{"id":1305,"date":"2016-05-27T15:30:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T15:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjhblog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2016\/05\/27\/preserving-and-housing-of-a-cookie-from-an\/"},"modified":"2016-05-27T15:30:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T15:30:40","slug":"preserving-and-housing-of-a-cookie-from-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2016\/05\/27\/preserving-and-housing-of-a-cookie-from-an\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving and Housing of a Cookie from an American Sephardi Federation Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was written by\u00a0Kat Fanning,
\nconservation technician, Center for Jewish History \u00a0 <\/p>\n

A cookie, a memento of a past special event, was brought to
\nthe conservation lab from the American Sephardi Federation (ASF) to see if anything
\ncould be done in order to preserve it so that it could be kept in the
\ncollection. The cookie had originally been stored in a plastic box and sealed
\nwith office tape. It appears to be a simple butter cookie coated in frosting
\nbut the exact ingredients of the cookie are unknown. There was no oil staining
\nor residue of any kind on the cookie or in the box it was stored.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The cookie was in excellent shape, only one broken corner,
\nbut it was necessary to find a way to prevent deterioration. The cookie itself,
\nor any crumbs that fall into a part of the collection, could usher in unwanted
\npests. Any pests in a collection can cause serious physical damage and can be
\ndifficult to get rid of<\/a>.
\nSealing the cookie also meant mold prevention, which is especially important
\nsince mold from food can easily spread to other parts of the collection via
\nairborne spores. Under humid or hot conditions, mold grows very rapidly<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I found a few possibilities to seal the cookie, including wax
\nand Paraloid<\/a>.
\nParaloid is an acrylic resin that could be used to consolidate any fragments,
\nensuring that no cookie pieces crumble and fall off. Wax works in a similar
\nfashion, but it is temperature sensitive. Since there was little degradation of
\nthe cookie, only corners missing, and no accumulation of fats from any butter
\nthere was no imminent need to consolidate. With the guidance of Preservation
\nServices Manager, Felicity Corkill, it was decided that there was no need for
\ninvasive treatment and that a storage box would be sufficient. <\/p>\n

The cookie was sealed with a heated spatula in a
\npolyethylene plastic bag. An insert of Ethafoam, a polyethylene foam used for
\npadding, was molded to the shape and contours of the cookie to prevent any
\nsignificant movement within its housing, and then adhered inside a clam shell
\nstorage box made from E-flute cardboard.<\/p>\n

Now this unusual artifact can be stored safely in
\nAmerican Sephardi Federation\u2019s
\ncollection for many years.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s
\nnote: When looking into the history of the cookie with the assistance of the Director of the Library and Archives for the American
\nSephardi Federation, we learned that it was baked in honor of a gala celebrating the merger of
\nthe American Sephardi Federation and Sephardic House on December 10, 2002. The
\nevent coincided with the Seventh
\nInternational Sephardic Film Festival, which continues to be held here
\nat the Center for Jewish History. The American Sephardi Federation collections
\nalso include a specially printed grace after meals Birkat Ha-Mazon and
\ncollection of photos from the event. The noted Moroccan singer Jo Amar and
\nhonorable Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Bakshir-Daron were in
\nattendance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by\u00a0Kat Fanning, conservation technician, Center for Jewish History \u00a0 A cookie, a memento of a past special event, was brought to the conservation lab from the American Sephardi Federation (ASF) to see if anything could be done in order to preserve it so that it could be kept in the collection. The cookie had originally been stored in a plastic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[151,255,19,257,176,256,34],"class_list":["post-1305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-american-sephardi-federation","tag-american-sephardi-federation-collections","tag-archives","tag-asf-collections","tag-conservation","tag-kat-fanning","tag-museums"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}