Neutron Imaging from a Museum Perspective

Abstract

Research is one of the three principal activities of a museum, besides education and conservation of the collections. All three have to be understood in the widest possible sense. Scientific research on the objects would in turn only represent a relatively small part of a museum's overall research activities, the focus being usually on historical, art historical, archaeological or other research directly in line with the museum's subject area. Neutron imaging and analysis of cultural artefacts are relatively new methods and only represent therefore a marginal technique on the fringe of a museum's activities. Why would under these circumstances neutron imaging be interesting to a museum? This paper presents examples from the Geneva Ethnographic Museum illustrating how looking inside an object contributes to our understanding of the museum's collections, and where, despite the exceptional logistical effort required for the analysis, neutron imaging becomes important or even indispensable.