"Caring for leather, skin and fur" by Carole Dignard and Janet Mason (2016)

"Caring for Leather, Skin and Fur" is a web resource of the Canadian Conservation Institute which presents key aspects of managing the care of leather, skin and fur objects in heritage collections based on the principles of preventive conservation and risk management. It outlines the different qualities and characteristics of leather, skin and fur and the causes of damage to these objects. It also provides examples of preventive conservation practice.

URL 1 / URL 2 (French version)

 

Skin Costumes Online

In October 2014 The Danish National Museum, in collaboration with the National Museum of Greenland and the Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, published the website Skin Costumes Online at http://skinddragter.natmus.dk/. This website is available both in Danish and in English.
 

Skin Costumes Online shows high-resolution photos and detailed information of outstanding and historic skin costumes from the indigenous peoples in Greenland, North America, North Scandinavia and Siberia.

Through the website easy access will be given to this rich cultural heritage, from museums' collections. 

This project was supported by The Nordic Culture Fund, Augustinus Fonden, Knud Rasmussen Fonden and the National Museum of Denmark through the research program Northern Worlds 2009-2013.​

“MRI and Unilateral NMR study of reindeer skin tanning processes” by Zhu et al (2015)

Zhu, Lizheng; Del Federico, Eleonora; Ilott, Andrew J.; Klokkernes, Torunn; Kehlet, Cindie; Jerschow, Alexej, “MRI and Unilateral NMR study of reindeer skin tanning processes”, Analytical Chemistry 87(7) (2015) 3820–3825.

DOI:10.1021/ac504474e (ACS Publications, restricted access)

Abstract:

The study of arctic or subarctic indigenous skin clothing material, known for its design and ability to keep the body warm, provides information about the tanning materials and techniques. The study also provides clues about the culture that created it, since tanning processes are often specific to certain indigenous groups. Untreated skin samples and samples treated with willow (Salix sp) bark extract and cod liver oil are compared in this study using both MRI and unilateral NMR techniques. The two types of samples show different proton spatial distributions and different relaxation times, which may also provide information about the tanning technique and aging behavior.

Les animaux à fourrures par Kretzschmar (1923)

Kretzschmar, Charles, Les animaux à fourrures: ornée dans le texte et hors texte de 105 gravures et dessins de coupes en photogravure et en phototypie et comprenant la description des animaux et de leur pelage, la valeur et l'emploi des pelleteries, l'apprêt des peaux à fourrures, le travail du pelletier, le travail du fourreur (2e édition, revue et augmentée), Chalon-sur-Saône, Édition Ch. Kretzschmar et G. Bosselet (1923).

URL (Gallica)

Skin Clothing from the North, edited by Schmidt & Pedersen (2010)

Anne Lisbeth Schmidt and Karen Brynjolf Pedersen (ed.); Skin Clothing from the North, Abstracts from the seminar held at the National Museum of Denmark, November 26-27, 2009, Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark (2010)

PDF

A brief description about the "Skin Clothing from the North" Project (2009-2012) can be read here.

“An unusual decorated skin coat from Canada: aspects of conservation and identification” by Cruickshank et al (2013)

Cruickshank, Pippa; Cartwright, Caroline; King, Jonathan C.H.; Simpson, Antony; “An unusual decorated skin coat from Canada: aspects of conservation and identification”, British Museum Technical Research Bulletin 7 (2013) pp. 95–104.
PDF

Summary:

A skin coat (Am1949,22.175), which has recently been examined and conserved, belongs to a group of about perhaps 30 surviving within museum collections and made around James Bay and Hudson Bay in northern Canada. They date to around 1760–1860 and were made by the Cree people, with possible additions by the Ojibwe/Anishaabeg in the region of the northern Great Lakes. As this group of coats is poorly understood and the coat stimulated some discussion while undergoing treatment in the conservation studio, further investigation was carried out on the materials of which it is composed. Fibre samples were identified using variable pressure scanning electron microscopy. The coat is thought to be made of moose skin but as it has been de-haired no moose hairs survived for identification. The few hairs remaining in situ on the collar and cuffs were identified as wolverine and river otter respectively. Conservation treatment enabled the cuffs to be gently folded back outside the sleeves. As the coat would originally have looked very different, before almost total loss of hair on the collar and cuffs due to past insect attack, a digital reconstruction was made to give an idea of its original appearance. The epaulettes have been quite roughly attached to the shoulders of the coat with coarse thread, suggesting that they may well have been added later, possibly from an older garment, as evidenced by the very fine but faded loom-woven quillwork and the presence of clear glass beads. The fur collar and cuffs could also have been added to the coat at this time.

Nouveau manuel complet du chamoiseur,.... par Julia de Fontenelle (1841)

Julia de Fontenelle, J. S. E.; Manuels-Roret: Nouveau manuel complet du chamoiseur, pelletier-fourreur, maroquinier, mégissier et parcheminier, La Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris (1841)

URL (Google Books)

Fur coat, Revillon Frèrès, c.1920, The MET Museum of Art

Alaska Fur ID Project

"Alaska Fur ID project (www.a­laskafurid.wordpress.com) is an online resource created by Ellen Carrlee, conservator at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, and conservation fellow Lauren Horelick (and partially funded by the FAIC Carolyn Rose Take a Chance grant) to aid in the identification of fur on both historic and Alaskan Native objects. This easily accessible fur ID website, posted in blog format, presents a wealth of diagnostic information on nearly 50 Alaskan animal species including hoofed animals, rodents, hares, canines, felines, bears, weasels, and marine mammals."

"While the Alaska Fur ID project was inspired by the Czech Furskin website (http://www.furskin.cz/), which presents diagnostic information on skin and fur together with SEM images, the Alaska Fur ID website is specifically tailored to aid those using primarily transmitted or polarized light microscopy to identify the sources of individual animal hairs."

(Source: AIC blog, full post can be read here)  

CCI Notes on leather, skin and fur

Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) Notes are freely available both in HTML and PDF formats.
CCI Notes related to leather, skin and fur are as follows:

- N8/1 Removing Mould from Leather (1993)  HTML / PDF

- N8/2 Care of Alum, Vegetable, and Mineral Tanned Leather (1992) HTML / PDF

- N8/3 Care of Mounted Specimens and Pelts (1988) HTML / PDF

- N8/4 Care of Rawhide and Semi-Tanned Leather (1992) HTML / PDF

These CCI Notes are also available in French here.

About furs by Cripps (1903)

Cripps, George; About furs, Liverpool (1903)
URL (Internet Archive)

Table of contents:

I. A few general remarks on colour quality

II. Fur markets

III. Dressing, dyeing and topping

IV. Sheep skins and lambs used for fur purposes

V. Rabbits, hares, cats, opossums, lynxes and foxes

VI. Bears, skunks, beavers, otters, wolverines

VII. Sables, martens, kolinsky

VIII. Seals

IX. Lions, tigers and leopards

X. Fur linings and furs usually used for linings

XI. The care of furs

Furskin Identification Program Website

Furskin Identification Program

http://www.furskin.cz/
 

FURSKIN is the first program created for fur skin identification which has allowed a very quick and exact comparison of structural patterns and eliminates much of the tedious work associated with the use of the Atlas book.

In 2006, fur skin micro-structural data was transferred into the Internet version of FURSKIN (http://www.furskin.cz/). In this website, the Furskin Identification program is described for rapid analysis and identification of fur skin species. The identification is based on a wide collection of fur skins micro-morphology and their microscopic patterns.

Fur tanning by Discovery Channel

"Decontamination of ethnological collections using supercritical CO2" by Tello et al (2005)

Tello, H.; Jelen, E.; Unger, A.; “Decontamination of ethnological collections using supercritical carbon dioxide”, Collection Forum 19 (1-2) (2005) 45-48

Abstract:
Examinations of objects in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin showed that materials such as leather, fur, hair, hide, skins and feathers contained highly toxic arsenic and mercury compounds as well as chlorine-containing pesticides such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), lindane (γ-hexachlorocyclohexane) and PCP (pentachlorophenol). Normal cleaning techniques cannot remove the embedded residues from the heavy metals and pesticides that still remain in layers near the surface.
A series of tests was carried out using high-pressure extraction with carbon dioxide. This method utilizes the good solvent properties of CO₂ in its supercritical state (above 31°C and 73.8 bar). The survey was conducted in a laboratory plant for screening experiments of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
The experiments have shown that ethnological objects, with the exception of fur, can be decontaminated without substantial damage to the materials through the use of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) at 40°C and 350 bar.

Tanning of leather and fur by Rogers & Clarke (1962)

Rogers, J. S.; Clarke, I. D.; Home tanning of leather and small fur skins, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington (1962)
URL

Table of contents:
1. Having hides tanned
2. Buying leather by the side
3. Home tanning
4. Tanning hides and skins for leather
4.1. Preliminary operations
4.2. Bark-tanned sole and harness leather
4.3. Chrome-tanned leather
4.4. Alum-tanned leather
5. Tanning fur skins

Alaska Native Collections - Sharing Knowledge Project website

Alaska Native Collections Website
http://alaska.si.edu/index.asp

Among many objects, this website provides information about arctic clothing made from skin (leather and furs).

About the Project:
"Through the Sharing Knowledge project, members of Indigenous communities from across Alaska and northeast Siberia are working with the Smithsonian Institution and the Anchorage Museum to interpret the materials, techniques, cultural meanings, history, and artistry represented by objects in the western arctic and subarctic collections of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C. The Arctic Studies Center, which organized and implemented the project, is a special research program within the Department of Anthropology, NMNH, with offices in Washington and at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska.

The goals of Sharing Knowledge are to make the Smithsonian collections accessible to all and to support cross-cultural learning among Indigenous home communities, in schools, and around the world. Interest in the extraordinary arts and cultural heritage of the North is truly global in scope. Participants in this project are Elders, scholars, artists, and teachers who invite all to explore, learn, and appreciate."

(excerpt from "About this project" available on the website)

Furs and fur garments by Davey (1895)

Davey, R.; Furs and fur garments, The International Fur Store and The Roxburgh Press, London (1895)
InternetArchive

Fur dressing and fur dyeing by Austin (1922)

Austin, W. E.; Principles and practice of fur dressing and fur dyeing, D. van Nostrand Company, New York (1922)

URL (Internet Archive)

Table of contents:
1. Furs and their characteristics
2. Structure of fur
3. Fur dressing: introductory and historical
4. Fur dressing: preliminary operations
5. Fur dressing. tanning methods
6. Fur dressing: drying and finish
7. Water in fur dressing and dyeing
8. Fur dyeing: introductory and historical
9. Fur dyeing: general methods
10. Fur dyeing: killing the furs
11. Fur dyeing: mordants
12. Fur dyeing: mineral colors used on furs
13. Fur dyeing: vegetable dyes
14. Fur dyeing: aniline black
15. Fur dyeing: oxidation colors
16. Fur dyeing: coal tar dyes
17. Bleaching of furs
 

Skin processing technology in Eurasian Reindeer cultures by Klokkernes (2007)

Torunn Klokkernes, Skin processing technology in Eurasian Reindeer cultures: a comparative study in material science of Sàmi and Evenk methods – perspectives on deterioration and preservation of museum artefacts, PhD thesis, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, The School of Conservation (2007)

From the Introduction:
Being comfortably dressed and surviving the cold winters in the Eurasian arctic and sub arctic depends entirely on the clothing you are wearing. Maintaining body heat and being able to work up a sweat without the subsequent formation of icicles on the skin requires a material that insulates, yet breathes, and that is available to the indigenous peoples inhabiting these regions. This has been achieved through many generations by the use of reindeer skin and the ability to transform, through skin processing, raw reindeer skin into comfortable, serviceable, and yet beautiful clothing.
Skin processing in Eurasian reindeer cultures represents an important craft and economic activity essentially related to the women’s sphere. Skin processing has not been thoroughly described in the available literature, and the knowledge is not easily accessible from the artefacts themselves. As this project was taking shape, the importance of understanding the practical methodology of skin processing was recognized as a significant part of the study. In order to obtain this information, people who were familiar with the technology of skin and fur processing and who were willing to share their knowledge were contacted, mainly through local museum institutions. Their knowledge is interesting, not only from a technological or preservation point of view but also from a cultural and social point of view, as it conveys the history of past generations.

Curatorial Care of Objects Made from Leather and Skin Products by Raphael (1996)

Raphael, Toby; "Appendix S: Curatorial Care of Objects Made from Leather and Skin Products", in NPS Museum Handbook Part I: Museum Collections, National Park Service (1996)

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