With all due respect, the wikihow.com link demonstrates some of the real troubles with taking content meant for things that we use in our daily lives and applying those techniques to museum collections. This article recommends several steps that I think are probably inadvisable for fur coats and are not at all appropriate for collections - even study or teaching collections as discussed here. Gretchen gives good advice for safe dry cleaning practices. Conservators will often use a 1:1 mixture of distilled water and alcohol applied by gently wiping with a lint free cloth or pad to clean hair/fur. But none of the conditioning advice in that wiki article should be followed. If students are asked to wash hands before handling that will also help.
One of the Connecting to Collections Care webinars on taxidermy might be useful for you
ttps://www.connectingtocollections.org/troublesome-trophies-and-fragile-feathered-friends-introduction-to-the-care-of-historic-taxidermy/
and there is an associated handout
http://www.connectingtocollections.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Taxiderm_online-resources-handout-1.pdfI don't believe that all cleaning has to be done by a conservator, but using home recipes rather than resources meant for the preservation community can lead to unintended consequences.
Best regards,
Rachael
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Rachael Arenstein
Conservator
A.M. Art Conservation LLC
Scarsdale NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-19-2019 11:05 AM
From: Michelle Nash
Subject: Cleaning Pelt/Fur Touch Objects
I've not thought about this before either but here's a Wikihow for people who want to clean their fur coats: https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Fur
I would imagine most of it would be useful in this context (since these are non-collections items). Still not sure on the sanitation part but the vinegar and the alcohol recommended for conditioning and spot treatment would probably go a long way towards that effort. Best of luck; let us know how it goes!
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Michelle Nash
Elkhart County Historical Museum
Bristol IN
Original Message:
Sent: 06-18-2019 02:33 PM
From: Hillary Lauren
Subject: Cleaning Pelt/Fur Touch Objects
I do not, but am also interested in any responses to this question :-)
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Hillary Lauren
Interpretive Content Developer
Woodland Park Zoo
Seattle WA
Original Message:
Sent: 06-17-2019 12:25 PM
From: Joseph Whatley
Subject: Cleaning Pelt/Fur Touch Objects
Hi there!
We have a number of pelt/fur touch objects as items in our educational programming which get handled by numerous kiddos. Does anyone have experience in how to clean/sanitize these items without damaging them? Thanks!
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Joseph Whatley
Museum Educator
Whatcom Museum
Bellingham WA
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