Conservation of Cultural Property in Modern Era

To incite a historical view point the conservation of cultural property in the modern era can be traced to the 18^th century and the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Between 1800 and 1860, several French scientists devoted their research efforts to the problem of preserving antiquarian treasures; by the end of the 19^th century, Pasteur presented a series of courses for geology, physics and chemistry, developed especially for student at the Ecole des Beuax Arts. In 1919, the mycologist Pierre See carried out an investigation on fungi that attack paper. By the early 1930s, basic and applied research in the preservation of library materials was in progress at the Lelin State Library in the USSR and in 1938, the Instituto de Potalogia del Libro was established at Rome.

In the United States, Harry Miller Lydenberg, Director of the New York Public Library gave much thought to the problem of preserving library materials and wrote extensively on the subject during 1920s and 1930s. About the same time William J. Barrow became interested in Causes of paper deterioration, and in 1932 established a document repair facility at Virginia State Library at Richmond. The disastrous fire at the Jewis Theological Seminary in New York City in April of 1966 and the flood in Florence, Italy, which occur in November of that year, provided important impetus to research in salvage, repair and restoration of paper, books and bindings on a colossal scale.

With the growing consensus of conservation an International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works who was founded in London in 1950. It aims to provide a permanent organization for coordination and improving the knowledge and methods of working standards needed to protect and preserve precious material of all kinds. It imparts information on research into all processes connected with conservation, both scientific and technical, and on the development of these processes. Mention may also be made of the Institute of Book Pathology Rome, which is its very name suggests, is primarily concerned with library conservation. The evidence of the growth of study and research in conservation is seen also in the publication of source journals on the subject of these, mention may be made of the studies in conservation, London, Restaurator’. The International journal for the preservation of library and archival material published twice in a year from Copenhagen, Museum’ a quarterly journal published by UNESCO, which is of much interest archivists and librarians; and library conservation News’ recently published from British Library, which is a current awareness bulletin.

Conservation movement in India

For this reason, when considering the history of conservation movement in India, we shall have to have a look at it from different point of view. Broadly speaking these consideration can be:

Archives – concerned with archival documents, manuscripts and other related materials
Libraries – concerned with books, documents, manuscripts and paintings
Museum field – concerned with art objects paintings, decorative arts, sculpture, bronzes and quite often manuscripts
Research aspects

(i) Archives

Today the National Archives of India at New Delhi is the premier institution in the country for record-keeping and archival work. It was its genesis in the Imperial Record Department, which was established in 1891 with the main objective of maintaining the records of the government of India. The Imperial Record Department, after independence, with increased scope and responsibilities was recognized in 1947 as the National Archives of India. However, the Research Laboratory of conducting research in paper preservation was established much earlier in 1942. Its first in charge was Mr. S. Chakarvarti, Archival chemist. The National Archives Laboratory has its credit the well-known solvent process of lamination of documents with cellulose acetate foil.

(ii) Libraries

It was J.A. Chapman, Librarian of the Empirical Library, Calcutta, who visualized the problem as early as 1919. He published an article entitled "an enquiry into the cause of the perishing of paper’ in Calcutta Review’ of July 1919. In this article Chapman also referred to the "Inquiries held and a report published by the Royal Society of Acts 1898" and said" All the enquiries stopped short at the very point at which it is so very important that they should be taken up in India, for the tendency for paper to perish is so intensified in this country that thousands of existing books will be lost, unless means are discovered in time to ensure their preservation. It is a responsible opinion, too, that the view taken into Europe was a short sighted one". Now the National Library Calcutta has a well-developed conservation facility. The conservation work is done under the Guidance of Mr. Avinasi Lal, Deputy Librarian.

(iii) Museum field

The conservation laboratory of National Museum was established in 1958. Late Mr. T.R. Gairola was appointed its first chemist with the given task to set it upon a scientific basis Mr. O P Agrawal had joined the conservation field in 1952 in Archaeological Survey of India joined the National Museum in 1958. Dr. B B Lal gave a status and dimension to conservation work when the conservation laboratories were struggling to come on their own and to make a mark in all spheres. UNESCO Experts, Late Dr. Paul Coremans and Dr. H J Plenderleith had recommended the conservation for museums in India in their report in their report. In 1972 the Central Conservation Laboratory was set up. It had two wings – one for scientific analysis and the other for conservation work. The first Asia Pacific Conference on conservation of cultural property was organized in collaboration with National Museum and International Center of Conservation, Rome. The conference resulted in the publication of a book entitled ‘Conservation in the Tropics (ed. O.P. Agrawal).

The National Research Laboratory was established in 1976. The Conservation Laboratory of government Museum, Madras was the first laboratory of its kind, which celebrated its golden jubilee in 1982. After its establishment it grew in strength with another veteran scientists namely Dr. S. Paramasivam, Mr. N. Harinarayana the Ex Director of Museums of Tamil Nadu State was conservation officer of number of years.

The period after 1960 could be termed as a period a great importance and of great favour of conservation movement in India. Several conservation laboratories were established in National institutions like the Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad, Indian Museum Calcutta, Victoria Memorial hall, Calcutta and several other institutions. Today several states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Utter Pradesh and others have big or small conservation sections and laboratories.

(iv) Research aspects

We have said that the need for conservation is particularly urgent for countries like India. In spite of labs and institutes Unfortunately, although quick deterioration of documents has been a common feature of our archives, libraries and museums, no serious efforts have been made for the development of education and research in conservation science and technology. After independence there have been rapid increases in the number of institutions of public interests including of many learned and research institutions. This phenomenon has made the need for conservation all the more urgent. Besides the lack of conservation and storage improper facilities in our country, there is more need and that is of research in conservation technique. As for as the present situation is concerned, the capacity for scientific research to solve the various problems in conservation and to evolve new technology is relatively small, barring a few exceptions. The Department of Culture, Govt of India, has now established the national Research Laboratory for the conservation of cultural property at Lucknow (UP) for this purpose. Facilities exist at National Gallery of Modern Art New Delhi, and at National Library, Calcutta.

Education in conservation should be both formal and informal. The informal education is to arouse public awareness for conservation requirements and the right behaviour with literature. The formal education should be conducted in academic institution, universities and special schools or institutions, and should be at two levels; one at the higher level for conservators, or in other words, conservation scientists; and the other at a lower level for technicians. The lower level education somewhat moderated to put emphasis on preventive conservation to take measures to prevent decay of and damage to documents, manuscripts and records and render first aid to the sick ones and then call a specialist, if necessary. The higher-level education should be lead to research. As conservation being a technical subject, research in it to be, as is the case of any other technical subject, mostly applied research, carried on for the development of conservation methods, tools and materials suitable especially for Indian conditions.

Today, laboratories for basic and applied research in conservation and restoration are relatively less in number. The field of investigation remains still large. It is being realized for some time past that the problem of conservation in the tropical countries like ours are very different from those in the temperate and sub-temperate zones of the hemisphere, and probably much more acute. The primary aim of this work is to meet the needs of investigations in tropical regions. It may also be of value to specialists working in advance countries devoted to conservation of cultural properties.