Spreading the “scientific approach”: the chemical turn in conservation from the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro to colonial museums in the French empire

Abstract

ABSTRACT This text retraces the installation of the laboratory in the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro in the 1930s. It questions the ambitions that lay behind the “scientific” conception of museum conservation as promoted by the museum’s technical assistant, Adrien Fédorovsky, in parallel with many other European museums. Particular attention is paid to chemical methods of conservation and the setting up of toxic chambers. The products used and their suppliers are documented, and overlaps with other social fields sketched out. Finally, the text traces the spread of chemical conservation methods to planned and completed museums in the French empire.