Author: Caroline King, Intern
My name is Caroline King, and I am in my first year of graduate school at East Carolina University where I am pursuing my Masters in Anthropology. I have loved archaeology since I was a child, but I also loved chemistry, and I didn’t think the two fields overlapped. It wasn’t until I joined a field school in Summer 2023 where I met conservators who had interests similar to mine and they showed me how chemistry can be applied to the archaeology field. In December 2023 I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a major in Medical Anthropology and minors in Chemistry and Archaeology. Since I was graduating in the winter, I wanted to use my spring and summer before graduate school to gain experience in conservation.
I am incredibly grateful to have been offered a 10-week summer internship at the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab where I learned from experienced conservators and got my hands dirty in the field. The QAR staff allowed me to work with inorganic and organic artifacts at various stages in the conservation process. Before QAR, I had taken many chemistry classes, but the only experience I had in conservation was in a class I took about a year ago. I am very appreciative that the QAR staff spent so much time teaching me the chemistry behind conservation while also giving me a holistic view of the field and showing me the non-chemistry aspects of it.
While no two days at the lab were the same, I did have weekly, biweekly, and/or daily tasks. Some of those regular tasks included measuring drying weights and doing Chloride, PEG (polyethylene glycol), and TDS solution testing. I also applied tannic acid and acryloid B72 to metal artifacts once they were pulled out of solution and dry. I was even able to mend two pieces of one of these metal artifacts with acryloid B72. When artifacts reached the end of their conservation process, I took post-treatment photographs and measurements and stored them.
About halfway into my internship I was very lucky to get to help with and learn from QAR’s cannon boring process! It was incredible to have the opportunity to watch and help unload a cannon that was last loaded over 300 years ago. A couple weeks later we got to take a field trip to Beaufort and help with cannon checks at the NC Maritime Museum. I also had a side project during my internship where I would sift through sand under a microscope and collect tiny pieces of gold flakes, which would have been used as currency by the pirates aboard the ship.
Interning at the QAR Lab was an amazing experience that I would absolutely do again if I could. I am so grateful to QAR team for the opportunity and for being so welcoming and generous towards me. I learned more than I ever thought I would about conservation and loved every minute of it!
Images:
-Caroline assisting with cannon inspections at NCMM. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
-Caroline helping with an event at Farmville Public Library. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
-Caroline creating a map of our warehouse tanks. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
-Caroline helping with unloading a cannon. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.