The Moorish Pavilion and the Entomological Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute: preventive conservation and interdisciplinarity.

Abstract

The Workgroup of Preventive Conservation of the Oswaldo Cruz House, Fiocruz, inside its proposal of a pilot experience to the elaboration of integrated conservation assessment of buildings and movable collections, defined in collaboration with Oswaldo Cruz Institute, the Moorish Pavilion and the collections inside it sheltered as object of study. In the present article it was focused the results from the work regarding the relationship between the building and the Entomological Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. To the proposed diagnostic it was determined a work plan regarding the data survey of macro ambient, building, and collections. Specifically to the Entomological Collection, the work looked for a better comprehension of the environmental conditions in which it finds itself, verifying as the not acclimatized ambient and the new storage system impacts on the conservation of the collection. The monitoring confirmed the hypothesis of the collection curator asserting that the collection is in a very stable ambient condition. Thus, it is not necessary the use of mechanical acclimatization systems to guarantee its conservation. The different layers protecting the collection – the building, the room, the sliding storage, and the entomological drawer – function as efficient barriers in respect to the local ambient conditions, and inside the drawers the microclimate is more stable and with lower values of temperature and relative humidity of the air. To maintain this microclimate favorable for the preservation of the specimens, it is fundamental the investment in acquisition of good drawers with adequate sealing.