Editors' Column
ACS Reprint Collections Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry Comprises 43 articles from Volumes 4 1 - 4 4 of Analytical Chemistry. Spectrometry, chromatography, electrochemistry, and other techniques. 428 pages 1 973 Hardback $7.95. Paper $4.50.
Joint Program in Art Conservation
A new program, sponsored jointly by the University of Delaware and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, is aimed at producing an art conservator who will have the combined talents of a skilled artisan, an art historian, and a scientist. The three-year program to train these specialists in preservation and restoration of artistic and historic objects will lead to an MS degree granted by the university. The museum and the university have a long history of joint programs beginning with an MA in early American culture established in 1952 and operated by the two institutions since that time. This program, designated as the Winterthur Program in the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Objects, will start with a first year, preparatory to selecting a field of specialization, spent primarily at the university where the curriculum will consist of courses in art history, metals and metallurgy, museum studies, practical conservation techniques, and chemistry. The second year will be an apprenticeship with a member of the museum conservation staff in the student's field of interest. And the third year will consist of an internship in an accredited institution with a professionally qualified conservator. The faculty will be drawn primarily from the university's chemistry, geology, art history, and the museum studies departments, and from the conservation section of the museum's curatorial division. Chemistry facilities will be available both at the university and at the Louise du Pont CroA'ninshield Research Building at Winterthur which has long been recognized as having one of the largest and best-equipped groups of museum analytical laboratories and conservation workshops in the country. For practical work, students will work with the museum's extensive decorative arts collection which includes ex-
amples of almost every material used to fashion art objects. Following training in this program, the graduates should be able to provide care and treatment of practically every type of object which they will encounter in their professional life. They should be able to handle objects made out of just about any material including wood, glass, ceramic, metal, paper, fabric, and paint. According to Peter G. Sparks, program director and assistant professor of chemistry at the university, "There is a critical shortage in this country and abroad of conservators equipped to treat the growing number of art and historic objects which are in great need of immediate and expert attention." This is probably so because "conservation is a relatively new discipline which has attained maturity only in the last few decades," according to Ben B. Johnson and Thomas Cairns in a report in Analytical Chemistry (page 24 A, January 1972). "It evolved in the late 19th century through a synthesis of analytical science and restoration . . . . Conservation can be defined as the application of science to the examination and treatment of objects of art and to the study of the environments in which they are placed." With this new university-museum program in art conservation, in which science is applied to art, perhaps the shortage of art conservators will be alleviated, and hopefully, students will become interested in the growing problem of deterioration of art objects. The program will start with a first group of six students who will begin their studies July 28, 1974. Ten students will be admitted to the program each successive year. Additional information can be obtained by writing Dr. Sparks at 308 Old College, University of Delaware, Newark, Del. 19711. A. A. Husovsky
Collected Accounts of Transition M e t a l Chemistry Includes 29 articles from Volumes I -A, Accounts of Chemical Research. Structure, bonding, inorganic reaction mechanisms, organometallic compounds and reactions, biological aspects. 249 pages 1 973 Hardback $6.95, Paper $3.95. Air Pollution Contains 38 articles from Volumes 3 - 6 of Environmental Science & Technology. Laws and regulations, specific pollutants and standards, monitoring, control methods, transportation. 139 pages 1973 Hardback $5.95, Paper $3.50. Solid W a s t e s 25 articles that originally appeared in Environmental Science & Technology. Government, specific solids, mining, sewage sludge, technology. 87 pages 1971 Paper $2.00. Cleaning Our Environment. The Chemical Basis for Action 249 pages 1 969 Paper $2.75. Supplement to Cleaning Our Environment. The Chemical Basis for Action 20 pages 1 971 Paper $1.00. All books postpaid in U.S. and Canada, plus postage elsewhere. Order from: Special Issues Sales American Chemical Society I I 55 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 46, NO. 6, MAY 1974 · 539 A
