Hi Darsita - The publication, Museum Handbook, by the NPS has a chapter on the care of textiles and costume. It is available via the internet for free:
http://tinyurl.com/MuseumHandbook-Textiles You might also take a look at the NPS series called "Conserve-O-Grams" as they also provide all sorts of practical advice on a wide variety of topics: http://tinyurl.com/Conserve-O-Grams The American art conservators organization, also has a free referral service online to locate conservators of all specialties: http://tinyurl.com/TextileConservatorReferral The link above will take you to the Textile Conservator specialty starting point. You must also have the proper personal protective equipment when handling collections that have years of dust/dirt in addition to insect activity as hantaviruses are endemic to your geographic location. So you need to protect yourself not only from the dust, dirt, insect excreta but hantaviruses and possible past pesticide usage. Please do not hesitate to contact me off-line if you want further clarification or information. Regards, Meg . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________ Margaret E. Geiss-Mooney Textile/Costume Conservator & Collections Management Consultant Professional Associate, AIC [email protected] .a copy of the book "Caring for American Indian Objects". It addresses these issues and methods in detail for just this type of collection. Here is the link to more information on the publication: http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=521 ..recommend brushes and screens for cleaning textiles (wool, leather, beaded leather) and baskets. There's evidence of insects on the objects, as well as years of dust/dirt. .
