Many collections of Alaskan materials have one of the flags made during Benny Benson’s life, and it is very common for these to have significant light fading of the blue dye.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection III-O-81
Dye fading is often only noticed when a non-faded area is seen for comparison.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection 2005-3-1
This textile was the background fabric used as drapery in an exhibit display, and shows severe fading where the blue and green were exposed.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum conservation reference collection
This wool felt banner is very faded on the front.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection 2017-2-15
White textiles are often yellowed or have stains, and these can be very difficult to remove. Fold marks should also be noted. Fold weaken the textile fibers and can be the location of tears in the future.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection III-O-856
This is an example of mold on a textile. The branched structure indicates the presence of a “fruiting body” that makes spores. Without that feature, it would be difficult to identify the nature of this white accretion.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection 2013-13-3
The lining of this parka trim is made from an old sugar sack. The markings on the sugar sack are still visible in blue, and the word “refined” can be distinguished.
Photo credit: Sheldon Jackson Museum collection SJ-2008-7-1
This button robe has a great many buttons attached to the surface. In the condition report, indicate if any of them are missing…how many and in what location. Is the sewing unstable?
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection II-B-1438
This button robe shows two examples of a selvedge, the natural self-edge of a piece of cloth as it was manufactured. This tends to be an especially strong part of the textile.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection II-B-1438
There is localized dark staining on the corners of this button robe. This might be use-related.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection II-B-1438
Chilkat robes of the Northwest Coast commonly have dye fading on the front, but this should not be confused with the changes in color that come from using yarn of different dye batches, as seen in the yellow border of this robe. The fringe is commonly damaged or missing on Chilkat robes. The side fringe (attached between two layers of side braids on each side) is missing from this robe. The fringe along the bottom usually has two layers: the back layer is the warp fringe that contains cedar bark, and the false fringe on top does not. The upper region of the warp fringe usually has several rows of widely spaced warp twining, and this is often damaged and broken on old robes.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection II-B-1377
This is what the attachment area of the side fringe on a Chilkat robe looks like. It is tucked between the two flaps of side braids, and each bit of fringe is attached to a drawstring sewn in. If the drawstring is lost, the fringe is usually lost as well.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection
The wool yarns of Chilkat weaving sometimes suffer insect damage, but the protein-eating moths stop when they get to the cedar bark. The warps of Chilkat robes are made from wool and cedar bark spun together. If you see mostly cedar bark, the wool has been lost.
Photo credit: Sheldon Jackson Museum collection SJ-I-A-678
This is an example of severe insect damage from clothes moths.
Photo credit: Sheldon Jackson Museum collection SJ-I-A-678
You need to look closely to see the damage here. The lighter zig zag regions are missing a decorative element that was likely eaten off by insects, perhaps it was wool yarn or strips of wool textile. The tiny stitches that attached this missing element are still present.
Photo credit: Sheldon Jackson Museum collection SJ-2008-2-1
The back of the hood of this wool felt doll has shallow pits where clothes moths have been grazing. Along the edge of the fur and on the paper you can see frass…the insect droppings. If in doubt, and you think you may be looking at sand or sawdust, put the debris on a piece of paper and slide it around. Frass will be in the shape of tiny uniform spheres and will roll around like little balls.
Photo credit: Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection
The back of the hood of this doll has telltale evidence of insect infestation. The white ovals are tiny cocoons. The round specks are frass (insect droppings) and the tiny bits of hair everywhere are likely also products of the insect grading in fur areas of the doll.
Photo credit: Ellen Carrlee
Sometimes lint can give you a scare. This might look like insect webbing or cocoons, but it is clumped together in a seam with no frass, larval casings, insect parts, or distinct cocoon shapes. This is simply lint.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection
These are holes in the cloth lining of a leather jacket caused by abrasion and use-related wear. It is in the lower corner of a jacket opening, which typically gets a lot of wear. If you look closely, the transition from the edge of the hole to the intact textile is gradual, with frayed edges and thinner areas of worn fabric. This fabric looks like cotton, which is usually not the target of insect infestation. Holes chewed by insects usually don’t have such gradual transition along their edges.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection
This long cotton garment (an atikluk, I think) has use-related wear, loss, and fraying along the bottom. You’ll see that the large hole also has some orange staining around its edges. Stains can weaken a textile and make it more likely to have damage.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection II-A-5506
This ribbon seems to be exhibiting “shattered silk”. If the tears in a silky material are all going along in one direction and it looks like a cat scratched it, you might have shattered silk. Silk used to be sold by weight, with heavier silk worth more because it was supposed to be better quality. Some manufacturers would use metal mordants to add weight. Some of these mordants cause damage and weaken the silk fibers as they degrade. This tends to be seen more on dark colors.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection 2007-17-2
If shattered silk happens on ribbons used to do trim beadwork, then bead loss could result.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection II-B-1601
This vest is in “relic condition”. It is soiled, stained, missing buttons, and the bottom edge is torn with large areas of loss. Since it is recovered from a gold-rush era shipwreck, its tattered “relic” condition lends an emotional and human quality to the exhibit.
Photo credit: Alaska State Museum collection 2015-6-3
