The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute (MCI), was created in 1963 to address the need for a national institution that would set the highest standards for the preservation and care of our nation’s historic, artistic, and cultural collections. For the past 63 years, MCI has worked to preserve the historic, artistic, cultural, and scientific heritage of our country so that it can be shared and understood by present and future generations. MCI accomplishes its work through three interconnected and cross-disciplinary areas of expertise: conservation and documentation, scientific research, and disaster preparedness and resilience training. Since its inception, MCI has provided state-of-the-art technical and scientific research, hands-on conservation expertise, and professional training focused on preserving the Smithsonian’s priceless collections, while also sharing in-house expertise nationally and internationally. MCI also oversees the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI), which enables the Institute to assist more communities with preparing for and responding to disasters that impact their local cultural heritage. In its new strategic plan, MCI will build on this legacy by focusing its work on the following key areas: embracing storytelling, connecting with communities, and investing in innovation.

In addition to collaborating with nearly all of the museums and research centers across the Smithsonian, MCI has worked in partnership with many outside organizations, including the White House, the U.S. Congress, the Architect of the Capitol, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. military, the Department of the Interior, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as other state, federal, museum, and academic organizations. MCI is combining its international work to bring expertise and capacity building training to many countries in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, and Asia. Accordingly, the Institute continues to train cultural heritage specialists and practitioners who work in communities across the nation and around the world.

The main MCI facility is in Suitland, Maryland at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center (MSC). The Institute’s laboratories are equipped with cutting-edge scientific instrumentation and conservation equipment needed to address questions about the documentation and research, care and preservation, and storage and exhibition of the national collections. The broad range of available scientific instrumentation techniques includes spectrometry, including biomolecular mass spectrometry, analytical microscopy, and digital imaging. MCI’s Suitland facility includes custom-built conservation laboratories for the specialized care of historic, artistic, and cultural collections which include paintings, textiles, objects and sculpture, paper, and photographs. This facility is also regularly used to help train a wide range of constituents, from emerging museum professionals, specialist researchers, and practitioners to other experts in law enforcement and emergency response operations. 
 

Means and Strategy

MCI is currently positioned to continue its leadership role in supporting the care, research, and conservation of the nation’s historical, artistic, and cultural heritage, and increase its capacity to help local communities preserve their heritage when under threat from disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, and floods. Throughout FY 2027 and beyond, MCI will begin to implement its new strategic plan, which focuses on how to accomplish its goals by continuing to deploy its staff expertise, maximize its financial resources, and identify how best to function more efficiently through interdisciplinary research, training, and programming.

In FY 2027, the Institute will play a vital role in the technical study and scientific analysis of the national collections through its collaboration with many of the Smithsonian’s museums and research centers. This builds on MCI’s established track record of using technical research to reveal otherwise unknowable stories about our nation’s history. In addition to sharing these recovered stories in scholarly publications and talks, MCI will focus on creating programs, digital content, and educational resources that will make this information and knowledge available to a broad range of people. The Institute will also continue to use its expertise in identifying the material and technical components of collections to determine their origins and potential degradation risks, as well as develop techniques to stop or slow the deterioration of such historically significant objects. This expertise also positions MCI to continue robust cultural property anti-trafficking training that has reached more than 1,000 law enforcement and customs personnel to date.

Furthermore, MCI will continue to partner with other Smithsonian units in the identification of best practices for the storage and exhibition of items so that these collections can be shared with current and future generations of visitors. In FY 2027, building on years of previous research, MCI plans to develop research frameworks and programming for fully utilizing its scientific instrumentation — and especially its new suite of portable instruments — to answer challenging cultural heritage questions. This capability will make MCI more responsive to the research and conservation needs of both other Smithsonian units as well as community stakeholders. MCI will also rebuild its conservation staffing to develop and offer more substantive conservation assistance and training.

MCI will also focus on developing scaled approaches to training in several key areas by collaborating with broader Smithsonian programs such as the Rural Initiative and the Regional Collaboratives. In the area of disaster preparedness, the Institute will determine how to scale existing work that trains local heritage practitioners and stewards alongside emergency management specialists to proactively prepare so they can minimize the potential loss of important local collections, buildings, and places. The Institute will also explore ways to appropriately leverage both MCI and the broader Smithsonian staff and resources to assist communities in the salvage and recovery of their local cultural heritage in the wake of disasters and extreme weather events.

MCI’s research, tools, and training will be made available to a broad public audience through a new digital strategy in FY 2027. This work will first involve further developing MCI’s website to make all digital offerings accessible and easily searchable. In addition, public programs will be further developed to share MCI’s work with a wide range of audiences, from specialists in the conservation and preservation fields to the broader public. The Institute will explore approaches to sharing its work with K–12 students by collaborating with Smithsonian educators, including those in the Smithsonian Science Education Center.