Home Sweet Museum : investigating the overlap between museum and residence at The Lindfield Victorian House Museum

Abstract

The role of conservation within museums is well-established and can be viewed as straightforward due to the ability to control and regulate environments, access, and use of objects. It is far more complex and challenging to reach the same levels of control in open heritage sites, heritage buildings, and period house museums. These spaces combine conservation of the historic structure, as well as furnishings and objects which do not fit neatly within glass display cabinets where light, dust, pollutants, pests, and other so-called agents of deterioration can be kept out or minimized. When a period house is managed as a museum, there are generally controls set in place to mimic the control found in more traditional museum environment: walkways are delineated and carpeted so as to cause minimal damage to original flooring, objects are kept out of reach, furnishings and sensitive areas of a room are cordoned off. Through regular monitoring, maintenance and cleaning, deterioration and damage are kept to a minimum.

The Lindfield Victorian House Museum in Auckland Park, Johannesburg is open to the public as a museum – however, it is also home to owner and curator Katherine Love. Love has looked after the beautifully curated home for decades now, maintaining the house and its Victorian and Edwardian contents to blue heritage plaque status. This intersection between home and museum is a complex balancing act. There are certain practices and daily activities performed within the home that are, by their very nature, hazardous to the objects that are within the house. Conversely, it is this day-to-day living, and the very presence of Katherine Love, that brings the museum to life and gives it its quirky edge, making the Victorian past seem present and important.

This research offers a chance to examine the house and its contents, identify potential risks to the continued survival of the collection and offer Love some guidance and potential solutions to mitigate these, so she may continue to care for her home-museum hybrid.