The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute (MCI) is the center for specialized technical collection research and conservation for all Smithsonian museums and collections. MCI combines knowledge of materials and the history of technology with state-of-the-art instrumentation and scientific techniques to provide technical research studies and interpretation of artistic, anthropological, biological, and historical objects.

Top Story

Introduction to Fundamentals in Heritage Conservation YouTube videos
Introduction to fundamentals in heritage conservation

The Iraqi Institute for Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in partnership with MCI posted a series of YouTube videos titled Introduction to Fundamentals in Heritage Conservation in English, Arabic and Kurdish. The videos are an adaptation of on-site training the Smithsonian Institution (SI) has been doing at the Iraqi Institute since 2014. When Covid stopped on-site training, SI and the Iraqi Institute coordinated the production of the videos. Over 10 different videos, Iraqi cultural heritage sector colleagues explain what they do at their jobs and SI staff introduce the topics of heritage conservation taught at the Iraqi Institute. 

The project was supported by the SI Office of International Relations and Smithsonian Enterprises with funding from the Getty Foundation.

 

In the News

MCI's Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Statement

Summer 2024 Research Internship (Paid), Deadline for applications: March 12, 2024

Extinct woolly dog was carefully bred for weaving, ancient DNA confirms, The Washington Post, by Carolyn Y. Johnson, 12/144/23

The Story of the Indigenous Wool Dog Told Through Oral Histories and DNA, Hakai magazine, by Devon Bidal, 12/14/23

New Clues Emerge About the Fluffy Dogs Once Bred for Their Wool, Atlas Obscura, by Roxanne Hoorn, 12/14/23

Mutton, an Indigenous wooly dog, died in 1859 - new analysis confirms precolonial lineage of this extinct breed, once kept for their wool, The Conversation, by Audrey T. Lin, Chris Santis, and Logan Kistler, 12/14/23

Color analysis of the 1918 first US airmail stamp
MCI scientists Thomas Lam and Edward Vicenzi forged a collaboration with National Postal Museum's historian Susan Smith and conservator Scott Devine to analyze the colors in the 1918 Curtiss Jenny 24 cent airmail stamp.

Virtual Law Enforcement Workshop Addresses Cultural Property Crime in Central and Eastern Europe, US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 8/30/23

 

Previous Topics in Museum Conservation Lectures

Previous In the News