The Pigment Library at Harvard
A piece of rare lapis lazuli stone from quarries in Afghanistan, secretions from on ocean-dwelling snail Bolinus brandaris, dried bodies of tiny insects Coccus ilicis, and a ball of �Indian yellow� made from the urine of cows fed only on mango leaves, are just some of the bizarre treasures housed in the long row of cabinets in the Harvard Art Museums� Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. This remarkable materials collection, some of which date back more than a hundred years and come from all over the world, represents raw materials from which pigments, dyes and binding media were traditionally made before synthetic pigments became available.
