Journey into a Toxic Past: Pest Control in Museums at the End of the Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Century in Germany and Beyond

• Published in: Collections (Walnut Creek, Calif.) Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 6 - 23
• Main Author: Tello, Helene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2025
• Subjects: collaboration with indigenous people; museum collections; pesticides; neocolonialism; repatriation of cultural assets; health & safety; history of pesticides; history of museum collections; contamination
• ISSN: 1550-1906
• DOI: 10.1177/15501906251321249

This contribution examines the use of pesticides in German museum collections at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. This basic research is extracted from my doctoral thesis. The former Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde zu Berlin, today named Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (EM), is suited as an example amongst others. Furthermore, German museums are in focus against the background of the formation of nation states, the situation around the German colonies at that time, the First World War, industrialization and the subsequent hygiene movement. These social and political circumstances played an important role for ethnological museums in Germany as well as in Europe. In this context former employees in ethnological museums are focused while they were fighting with various active ingredients and means against harmful insects in their collections based on organic materials. From this view museums appear as small self-contained institutions that relied heavily on outside support. Due to their persistence, the consequences of pest control with pesticides for objects as well as for humans are obvious and documented in many places. Material damage can be observed as well as serious health consequences for the human organism. The subject is also placed in the context of current debates about neo colonialism and colonialism, because it is clearly shown that there is a significant aspect that remains often unnoticed. To be more precise, there is a lack of responsible treatment and appreciation in German as well as in European museums for persons from source communities, who demand the repatriation of their objects, which are contaminated in this way. From this perspective it is a great matter of concern, to complement today’s conservator’s knowledge on the toxicity of museum objects and the human-toxic hazards that emanate from active ingredients and means introduced in the past.