A coleção científica do museu do ISEP

: abordagem à conservação e restauro a partir de dois casos de estudo: as pilhas de Grenet e Lechanché

Abstract

The Portuguese science museums have a similar origin. Their collections are based on the instruments and models bought to practical teaching by every Polytechnic school, Old Industrial institutes and universities to be used - in classes by the professors to teach and practice. Hopefully, there is much information about these instruments, the schools they are in and their laboratories. Along with the objects, most of these schools have a great deal of information as books and catalogues that became part of the collection. During the second half of the XIX century, it was made a considerable economic investment considering the period, to keep the laboratories updated. The ISEP Museum has inherited these instruments and models -and the moto still is the knowledge and the know-how. To fulfill the need of keeping the laboratories updated originated a considerable amount of disposable equipment and objects, as they were substituted by new ones. Those instruments and models were stored in spaces to be forgotten. ISEP location has changed trees times, and fortunately the equipment and models came along. With them, all the documentation about the school, as catalogues, books and the academic documents from the students were kept and became part of our collection of the historic archive. The nature of these technical-scientific collections implies a very complex diagnosis that combines an analysis of the state of conservation of the materiality of the pieces, with all the information related to their production, use and disposal of service. The equipment and instruments were stored without any type of preparation or inactivation. And that is how the pieces came to us. These are, in general, pieces made up of different materials that have interacted or continue to interact with each other, causing very specific pathologies, which cannot be resolved with a simple procedural transfer from other areas of conservation and restoration. Therefore, it becomes necessary to investigate the entire life path of the pieces to plan the different approaches to conservation, restoration and museumization, which implies the generational involvement of the scientific community that is inherent to it, and which proves to be crucial in taking decisions in the selection and management process of interventions. At the ISEP Museum we try to preserve the historical integrity, keeping any information that the object may have, stabilizing it and keeping it in an environment minimizing further deterioration. As a museum, we also care about their original appearance since they are musealized. This dissertation intended to add a new methodology how to conserve considering the lack of information are about protocols to be applied to this collection.

Date of Award	29 Feb 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Eduarda Vieira (Supervisor), Paulo Silva (Co-Supervisor) & Bruno Campos (Supervisor)