Conservator Rosenberg

Conservator Gustav Rosenberg (1878-1941) was employed at the National Museum of Denmark from 1895 to 1940. He conserved both inorganic and organic materials. He was responsible for several large conservation projects, including the Hjortspring find. In 1917 he published a method for conservation of iron and bronze and he worked extensively with galvanic and electrolytic methods for metal conservation. Rosenberg also developed and improved methods for textile conservation. Rosenberg kept meticulous records in his notebooks which have been a great help to his successors.


Unfinished bowl conserved with sodium sulfate and glycerin in an experimental treatment by Rosenberg in 1918.

Rosenberg made several experiments to find a method for strengthening brittle archaeological textiles. The experiments were made with cotton wool impregnated with a mixture of Chinese Wood Oil, turpentine and carbon tetrachloride. He experimented also with glueing the impregnated cotton wool to silk netting.

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