The Conservation Scientist Meets Hurricane Katrina
Dr. Mary F. Striegel, Chief of Materials Research at the National Center
for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT)
March 2, 2006
About the Lecture:
This presentation highlighted the experiences of a well-educated conservation scientist who met the real world in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Preconceived notions of what the state of Louisiana needed were replaced with more realistic approaches to collection salvage and stabilization. The presentation provided an overview of FEMA processes, details of conditions found, and efforts to save collections. This insightful experience raised more questions than lessons learned.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Mary F. Striegel, Chief of Materials Research at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), earned her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in 1989 where she pursued interdisciplinary research on residual stresses in numismatics (coins). She then worked for six years at the Getty Conservation Institute where her work included studies of the effects of formaldehyde on inorganic materials, uses of thin-layer chromatography for the analysis of binding media, and applications of digital imaging and technical photography in the analysis of works of art. In 1995, she became the Chief of Materials Research at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), an office of the National Park Service located in Natchitoches, LA. More information about work being done to save Louisiana collections can be found at http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/.
