Heritage : Essays on Museology and Conservation
Contents: Preface. Acknowledgements. I. Heritage and Museology: 1. Many facets of heritage. 2. Museology and developing countries. 3. Modernizing a museum in the Indian context. 4. Extension and intensification of role of Museums in the Indian context. 5. Storage in Museums: a survey of problems and solutions. 6. Anthropology in Foreign Museums: tremendous impact on human minds. 7. A laboratory for small museums. 8. Documentation in conservation laboratory of museums. 9. The treasure trove act and the Government Museum, Madras. 10. Tribal heritage. 11. Folk bronzes. 12. Glass paintings of Thanjavur. II. Conservation: general considerations: 13. Art conservation -- a new ethic. 14. History of conservation. 15. Commitment to conservation. 16. Current trends in conservation. 17. The curator and the conservator and the care of objects. 18. Some problems pertaining to conservation of cultural property. 19. The need for a component of art history in conservation training. 20. The scope of chemical conservation. 21. The importance of chemists in archaeology. 22. Tanjore paintings: techniques and conservation problems. 23. Restoration: a critical view. 24. Effects of pollution on museum objects and its control. 25. The Chola paintings: a technical view. III. Conservation: specific materials: 26. Conservation of wood carvings in the Government Museum, Madras. 27. Conservation of ethnological material. 28. Conservation of British prints. 29. Conservation of a Japanese screen. 30. Conservation of palm-leaf manuscripts. 31. Marble: deterioration and preservation. 32. Temple renovation: conservation considerations. 33. Preserving buildings of the recent past. 34. A cement for repair of stone objects. 35. X-ray fluorescence analysis - a new tool for studying ancient objects. 36. Thermoluminescence: a new aid to dating of ancient materials. 37. Outline of a scheme for fingerprinting of bronzes. 38. Electrolytic restoration of bronzes: an assessment of the method. 39. Observations on corrosion of bronzes acquired from treasure troves. 40. Treatment of lead coins from Andipatti. 41. Stains: some physico-chemical aspects. 42. Indian wall paintings: materials and techniques. 43. Cleaning of paintings in the Venugopala shrine in Srirangam. 44. Restoration of a broken painting on glass. 45. Preserving books and manuscripts of paper. 46. Preservation of old newspapers.
"The papers included in this volume cover a variety of topics and are broadly divided into three sections: heritage and museology, general considerations of conservation and conservation of specific materials. They cover a wide spectrum which includes interesting and practical topics. This book would be useful to conservators and museologists who could find hints for preserving, restoring and displaying museum objects. Besides, the well informed layman may be able to reflect upon and to understand the broad outlines of the subjects covered in the book."
