Find out more about what we are doing to preserve the nation's heritage and how you can help us. Our work Display Our Conservation and Preservation team prepares objects for display so that our visitors can enjoy them Managing object environments The Conservation and Preservation Department ensures objects are kept in the best possible conditions for their preservation Housekeeping Housekeeping, in all its elements, is our front line in the battle to protect the nation's heritage Investigating our collections The Conservation and Preservation team researches the techniques and materials used to make objects Providing access to our collections Objects from our collections travel all over the world, so that they can be seen by new audiences who may not have the opportunity to visit Greenwich Working objects We have an enviable collection of working objects and objects in use. Partnerships with other museums and conservation institutions How we collaborate with conservators from museums and institutions around the world. As conservators, we get hands-on with our collections. Through preservation methods we care for the collections on display, on loan and in store. This can be as simple as a regular dusting or as complex as managing the environmental control systems in a historic site like the Queen's House. The Conservation and Preservation Department has conservators dedicated to the following disciplines: Metals (scientific and navigational instruments, engines, glass, ceramics and stone) Frames (carved and/or gilded historic and modern frames) Organics (ship models, ethnographic, furniture, small craft collection) Paper (cartography, globes, prints and drawings, manuscripts, books etc.) Paintings (Tudor to contemporary on canvas and panel) Textile (flags and uniforms) Preventive (environment, pest management and materials testing) We are fortunate that our studio facilities bring together all our conservation disciplines in one building. We have the opportunity to work across studios and to share ideas. Many of our objects incorporate more than one material so we work together to holistically treat the different parts. More about putting objects on display More about housekeeping More about managing object environments Investigating our collections Conservation stabilises an object’s condition, while restoration seeks to replace missing parts (such as damaged areas of a painting or a crucial screw in an engineered object). Prior to starting work, we make a careful study of the objects we are working on. We identify areas requiring treatment and further our understanding of how objects have been made. The Conservation and Preservation team works closely with other museums and conservation institutes on partnership projects leading to advances in conservation and to promote the field of conservation. More about investigating our collections Partnerships with other museums and conservation institutions Working objects Working objects demand particular skills to keep them moving. You need to know how to make a clock yourself or how to replace parts for scientific instruments so that they can perform their original function. When we do make replacement parts, we stamp the metal with our own tiny maker’s mark, so that they can always be distinguished from the original. More about working objects Providing access to our collections Objects from the National Maritime Museum collections travel all over the world, so that they can be seen by new audiences who may not have the opportunity to visit Greenwich. More about providing access to our collections Student placements, interns and volunteers programme We have a busy program of student placements and interns in all of our conservation studios to share our specialist knowledge with future generations. We also work with volunteers, particularly in paper conservation, who sometimes find themselves measuring up a rare book for its own custom-made wrapper. More about our student placements and interns programme More about our volunteer programme Learn more about our collections Donate an item to our collections Gifts of items from generous individuals enable us to enrich and grow our historic collections Acquisitions & disposals We acquire and dispose of material in accordance with the legal and ethical framework required to meet the professional standards identified within the Arts Council England's Accreditation Scheme Borrowing from our collections Find out more about our loans programme, and help us make our collections available to the widest possible audience Recent acquisitions Find out about new acquisitions to the Royal Museums Greenwich collections