EDITOR: GEORGE H. MORRISON EDiTORlAL HEADQUARTERS 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: 202-872-4570 Teletype: 710-8220 151
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Executive Editor: Josephine M. Petruzzi Managing Editor: Barbara Cassatt Associate Editor: Stuart A. Borman Assistant Editors: Marcia S. Vogel, Rani A. George Editorial Assistant: Louise Voress Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: John V. Sinnett Staff Artist: Linda M. Mattingly Production Editor: Gail M. Mortenson Circulation Manager: Cynthia G. Smith Journals Dept., Columbus, Ohio Associate Head: Marianne Brogan Associate Editor: Rodney L. Temos Advisory Board: Joel A. Carter, Richard S. Danchik, Richard Durst, Dennis H. Evans, Jack W. Frazer, Helen M. Free, Shizuo Fujiwara, Roland F. Hirsch. Csaba Horvath, Wilbur I. Kaye, Thomas C. O’Haver, Janet Osteryoung, Herbert L. Retcofsky, Robert E. Sievers, Wilheim Simon, Rudolph H. Stehl lnstrumentatlon Advisory Panel: Edward M. Chait, M. Bonner Denton, Raymond E. Dessy, Larry R. Faulkner, Martin S. Frant, Michael L. Gross, Fred E. Lytie, Curt Reimann, Andrew T. Zander Contributing Editor, A/ C Interface: Raymond E. Dessy The Analytical Approach Advisory Panel: Edward C. Duniop, Robert A. Hofstader, Wilbur D. Shults Regulatory Affairs, Analytical Dlvlslon Committee: Curt W. Reimann (Chairman) Published by the AMERiCAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Books and Journals Dlvlsion Director: D. H. Michael Bowen Journals: Charles R. Bertsch Production: Elmer Pusey, Jr. Marketing & Sales: Claud K. Robinson Research and Development: Seldon W Terrant
Arts and Sciences One of the greatest challenges analytical chemists face is applying their expertise to the study of unusual materials and the examination of exotic samples. There is a small community of scientists who are particularly fortunate to be able to combine their scientific skills and their interest in the arts in careers in art authentication, conservation, and restoration. Using a wide variety of old and new analytical techniques (see THE ANALYTICAL APPROACH by J. C . Shearer et al., p. 874 A), they are able to examine diverse art treasures, such as paintings, metal, stone, wood, and ceramic objects, and textiles of past cultures, to verify authenticity or expose fraud. Of more lasting importance is the development of materials and techniques to preserve artifacts that have been damaged by the ravages of time and the environment. Much of the business of actual restoration consists of sticking together things that are falling apart, making them bright and clean, and then trying to minimize future damaging effects of time and circumstances. One project can take years of painstaking work. The status of this important discipline will be reviewed by its practitioners at an international workshop on “Application of Science in the Examination of Works of Art,” to be held Sept. 7-9,1983, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Recently I had the opportunity to visit the laboratories of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and of New Yolk’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Boston laboratory, under the direction of Dr. L. van Zelst, is the third oldest in the world, preceded only by the laboratories at the Berlin Museum and the British Museum. Among Boston’s in-house analytical techniques are optical emission and atomic absorption spectrometry; X-ray fluorescence and diffraction; electron and laser microprobes; thermoluminescence; ultraviolet, visible, and infrared spectrometry; thin-layer chromatography; and an extensive array of light microscopes. In addition, the museum has access to some of the latest and most sophisticated techniques at academic and industrial laboratories in the Boston area. At the Metropolitan Museum the conservation laboratories are independently organized, each specific for a genre of art: paintings, textiles, objects, etc. Here also a wide variety of analytical techniques are employed, including scanning electron microscopy; the microscope has a special sample chamber to accommodate larger artifacts. Perhaps what struck me most during my visits is the dedication of the people involved in this hidden profession. According to Keats, “A thing of beauty is ajoy forever.” Apparently not without the help of chemistry.
Manuscript requirements are published in the January 1983 issue, page 171. Manuscripts for publication (4 copies) should be submitted to ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY at the ACS Washington address. The American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors. Views expressed in the editorials are those of the editors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the American Chemical Society.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 55, NO. 8, JULY 1983
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