Student Cecilia Bembibre smell of heritage research in the media

Research showing how heritage smells could be identified, analysed and documented, and thus preserved, was published in a paper in the journal Heritage Science, by Cecilia Bembibre, SEAHA PhD student, and Matija Strlic, Professor of Heritage Science at UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage.

The research revolves around a particular heritage smell which most of us would instantly recognise: the smell of a historic library. This was extensively chemically analysed and visitor experiences and emotions were recorded. The information was captured in the form of a Historic Paper Odour Wheel, a new tool for documenting heritage smells.

The research captured the imagination of the public and the media, and was featured in The Guardian, The Times, Daily Mail, Japan Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and in the BBC London News and the BBC Breakfast Show.

Read about the research published open access.

Links

• Read Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours
• Read ''Can you judge a book by its odour?'' article in The Guardian
• Read ''Scientists sniff out a whiff of the past'' article in The Times
• Read ''How do you describe that book smell? Scientists pinpoint the nostalgic whiff of second-hand bookshops'' article in the Daily Mail
• Read ''The Quest to Better Describe the Scent of Old Books'' article Smithsonian Magazine