One of the most important steps in maintaining a museum’s collection is conservation - the protection, preservation, management or restoration of artifacts and objects. Conservation supports all other museum functions, including collecting, interpreting and presenting and can be seen in nearly every piece of the Indiana State Museum’s collection. An excellent example of recent conservation in action at the Indiana State Museum is the Coca-Cola machine, circa 1947, on display in the Global Indiana Gallery.
“One of the things about conservation is to do things that are reversible and this is one of the best examples of that concept that I know of,” said Pete Lundskow, Chief Conservator. “Most collectors are looking for a machine in pristine condition, but we were interested in one that showed its use.”
The machine, which was made by the F. L. Jacobs Company, formerly located in Indianapolis, was in decent, but not good condition when it was acquired from a collector. It had been well-used, which left it with delicate paint, lots of dirt and corrosion and changes to its original condition.
“We used a conservation detergent called Orvis,” Pete said. “The paint had oxidized a lot over the years so I had to use a gentle cleaner and be careful not to remove any paint while cleaning it.”
In addition to the gentle cleanser, Pete used Fiberglass brushes and stiff wool pads to remove the heavy corrosion in the storage area below the dispensing drum and used CRC 3-36 metal protectant to prevent further damage. But cleaning the machine wasn’t the end of its conservation. The price of Cokes dispensed from the machine had gone up over the years, so the original five-cent decals on the front and side had been partially removed, leaving ghost images, and a 10-cent decal had been added to the side. To avoid damaging the paint, Pete came up with a creative solution for returning the machine to its original appearance.
“Rex (Garneiwicz, Director of Collections) suggested the magnetic stickers that are used on cars, but they were too thick,” Pete said. “I did some looking on the Internet and found a magnetic material that can be run through the printer. I traced the five-cent decal, cut it out on the magnetic paper then sprayed it the correct color to match the machine.”
To cover the part of the 10-cent decal that was still visible, Pete spray painted a piece of Mylar the right shade of red and used the magnet to hold it in place. Thanks to Pete’s creative work, the Coke machine can be displayed as it would have looked originally, but can be returned easily to its natural appearance (minus the dirt and corrosion, of course).