Seventy Years of the Conservation and Restoration Centre of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia
SLOVENIA, August 31 - The Conservation and Restoration Centre of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. It is generally considered to have been founded in 1956, when a new conservation-restoration department was established at the Museum of National Liberation to carry out conservation and preparation treatments on the museum's collection. At the time, the department's name was not yet firmly established: documents variously refer to it as a conservation-preparation laboratory, a conservation-preparation department, a conservation-restoration department, or a restoration-conservation department.
This month's archivalia features a letter dated May 21, 1956, from the Council of Education and Culture to the State Secretariat for Administration and Budget of the People's Republic of Slovenia. In the letter, the Council agrees with the new organizational structure proposed by the Museum of National Liberation and submitted on April 28, 1956. The proposal, enclosed with the letter, called for the museum’s restorer and preparator to be transferred from the museum's existing department and for a separate conservation and restoration department to be established. According to the letter, this newly created laboratory »already began its work this year« and »intends to treat the archives of other museums of national liberation in Slovenia as well«. That the proposal was indeed put into practice is confirmed by the new organizational structure of the museum, adopted in the autumn of that same year, which included a separate conservation-restoration department with positions for a head, a preparator and a laboratory technician.
The need to preserve and protect archival records was by no means new. In February 1947, the Institute of National Liberation warned that archival records created during the war were badly damaged and in serious danger to deteriorate. It was precisely such records that later constituted the bulk of the material treated by the newly created laboratory. A conference of local committees of the League of Combatants and museum professionals, held in April 1954, highlighted the difficulties faced by local museums in preserving written records and their need for specialists for paper conservation. In an effort to assist local museums, the Museum of National Liberation had already begun considering expanding its professional role to include the conservation of records outside its own holdings, even before its separate conservation department was established.
The conservation and preparation of museum objects was already a well-established practice at the Museum of National Liberation; the museum’s department cared for metal, wooden and textile artefacts and assisted in the preparations of museum exhibitions. In 1955, a significant progress was made in terms of paper conservation and restoration. Plans were made to adapt a restoration workshop, and in June 1955, a preparator, intern Valentin Ramšak, was employed to work »exclusively in the chemical laboratory«. In the summer, the museum employed (although at first just on contractual basis) Ljudmila (Maruša) Krese, a chemistry student who was to oversee the establishment of the laboratory. One of the Museum's priorities, set up in its plan for the following year drawn up in autumn 1955, was also »the establishment of a conservation department for archival records«. This was prompted by the severely deteriorated condition of archival records created during WWII, which were still being excavated after ten years of being buried in the ground.
The department staff began its work by looking abroad for professional and technical expertise in paper conservation and restoration. In 1956, the State Archives of the People's Republic of Slovenia sent the Museum of National Liberation a set of recommendations adopted at a 1955 conference held in Zagreb on the restoration and conservation of paper and parchment. The State Archives thus appear in documents from the very beginning of the new department, which almost a quarter of a century later would become part of the Archives. As early as in November 1955, Ljudmila Krese contacted her colleague in Zagreb to seek advice on the planned purchase of a laminator. Before making the purchase, she wanted to inspect the machine and use it to test-treat several documents. The procedures and equipment were therefore not chosen solely based on description but were also tested in practice to assess their usability. Treating modern types of paper presented a particular professional challenge. Due to the conditions to which such paper had been exposed to during the Second World War it was often in a severely deteriorated condition and its treatment required the development of new procedures. Plans were also made for a chemist-conservator to receive further training abroad, and in 1957 Ljudmila Krese spent a period at the Instituto di Patologia del Libro in Rome for further professional training. The newly created department also established contacts with French state archives. In January 1956, the Museum purchased a laminator from Strojetehna in Zagreb. The machine was expected to be delivered by the end of January, but the delivery was delayed. By the end of April, the Museum warned that it urgently needed the machine, and in early May, Stojetehna assured the Museum that it would be completed later that same month.
Document dated January 5, 1956, defines the position of restorer as »head of the laboratory for paper conservation and restoration«. On April 20, Ljudmila Krese completed her studies in chemistry with a diploma thesis titled »Restoration and Conservation of Paper«. On May 1, she was appointed to the position of restorer, with the professional title of conservator. The yearly report for the year 1956 provides a detailed account of the day-to-day work of the newly established department. It had a chemical laboratory for separating blocked sheets of paper, neutralizing, whitening/bleaching, drying, lamination and pressing paper, and a separate workshop for the conservation of weapons and other museum objects. Many of the tools and machines needed for the work were made according to the department's own, original ideas and plans. As might be expected, there were some practical issues in the early days. Irregularities in the import of cellulose acetate needed for the lamination even brought work to a halt. The workload was considerable from the very start. The 1956 report mentions 1,186 documents prepared for lamination, among them 271sheets from the archives of the Headquarters of the 3rd Group of Detachments, created in 1942 and buried in the ground during the war. The department treated more than 500 extremely fragile documents from the Bela Krajina Museum, requiring more than 2800 hours of work. The department also monitored conditions inside museum repositories and kept abreast of potential paper pests. DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), insecticide now prohibited, was experimentally used to control silverfish. For long term preservation, it was decided that humidification and dehumidification of storage areas was the optimal measure. Preventive protection against pests, mould and unsuitable climatic conditions was already listed among the department's tasks in its first report. By the end of 1950s, bookbinding activities had also become one of the department’s activities.
Documents preserved in the archival fonds of the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia (SI AS 2200) portray a vivid picture of the department's first few years, from securing suitable workspaces and employing new staff to sourcing the necessary materials and testing new procedures. The department was part of the Museum of National Liberation, later renamed the Museum of People's Revolution of Slovenia, until 1980, when it was incorporated into the Archives of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Its work continues today at the Centre for Conservation and Restoration of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia.
Anja Props
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