieces