Vacuuming the Archive

 Vacuums I have loved

            Welcome to the world of archival and museum quality vacuums.  Isn’t that just what you wanted to talk about today? Anyway I am in love with this vacuum and I wanted to share.  This is the Nilfisk vacuum made in Denmark - or at least that’s where corporate headquarters are.  This vacuum was made especially for museums. Pricey, but well worth the money.  It is a hepa filtered vacuum with variable speeds so that you can adjust the suction.  That’s important if you are cleaning delicate items like textiles or in my case vellum architectural drawings. (architectural vellum, which is paper coated in a resin, as opposed to calfskin vellum).

            Anyway back to the vacuum.  All sorts of fun attachments come with the vacuum.  These are some of the small ones, which can be used for tiny crevices or for further decreasing the amount of suction.  What more could you ask for? It almost makes vacuuming fun and the super heavy filtering system makes it much safer for those of us with allergies than regular hepa vacs.

            The way you vacuum delicate material in a museum or archive setting is through a screen placed over the material and then using a up and down motion you work your way across the material.  Never push or pull like you would if you were vacuuming floors.  That would weaken threads.  It is tedious, but it does work.