AIC's 45th Annual Meeting

Conservation scientific literature deals mostly with objects in storage. Those on permanent exhibition, in contact with visitors and exposed to environmental damage, do not receive the same attention by researchers who study and take care of collections in museums. Most museums under the Office of the Historian of Havana are housed in buildings of heritage value, built between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Those buildings have very large doors and windows, lucetas (a kind of window over the doors), wide walls with mural paintings, plaster ornaments and wood ceilings, among other characteristics. As a result of the insular condition of Cuba and the materials present in the fabric of these buildings, there is the inevitably presence of high levels of Relative Humidity and Temperature, and some other factors like high levels of natural light and the presence of biological agents. The technology available when the Museums exhibitions were opened in the 70's, depended on display cabinets made of wood and common glass, which additionally integrated the exhibition with the building characteristics, according to the museographic criteria of the period. The factors mentioned above, affect not only the display cabinets themselves, but also the objects on display. This study proposes a new kind of display cabinets made with environmental agents resistant materials that provide protection to objects, not only from anthropomorphic damages, but also from those caused by biological agents. The availability of new materials, access to new technologies and international museographic trends make this possible. The design versatility of the new display cabinets, include the requirements of any museological guide and offer a wide range of museographic solutions. The author designed a new type of display cabinet as a part of a new museographic project for the Archeological Museum, now in a restoration process, located in the Historical Center of Old Havana.