In the autumn of 2024 Archives and Museum Services were given the opportunity to host an intern from the Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management certificate course run by Fleming College in Ontario, Canada. We were delighted to welcome Lindsey Mace who worked on 19th century lantern slides, taxidermy birds and the archives of the Drug Discovery Unit amongst many other things. Lindsey says:
During my time here, I was part of some very cool projects and learned about what goes on behind the scenes in university archives and museums.
One of the projects I did in the archives was sorting through boxes of photographic prints by the photojournalist Michael Peto. It was fascinating to see the kinds of photos he took throughout the progression of his career and all the places he went! I also helped with a project to freeze some of his film negatives, in order to better preserve it for years to come.
I worked on another photography related project digitising glass plate negatives and lantern slides from the Fraser family. It was cool to look back on life over a century ago and see people in all aspects of their lives. The photographs cover a wide range of subjects, including fisherfolk at work, formal portraits, and the Fraser family at leisure.
My work wasn’t all photography related though. Another project of mine was cataloguing and rehousing Professor Alan Fairlamb’s archives. Professor Fairlamb worked to create and direct the Drug Discovery Unit here at the University and is an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry. His archives encompass most of his professional career, including the work he did to build the Drug Discovery Unit. This was a large project, and included listing, sorting, and finally rehousing and numbering his papers.
Along with my own projects, I helped out with daily tasks in the archives, such as retrieving material for readers and classes and returning it again afterwards. I was also able to go on several trips as part of my work, including attending the ICA-SUV conference in Glasgow and helping out at a trip to a primary school. Another interesting part of my time in the archives was working on developing a risk assessment and reviewing the disaster plan.
Over at the museum, I helped to curate and install exhibitions, catalogue new artworks and artefacts, and hang pictures all over campus. I also helped out with the D’Arcy Thompson zoology museum, to reorganise the artist’s book collection, and volunteered at events hosted by museum services. A lot of my time was spent framing drawings and paintings by the artist Nell Baxter for the exhibition Nell Baxter and Dundee’s Celtic Revival.
One of my primary projects at the museum was creating a housing solution for a collection of study skin and taxidermy birds. The birds were being jostled about by their drawer opening and closing, and I created a foam structure to sit inside the drawer and cushion the birds to prevent them from being damaged. I also took the time to carefully fit back into place a wing that had come off of its bird, and tied thread around the pieces to keep them together.
I was able to put my conservation training to good use and repair two drawings for the exhibition on Nell Baxter and Dundee’s Celtic Revival. I used wheat starch paste and Japanese tissue to repair tears along the edges and give the drawings a new life. It felt great to be able to do some treatment conservation work.
I am extremely sad that my time at Dundee has come to an end, since I have really enjoyed my time here. I have learned so much, met some amazing people, and worked on a wide variety of projects. Everyone has made me feel incredibly welcome and I hope that I will be able to come back again someday!
– Lindsey Mace
Thanks Lindsey for this post, it has also been really helpful to understand the types of skills that you can develop with conservation training; I hope you enjoyed Dundee as well.