27 October. Robert M. Organ, former Director of the Conservation Analytical Laboratory (CAL) of the Smithsonian Institution and past ICCROM lecturer and consultant, passed away in his home in Scotland on October 11. He was 94 years old.

Born in England, Robert Organ was a lecturer in physics at the College of Technology, Birmingham in 1950. He began his conservation career in 1951 at the British Museum Research Laboratory, then under the stewardship of Harold Plenderleith, future Director of ICCROM. A move to North America in 1965 brought Organ to the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada as Curator of Conservation. In 1967, Organ accepted an offer to head the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory (CAL) in Washington DC, USA, from which position he retired in 1983.

A noted scientific conservator with particular expertise in metals conservation, Organ also investigated efficient ways of organizing conservation laboratories, workshop spaces and workflows.  His text “Design for the Scientific Conservation of Antiquities”, published in 1968 by Butterworths and the Smithsonian Institution Press under the IIC (International Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works), particularly developed this last theme, discussing appropriate work layouts, the need to ensure healthy environments, and equipment issues in setting up a scientific laboratory for the conservation of historic objects.

Robert Organ was the last surviving member of a 1972 ICCROM planning committee to design a course, Fundamental Principles of Conservation, aiming to promote team-building between curators, scientists and conservators. His colleagues on this planning committee included Garry Thomson, Bruno Muhlethaler, Albert France-Lanord and Giorgio Torraca. The resulting course, later renamed Scientific Principles of Conservation (SPC), was first held at ICCROM in 1973 and repeated regularly through multiple editions up until 1999.  Organ contributed lectures to this course on the principles of climatology and collections care until 1986. Thanks to his kindness, humour and original, practical and inventive mind, Organ had a strong impact on all the course participants who had the good fortune to know him. Organ’s article for the 1980 issue of the ICCROM Newsletter, The Lessons of Nature, gives a good idea of his lecturing style and his eminently practical and creative approach to conservation solutions.

In 1984, accompanied by his wife Barbara, Organ came to ICCROM for a sabbatical leave of six months, during which he renewed and deepened his connections with ICCROM staff members.  During this leave, Organ advised on programmes and didactic materials, contributed to courses, and studied options for creating a world-wide index of conservation research. In March of that year, together with colleagues Hiroshi Daifuku and Gaël de Guichen, Organ undertook a mission for ICCROM to the National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi, to conduct a training seminar on preventive maintenance for archaeologists, engineers, laboratory chemists and technicians from sites and museums throughout Pakistan.

Organ authored over 60 articles and publications on a broad range of issues in scientific conservation.  His expertise was brought to bear on a number of outstandingly important objects: designing an appropriate case (incorporating a thermoelectric cooler) for temporarily exhibiting the paper document of George Washington’s Commission as Chief of the 1775 Continental Army (1982); examining, cleaning and reassembling the Ardagh Chalice, an Irish gold and silver double-handled vessel dating to AD 800 and composed of 354 separate parts (1973); reclaiming mineralized silver from the lyre excavated by C.L. Woolley at the site of Ur, using electrolytic regeneration and an annealing process to restore lustre and malleability to the previously corroded silver elements (1967); restoring a relic casket from Shah-Ji-Ki Dheri, India (1964); and conserving the St. Ninian’s Hanging Bowl of silver alloy, excavated in the Shetland Islands, UK (1959).

Robert Organ was a Chartered Physicist and a Member of the Institute of Physics, UK, as well as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, the IIC, and the AIC (American Institute of Conservation). He served as Vice-Chairman of ICOM-CC (International Council of Museums, Committee for Conservation) from 1981 to 1984, and received the ICOM-CC medal in 2005 for his significant contributions to the field of scientific conservation. Always modest about his own contributions, he will be remembered as one of the outstanding conservation scientists of his generation.

The Director-General and staff of ICCROM extend our condolences to his wife and many relatives, friends and colleagues.

updated on: 27 October, 2011