A thorough analysis of most materials used in cultural heritage is almost impossible without the existence of well-characterized standards or reference materials. Since it's inception in the 1990s, the collection has grown into a repository of nearly fourteen thousand pieces acquired through purchase and donation and housed in a dedicated, environmentally controlled room in the Conservation Institute’s Science laboratories.
Among its many holdings are a wide variety of inorganic and organic pigments and dyes, raw plant and mineral samples, well-characterized wood samples, stone samples, drying oils, natural and synthetic resins, waxes, prepared media, varnishes, and different protein-based materials. Examples of various photographic processes and photographic materials from the era of chemical photography are also part of the collection.
Different samples of a material in the collection typically represent a range of dates, geographic origins, manufacturers and commercial recipes of the material.
This cataloged collection is searchable by specific sample information or by the collection as a whole. Each sample’s record includes information ranging from chemical composition and manufacturer and geographic origin to experiments performed on the sample. Links are provided to analytical data obtained from the analysis of the samples.