Adopting Conservation Polices for Industrial Heritage Museums:A Case Study of the Railways Museum, Cairo Egypt

The emphasis in this paper is on analyzing conservation policies for Museums of Industry’s exhibition and collections. The challenges of preserving the industry collections rely on the significance of many of these objects that lie in their operation. During the twentieth century, there was a shift in the practice and philosophy of museum conservation towards a more scientific approach that seeks to understand the chemistry of materials.1 Simple conservation and care procedures of the collections may seem obvious but analyzing the development of procedures for preservation and protection is provided vision, context, and content to such aspects of work at museums. The goal of preserving the museum collection is to preserve and manage the collection for scientific study, exhibition, programming, and education.2 The paper sheds light on the ethical responsibility of the museum where industry collection should be protected, unencumbered, cared for, and preserved.3 Also, it presents the Railways Museum in Cairo as a case study and highlights the appropriate measures that ensure the safety and security of the industry collections. Then, the paper develops a plan for the conservation of the industrial collections in museums that regarded very differently, due to numerous characteristics of conservation methods, challenges, and the changing nature of such kind of heritage.