Abstract
We isolated and identified microorganisms from the aerial environment of domestic museums. The fungi, Penicillium spp., Alternaria spp., and Cladosporium spp. were isolated in many museums. It seems that these fungi are related to biological degradation of textile remains. A total of 14 kinds of bacterial strains were isolated: Acinetobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., Neisseria spp., Alcaligenes spp., Shigella spp., Klebsiella spp., Corynebacterium spp., Aerococcus spp., Bacillus spp., Micrococcus spp., Citrobacter spp., Erwinia spp., Salmonella spp., and Providencia spp. Acinetobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., Neisseria spp., and Alcaligenes spp. were the predominate bacteria found in samples with a variety of bacteria. This suggests that there is a relationship between bacteria and the damage of textile remains. In the museum, we isolated Alternaria spp, Geotrichum spp., Penicillium spp. Acinetobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., Alcaligenes spp. from the entrance, exhibit hall and storage, but they were found in smaller number and species in the exhibit cases and paulownia cases. We concluded that paulownia cases were not influenced by the microorganisms because of quality of care provided by the museum staff. Corynebacterium spp., and Bacillus spp. were not detected at the entrance and exhibit hall but were detected in paulownia cases. It is presumed that those bacteria did not flow in from outside, but resulted from contaminants in paulownia cases. In the distribution of microorganisms associated with textile remains, more fungi were detected than bacteria. Acinetobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Neisseria spp., were isolated from silk items. Penicillium spp. and Cladosporium spp. were isolated in the silk and hump items. Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. were isolated from the cotton items. On the other hands, there were no fungi strains in the wool items. Most of the isolated strains from textile remains were aerial microorganisms from the museum environment. These results suggest that textile remains were apt to contaminated by contact with the air.
