Medium and materials field

The Medium and materials field records what an object is made of.

Field details

Visibility: Public field
 Field ID: medium_description
Search example: medium_description: copper
Field type: Text field with 1,000-character limit
Field location: Detail and Public tab in the object cataloguing page

Cataloguing tips

Different materials require different collection care. Some types of materials need to be stored separately for their longevity, or for health and safety purposes. This field helps with such planning.

It is essential to use a standard and consistent format. We recommend either of these thesauri:

• British Museum Materials Thesaurus
  Uses British English terms and spelling. Suitable for Australian and New Zealand collections.

• Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) - The Getty Research Institute
  Uses American English terms and spelling.

Objects can be made of multiple materials, so each new material type will be on a new line. Identify if an object is organic or inorganic and record the material hierarchy. For example:

• organic, processed material, paper

• organic, processed material, textile, silk

• inorganic, processed material, synthetic, plastic, bakelite

Search tips

You can search on this field with its ID:

medium_description

For example, enter medium_description: copper into the search field to find all objects that are made of copper.