Last month, we were able to complete one of the last major steps in the conservation of USS Monitor’s two XI-Inch Dahlgren shell guns: boring concretion out of the barrels.

It has been too long since we’ve given an update on the conservation of Monitor’s port gun carriage. So long in fact, that the conservation of its 250-ish components are now complete!!!

Today’s question seems like a simple one – how long is a Dahlgren Shell Gun?

Marine archaeological guns always have one big problem in particular – how do you clean the inside?

These are no ordinary cabinets though…they are “Delta” cabinets that are museum specific storage equipment able to maintain a hermetic seal and therefore, a microclimate!!

My name is Kim, and I’m an intern at The Mariners’ Museum and Park in the Batten Conservation Complex this summer.

Well guess what? The tank is now drained and Monitor‘s gun turret is visible in the open air for the first time in over three years. The excitement in the lab is palpable, and we have an ambitious two-week (July 27 – August 7) work window within the lab.

However, there are handful of artifacts that continue to mystify us in the lab, particularly those that have been fully conserved but not properly identified.