 Hi, I'm Dr. Renee S. Anderson and I'm here to share with you tips and hints on how you would manage wet salvage for something that's gone through a disaster or a water incident. I'm going to be talking to you about clothing items. I have two samples here I will share with you. First of all, you want to make sure you're safe. Be sure to watch our safety video so that you can get information on how to protect yourself while working with objects. Make sure you're wearing gloves, nitrile gloves, powder free are the best ones to use. You should also be wearing a mask, but I will not wear a mask during the video so it will be easier for you to hear me. If you encounter any mold, make sure you have eye protection on also. You should also consider wearing something to protect your clothing. So I have two objects here that have gone through water incidents. First of all, please assess whether or not it's worth doing wet salvage. It is possible that whatever has been exposed has been exposed to additional chemicals. You may not know what the chemicals are. They may also have been exposed to raw sewage. So consider if what it is that you have is actually worth the time and the effort to salvage it. You should also document your objects. Make sure you take good photos and use the voice memo feature on your phone to record what you're doing and what you're finding. First, I'm going to talk to you about this white object here. There's visible staining on the object and here's the thing. It is wet and so wet textiles, especially clothing, they get heavier and they also become more fragile. So you want to make sure you support this object before you move it around. You may use a mesh screen. This is plastic. You can get it from any hardware store because it can provide support for the object and it doesn't add a lot of weight. So gently cradle it and move it to the mesh and use that for lifting purposes. You may also use pipe insulation and that you can drape the item over the pipe insulation and move it. If it's a large clothing item, it may be a two person endeavor. So get someone to help you with that. I'm going to use the mesh screen. I want to check to see if there's going to be any problem with color loss and color change if I put this in water. So take something small like a little cosmetic sponge, dip it in your water. And I use distilled water because it will not add any additional chemicals to your clothing item. And I want to gently press on it to see if there's going to be any color change. You should check all of the colors on your object to see. Okay, we're in luck. There's no color change. So that means that it should be safe to rewet the object. I am also going to check to see if there are areas of fragility. Lace and open areas have a tendency to start to disintegrate after they get wet. If there's glue in here in any way, it may come apart or have been dissolved while it was exposed to water. So far it looks good. So I am going to use my mesh screen to pick it up and to submerge it into the distilled water to help me clear away the debris and dirt and dust. Also to help wash out some of what it's been exposed to. So gently submerge and then I pick it up and take it over to the next container. This would be my second rinse. I like to do a three-step process and I continue it until I remove as much of the debris and the dirt as I possibly can. When I get ready to dry my item, I'm going to gently open it up because I need the air to circulate to begin to dry. I'm also going to cut up my pipe insulation and bend it or fold it in any way that I need to help support the areas that need to be supported. And when I have clothing items, because there are lots of layers of construction, I like to use a screen such as this to lay out my object so it can dry. I'm going to very carefully move it to the screen. Remember it's wet so it's fragile and it's extra heavy and start to unfold it. It is going to be okay to have a fan in the area to help circulate the air. However, do not put the fan directly on your object. You just want to move the air around. The stain that was here before has been reduced. It's not as dark as it was. I'm going to use pipe insulation to help provide additional support and help pad it out so that I don't have hard creases. And then I would cut this end off. I would just cut it to size so that it works best for me for what it is I'm trying to support. This dress has many more layers of structure inside. There's a lace collar that's extremely fragile. There are shoulder pads that are in here. And so it's going to be very important to make sure there's a lot of air circulation that happens to help dry this. It's already been washed and I'm going to move it to the screen. And so what I would do is that I would cut pipe insulation and place it in the shoulders to help support it. Remember we need this air to circulate so it dries in a very good way. And so I would place the pipe insulation across the shoulders because we want to help reform the shape of the sleeves. Reshape the collar so that it lays flat and dries in an acceptable way so it's not distorted. I would also take the pipe insulation and place it near the center to help get this in a form or space that I want it to dry. You could actually place this across a couple of chairs using the pipe insulation to help pad out so you don't get a hard crease when you place this up to dry. It is going to take an extended period of time for this to dry. So when you assess whether or not you want to perform wet salvage on it, consider that. Also consider where it is going to be safe and best for you to dry your textile. It is going to take a number of hours for these items to dry. This is not a quick process. So if you need additional help, I recommend go to culturalheritage.org and click on the tab for find a professional. Also consider where it would be safe and best to store your treasures. Do you have a space that has a tendency to flood? Is the space prone to a lot of moisture? So you want to consider that. Do you use typically plastic to store? Those containers can help accumulate moisture. So consider putting desiccant in those containers to help control the moisture that can collect inside of them.