Open Forum

Conservators--any tips for handling vinyl (PVC?) in a costume collection? We received a donation of Baby McCardell (!) which we're very excited about, but the lining on this diaper cover had degraded into a sticky phase and we'd like to prevent it from completely ruining the cloth. Is removal the best option? Any thoughts? Thanks!

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Monica Stevens Smyth
Collection Manager
Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection
Philadelphia PA

The other day someone asked about some plastics and the "sticky stuff" in their collection on the Junction...I'm not a conservator, however I've come across in our collection of mainly contemporary toys a variety of plasticizer migration. I noticed on a particular c1970s celebrity doll that we have some very heavy stickiness, to the point where it looks like bleeding (minus the blood red color). BTW, the doll also appears to have bruising which is another manifestation of the degradation. I've attached pictures of the dress and doll (forgive the nudity!)

The "sticky" bled into the dress she was wearing where it seems to be eating into the fibers of the material.

I would probably separate the two materials to stall any potential damage that could occurfrom the vinyl. My two cents. :)

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Stacey Swigart
Curator, Collections
Please Touch Museum
Philadelphia PA
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Hi Monica - 

I suggest posing this question at the American Institute for Conservation's Connecting to Collection Care site Connecting to Collections Care Online Community. The Discussion Board is monitored by conservators, and if that particular doesn't work with PVC, they can reach out to the membership to find someone who does. Also consider joining the Collection Care Network, a group within AIC focused on preventive conservation.

Best,

Becky Fifield, Chair

Collection Care Network, American Institute for Conservation

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Rebecca Fifield
Preservation Consultant
New York NY
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I certainly concur with the suggestion from Rebecca Fifield, so that you can obtain the expert, in-depth, scientific information about storing plastics and various unstable materials. I do not have the scientific background that a conservator could offer you, but I have had a few decades of experience in care of collections. In my experience, once PVC and other plastic items begin to deteriorate, there is not much you can do about it. In the Newport Restoration Foundation collections that I worked with for fifteen years, we had some choice items from Doris Duke's wardrobe, including thigh-high white vinyl boots, and a flower-pattern vinyl vest. They and similar items were beginning to discolor ten or more years ago, and so we decided to exhibit them while there was still time, and then place them in storage, wrapped in neutral materials. Those materials, and also a neoprene wetsuit (for surfing) were all losing their flexibility, as well. An hilarious example of the latter (in an item we chose not to accession, for obvious reasons) was a stout British "mack", or raincoat, which had an inner layer of rubber, between cotton fabrics. It was on a hanger, and was so stiff, you could hold it sideways or upside-down and it kept its shape. It would have been a great item for a teaching materials collection, I suppose. So, keep deteriorating plastics from touching other materials, and store them in acid-free materials, in cool, dry conditions, for whatever good that will do. I am not aware of any treatments to stabilize or reverse the damage. That's "inherent vice" for you (my favorite conservation phrase).

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Bruce MacLeish
Curator Emeritus
Newport Restoration Foundation
Newport RI
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