A smoke sponge is used to clean a parchment membrane, while acid-free tissue protects the illumination.
Treatment roundtables are a collaborative approach to problem solving challenging conservation treatments and research questions. They offer a forum to discuss, analyse, challenge and debate conservation treatments, treatment approaches and ethics with diverse communities of peers, both internal and external to The National Archives. We organise treatment roundtables at departmental, national and international levels, and often work in collaboration with other organisations. Past treatment roundtables have included topics on: wallpaper; measuring impact in conservation practice; film negatives; mould; surveys; and gels and enzymes.
This approach enables us to discuss innovative new treatments and test their applicability from theory to practice, encapsulating our researcher practitioner approach to conservation treatment.
Through this collaborative approach to problem solving, we aim to provide transparency around our decision-making processes and foster dialogue between conservation practice and heritage science research.
Aims of the treatment roundtable:
- Identify innovation, experimentation and research opportunities to advance treatment practice.
- Embrace a collaborative approach to problem solving.
- Foster an open mind attitude to treatment decision-making.
- Promote an inquisitive, risk-informed and contextualised working ethos.
- Identify opportunities for partnerships with external participants.
Find out more about our past treatment roundtable on film negatives in our blog:
- Cataloguing LR 16: Deeds from the Office of the Auditors of Land Revenue
- Cataloguing T 336: Civilian gallantry awards in the Second World War
- Funding cataloguing at The National Archives
- Indexing WO 208: Helpers of Allied prisoners of war
- Iraqi identities and journeys in the 1920s
- Raising the profile of women in Discovery
- Transcribing the Ormonde, Almanzora, and Empire Windrush passenger lists
- User input and the small steps towards creating a new editorial interface
- Mapping wartime farmland: the National Farm Survey Project and the Cataloguing of MAF 73
- Cataloguing WO 423: Army Other Ranks and Nurses service records
- Transcribing BT 51: Designs registered for copyright protection (1884–1888)
- Cataloguing the King’s (Queen’s) Messenger Service
- CO 691 and the Non-Commemoration Programme in East Africa
- The Charitable Trust Deeds Project
- WO 399: A project update
- Maritime Royal Artillery Gunners on Defensively Armed Merchant Ships
- Researcher practitioner approach
- Learn more about our conservation projects
- ResearchSpace knowledge system
- Our international work and its impact
- Northern Ireland: Pathways to Peace and Reconciliation
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office files
- Cabinet Office files (CAB)
- Prime Minister’s Office files (PREM)
- Modern slavery statement
- Subject files
- Double Agent Operations
- Communists and Suspected Communists, including Russian and Communist sympathisers
- Geoffrey Howe’s Private Office papers 1979 – 1983
- Help with your research
- Archives sector
- Education
- Information management