How fluorescent lighting accidentally bleached the museum's animal skins
In short: In the 1940s, diorama artists adopted fluorescent lighting to mimic blue skies, but this choice triggered an unforeseen chemical change: the fading of once-vibrant animal furs.
This video explores the delicate conservation work required to restore the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of North American Mammals. To fix the bleached, blond-looking fur caused by decades of light exposure, conservators had to develop a precise solution using commercial dyes. The challenge was finding a colorant that was light-stable and reversible, yet gentle enough not to mat or clump the specimens' hair.
The successful restoration project led to the hall's reopening in October 2012.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Recoloring the Animals in the Dioramas
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