Pollution and permanence: museum repair in toxic worlds

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores what repair might mean in the context of enduring toxic legacies of past museum practice. For centuries, museums have applied a wide range of pesticidal and preservative chemicals on objects to prevent insect infestation and material decay. This paper theorizes such chemicals as a significant museum technology which aided the perpetuation of museum objects, and both responded to and facilitated further growth of colonial collections in European museums. The case study examines both past practices of pesticide treatment in ethnographic museums and their effects on the repatriation of Sámi cultural artefacts today.