Creating an Annotated Bibliography of Hazardous Heritage

• Arthur Fowler, Art Conservation, University of Delaware

• Melissa Tedone, Art Conservation, University of Delaware

Hazardous heritage is any material culture that has the potential to cause harm to humans or our environment during its manufacturing, use, or post-use life. An object may be inherently hazardous, meaning  the materials it was made of are dangerous, or it may contain an acquired hazard. Hazardous heritage can include materials such as arsenical books which are dangerous to readers throughout their lifespans, an old building with asbestos which is dangerous to the individuals who manufactured it and those who live near it today, or a headdress in a museum that  historically had pesticides applied to it and  is dangerous to museum employees, visitors, and anyone who may want to use for its intended purpose the object in the future.

In this internship, I compiled an annotated bibliography with over 70 entries related to the study of hazardous heritage, including materials from the fields of art conservation, industrial hygiene, materials science, and history. This bibliography was broken into major sections including environmental health and safety documents, inherently hazardous materials, and acquired hazardous materials with subtopics ranging from bibliotoxicology to industrial sites, from pesticides to mold. This document illustrates the wide range of materials considered hazardous and the many decades of research compiled by those in the heritage and hygiene sectors into this topic.

  This research is an extension of the Poison Book Project, which studies Victorian publisher’s bindings with heavy metal-containing pigments. The bibliography will be used to create course material for a new course in the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware on Hazardous Heritage.