Connecting to Collections Care

Dee,

I was just preparing a posting for a similar inquiry and would like to expand the discussion to include storage trailers as well. I seem to remember a presentation or  article many years ago about retrofitting shipping or storage containers for safe object storage from a museum or perhaps an NPS site in the west or midwest, but I cannot locate it.

My experience with sea containers is living in one (converted to serve as an 'apartment') while serving in Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.  In this context, it was luxury accommodation. With the right equipment, they are easily moved and set in place. However, most museums don't have access to that equipment or people trained to use that equipment.  You will have to with a rail yard, a port or a trucking company.  

The good news is that they are solid well sealed units.  You can drive a forklift into them to unload. The bad news is that they are well sealed unit. Any humidity in the unit will stay trapped in the unit will stay in the unit. There is no ventilation. They also will heat up considerably during the day, especially in the summer. The unit I lived in had an air conditioner, when it broke down, it got very hot in there which was a problem if you were on a night shift and sleeping during the day.  The roof is flat and have depressions which can fill with water after a rain storm, and will eventually rust and leak.  These units are made of low grade steel and, if buying used, the paint will be faded and compromised.

Merchant shipping lines use these containers for pretty much anything we get from overseas.  Usually it is on a ship for no more than a week, so heat the microclimate is not as much of a problem for most applications. Some containers have air conditioners built into them.  In some cases, one door will be removed  while the ship is in transit, for example shipping melons from China to California.

A moderately skilled welder can modify the unit to improve ventilation or even retrofit air conditioning (hopefully with better quality than ones we had in Afghanistan).  I would not recommend placing on dirt. it would be better to have a concrete pad with some provision to prevent trapped moisture on the underside of the container, which will also rust.  I would also suggest a roof over the the unit with an airspace to keep the rain and the sun off of the top of the unit. Unless you have an extraordinarily robust artifact, these are not lock up and forget places to store things.  A lot can go wrong if you are not paying attention.

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Alan Hawk
Museum Specialist
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Silver Spring MD
alan.j.hawk.civ@health.mil
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In the early 2000's The NPS office at Wrangell-St Elias Wilderness in Alaska was using a shipping container to store accessions that were regarded as tertiary.  No climate control at all in a severe climate.  As I recall, this was OK in winter but more problematic in summer with extended hours of sunshine.  Daytime heat would be trapped, with condensation on interior walls as the container cooled at night.

All the staff I knew then have moved on, but here is the link for the Visitor Center, where the staff offices are:
https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/wrangell-st-elias-visitor-center.htm

Kate Singley (retired)
Conservation Anthropologica
Decatur, GA

Hi Dee,

As the acting C2C Care community monitor, I'd like to thank you for posting these questions to the community. I'm sure we'll hear more from users of containers, and here are a couple of links to information that might provide some resources. The pdf may be the article referenced in an earlier post. 

https://containertech.com/articles/use-a-shipping-container-for-dry-storage

https://www.ica.org/sites/default/files/PARBICA_2002_guide_conservation_EN.pdf

In the listing of conserve-o-grams, 17/4 Retrofitting a Moving Van to Transport Museum Collections 1995 might have some useful information.

Here in Colorado, I've seen railroad cars used to store records and artifacts with variable success, depending on how they are retrofitted and how diligent the housekeeping protocols are followed.

Best,

Karen