The Cases of the Black Fuzzies

Catherine Sease
Department of Anthropology
The Field Museum
Chicago, Illinois

August 22, 1997

Dr. Sease will address a problem found in the Field Museum's exhibit cases of Tibetan artifacts. Most of the silver objects were covered with a black, fuzzy substance. Before the objects could be treated, the nature and cause of the black fuzzy substance had to be determined. A new (to the conservation community) kind of corrosion was discovered in the course of this investigation.

Bio Sketch
Dr. Catherine Sease received a degree in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College and in architectural conservation from the University of London. She has taught archeological conservation in England, and developed a specialty in on-site {excavation} conservation. She also has extensive experience working on excavations all over the Mediterranean and Middle East. In 1979, she became the conservator in charge of the installation of the Rockefeller wing of ethnographic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1986, Dr. Sease became conservator in the Department of Anthropology at the Field Museum. She became Head of Conservation in 1987 and then Head of Collections Management since 1996. Dr. Sease has published on a wide variety of topics related to archeological and ethnographic conservation.