NCPTT

We do not advocate the use of shaving cream for investigating inscriptions on stone. The shaving cream has natural emollients for softening the skin. These emollients have oils and moisture holding agents that can have detrimental effects on the stone.

NCPTT and Hybrid Plastics are partnering to make and use POSS modified polymers in preservation applications. Researchers and preservationists discussed the potential of developing new nanotechnologies for application to preservation problems.

NCPTT is soliciting oral and poster presentations that focus on research and innovation in cemetery conservation and preservation for the NCPTT’s Nationwide Cemetery Preservation Summit to be held in Nashville, Tenn., October 19-21, 2009.

This course emphasizes sound maintenance techniques for cemetery and commemorative monuments that are sustainable, cyclic, non-invasive, and do no harm. The course will address documentation, maintenance plans, stone deterioration, cleaning, and resetting headstones.

This course emphasizes sound maintenance technqiues for historic iron fences. These resources could be located around cemetery markers, commemorative monuments, or architectural features.

Mary Striegel will be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the American Society for Non-destructive Testing, to be held March 17 in St. Louis, Mo.

Recent research reveals bacteria may be the biggest ally in the fight to preserve ancient artifacts from erosion and deterioration.

The topic is the use of eddy currents for identification of metals (ferrous and non-ferrous), measuring the thickness of corrosion, and the recovery of serial numbers and/or images beneath corrosion.

NCPTT is organizing a session on non-destructive testing in historic preservation as part of the American Society for Non-destructive Testing’s meeting on March 17, 2009 in St. Louis.

The conservation of the King Kamehameha I sculpture in North Kohola, Hawai`I demonstrates a dynamic of public involvement in conservation.

Limewash is enjoying renewed interest as a protectant for historic structures, thanks in part to research undertaken by NCPTT and its partners.

This project is about saving historic wooden artifacts in cemeteries. Cemeteries are important repositories of local and national history, valued not only for the stories they tell, but also for their emotional and civic connections.

Carol Chin has joined NCPTT as a joint faculty researcher in the National Center’s Materials Research Program. The position is held in partnership with Northwestern State University of Louisiana

NCPTT researchers, in partnership with masonry experts from NPS Historic Preservation Training Center, recently completed a study to develop treatments for use on marble monuments in Historic Congressional Cemetery.

The grant allowed for documentation of traditional language, foods, music and the cultural landscapes associated with the Timbisha Shoshone people in their aboriginal territories.

This six minute video explains how to prepare and apply limewash.

NCPTT was awarded the Oliver Torrey Fuller Award at the Association of Preservation Technology International (APTI) conference in October.

NCPTT’s held its sixth annual Cemetery Monument Conservation workshop October 7-9, 2008, in New London, Connecticut. Twenty-six registrants participated in a variety of hands-on sessions.

NCPTT has received the PTT grant product “Wooden Artifacts in Cemeteries: A Reference Manual,” submitted by the Historic Preservation Commission; the City of Aspen, Colorado, and Anthony & Associates.

NCPTT and the NPS Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) are partnering with the Veterans Administration’s National Cemetery Administration to complete cleaning treatment studies on the U.S. Arsenal Monument in Historic Congressional Cemetery. Based on research and training by NCPTT’s Jason Church, HPTC staff will undertake intermittent misting cleaning of the Arsenal Monument during November. This [...]