My typical day…

Sees me arrive at the office around 9am. The museum opens at 10am so I try to get as much done in the galleries as I can before the public arrive. Then I sort through emails and prepare notes for any meetings with different departments, such as marketing. Then I prep the lab for the objects I have scheduled for treatment. We use different chemicals to restore them as best we can. It’s a delicate process. I approach each piece like a doctor would a patient. I do an initial assessment and then come up with a treatment plan, but sometimes there is nothing we can do. Some pieces take days to complete, some months.

I work with one other conservator. Depending on the size of the exhibition, we can be working through hundreds of pieces at one time. For the last exhibition, we assessed 200 letters that had been retrieved from a ship that had sunk to the bottom of the ocean during the Second World War.

I grab lunch from nearby Exmouth Market around 1.30pm, then I’ll take a walk before going back to the office. From 2.30pm, it’s like a revolving door of people asking for updates. I often advise curators on whether the acquisition of a new work is risky or not. I leave at 5pm.

My most memorable moment…

Was the day the museum opened. I was involved from the very start, so it was amazing to finally see people come through the doors.

Why this woman gets paid to preserve precious letters