Behind the scenes: Uniform preservation

by Victoria

As we have explained briefly in past posts, the main project with our collections this year involves the process of readying all of our objects to leave the museum, go into temporary storage and eventually be re-homed. Now we are getting into the Winter and nearer to our deadline, one of the biggest tasks involves preparing, cleaning and packing our vast collection of uniforms - it's a job which definitely can't be done overnight!

A glimpse into just one of our uniform stores
 - the items in white bags at the front are those done so far, the rest is all still to go!

All four of the collections here at the Redoubt have a large number of uniform pieces; ranging from Napoleonic Coatees, to Second World War naval jackets and a huge range of army trousers. Each and every one of these items has to be prepared for possible long term storage or for its new home where it may go on display or be used for handling. Our intention is to send them all off in the best possible condition! Although the conservation process can be an exhausting one and is certainly time consuming it is necessary for the long term preservation of the uniforms, especially when housing them at the Redoubt hasn't always meant they've had the best storage conditions on their side.

These are two of the oldest pieces in our uniform collection,
and some of my personal favourites - two Officer's Coatees from the late 18th Century,
we believe they belonged to the 22nd Sussex Light Dragoons.

Thankfully we are fortunate enough to have a willing and brilliant volunteer in Jay (of previous blog post fame!) to help us in undertaking this task which could easily be a full time job in itself, but it's still a continuous process which will take us well into the Winter to complete.

So what do we have to do with them? Well, first of all the uniforms each have to be cleaned as best we can; this involves using small brushes and a museum vacuum to help remove any dust, dirt, threads or any dreaded moth casings. Moths are museum uniform's worst enemy! They eat the material and leave holes all over them.. we cross our fingers every time we get a new piece out and hope there's no sign of moths.

Jay and I in the process of cleaning a formal jacket and waistcoat,
thankfully no moths found on this one!

For the most part we try our best to handle the uniforms as little as possible (as we do with any object) and the cleaning process is tailored to cause as little interference to the fabrics as we can. Buttons are often the trickiest bit, as metal ones get dirty and tainted and plastic ones are susceptible to dust and mould. We've been told the best way to clean metal buttons is to cover them in brown sauce... although it may be true, that's a method we won't be using in the museum!

These beautiful Royal Sussex Regiment uniforms will remain on display until closing in November and then their turn will come for quarantine too - these ones are all far too decorative to freeze.

This Royal Navy Officer's Buff Duffle Coat on the other hand is perfectly suitable for freezing.

After a thorough, but delicate cleaning of the pieces they must either be quarantined or frozen for a small amount of time to ensure that any pest residue or mould spores we may have missed are dealt with. The difference between what is frozen and what is quarantined relies on what the uniform is like; more ornate pieces, for instance with delicate threading or facings, flashy buttons or medals are not suitable for freezing in case it damages them, so these have to be quarantined instead. Everything else can be frozen for two weeks in our little onsite freezer.

This Royal Navy jacket is all wrapped up and bagged, ready for it's time in quarantine -
note the all important label so we can keep track of what's where at all times!

Finally, after cleaning and a period of isolation the uniforms are photographed, labelled, given a brand new padded hanger and placed into Tyvek uniform bags, which are both designed to give them an extra layer of protection in store, and then they're ready to go. Now to repeat this process a couple more hundred times... wish us luck!