An Introduction to Materials and Chemistry: Book 1

This new edition of An Introduction to Materials and Chemistry, the first in the updated Science for Conservators series, provides conservators and conservators-in-training with a very basic introduction to the language of chemistry and to the scientific approach.

Drawing on 40 years of experience as a conservation scientist, Joyce H. Townsend takes readers through the elementary steps that will enable them to understand and investigate materials in historic objects, and those modern materials used to conserve them, in scientific terms. The book also introduces basic chemistry concepts. It provides worked examples and exercises throughout. This new edition has been significantly expanded and updated, with new material about health and safety, sustainability, and the trend to use greener materials, amongst other topics. The book also includes all-new illustrations, a list of further reading and is accompanied by a Companion Website, which features additional examples, illustrations and more.

An Introduction to Materials and Chemistry assumes no previous scientific knowledge and will be essential reading for pre-program applicants to, and students already on, postgraduate conservation programs worldwide. It will also be useful to conservators who are looking to refresh their knowledge or to fill gaps in their training, and for those who trained in languages other than English, but now work in that language.

Joyce H. Townsend, FIIC, ACR, is series editor for the updated Science for Conservators series. She has been IIC Director of Publications for over ten years, and a conservation scientist for over four decades, more than three of them spent at Tate in London, UK, where she specialises in microscopical methods for the analysis of paint, and the interpretation of the techniques of British artists working in oil and watercolour, as well as microfading and X-ray fluorescence studies for works on paper. She has published widely for a range of audiences. Since 2019 she has been an honorary professor in the School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, UK.