Materials identification

Once again flicking through the trade journals in our collection and recognising an object that we own has enriched our record with a wealth of information. This time I was looking through an edition of British Plastics from February 1955 and I stumbled across a fabulous article about the...

One of the cases in our current exhibition, Reuse , looks at the problems that black plastics have when it comes to the recycling system and therefore how the material is then reused. When products and packaging made of plastics enter the recycling system, they need to be separated into individual...

There is no better feeling than finding an important nugget of evidence about an object, even if it proves we have got something wrong. Ekco U122 radio, 1950. https://www.modip.ac.uk/artefact/aibdc-002557 Due to its age and colouring we had assumed, incorrectly, that the above EKCO U122 radio was...

Earlier in September we attended the Festival of Plastics, held at the Museum of London. This festival was a celebration of the C OMPLEX project which was coming to an end after five years. The project, run by UCL’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage, received funding from the European Research...

When I joined MoDiP, this beautiful ornament captured my attention. It is currently on display in the About Plastics case in the museum. Initially, I was confused. What was a wall ornament doing in MoDiP? I made it my mission to research this beautiful artefact. I found out that it is a wall plaque...

I love the vibrant green colour of this ice bucket ( AIBDC : 008800 ), a rather appropriate object for this time of year as we get ready to toast in 2022. Image ref: The ice bucket, showing the white, removable liner (right). Image credit: Katherine Pell I also love the design of the lid. It has...

Hello, you may be wondering who I am. So, first a bit about me…My name is Reanna, I grew up in a relatively large family and I went to college and studied photography for 4 years. I joined MoDiP in November 2021 as Museum Assistant. I decided to join MoDiP to develop my knowledge on everyday...

A recent workshop provided the opportunity to look a little closer at a number of synthetic garments in MoDiP’s collections, and this blouse (refer image below) particularly caught my attention. AIBDC : 000824 Image credit: MoDiP It is very popular and gets used for research by students and teaching...

As you may know MoDiP is situated in the AUB Library, what you might not know about is another fantastic resource that resides in same building, the Materials Library https://aub-uk.libguides.com/collectionspages/materialslibrary The Materials Library. Image credit: Louise Dennis You can find out...

An intriguing object found in amongst some recent donations to the MoDiP collection turned out to be something rather special. This shiny black piece of hard plastic came with a small handwritten note explaining that: ‘This phenolic rod was given to me by H.V. Potter, Chairman of Bakelite Ltd. He...

In April 2020 (see our post of 20 May 2020) we had the good news that our application to the Art Fund for support for a project in partnership with the Dress and Textiles Specialists’ network and the Plastics SSN had been successful. Its aim is to create a resource focused on synthetic garments with...

Florence Compound was the invention of Alfred Critchlow (1813-1881) who was a manufacturer of horn buttons in Birmingham, England. After emigrating to the US, where he initially continued in this trade, Critchlow eventually moved to Florence, Massachusetts, where, in the 1850s, he began to...