# What Purpose Do The Red Lights Serve In The Museum?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 20, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104 "2002-12-20T20:42:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/1 "2002-12-20T20:42:48Z")
Every day at school I walk through a small museum, a good portion of which is illuminated by red lights. This scarlet glow makes sense in the World’s Oldest Profession exhibit (just kidding), but I wonder if it serves a purpose in the rest of the museum. Are the people who run the museum just trying to create a certain kind of ambiance, or is there a practical reason for the red lights? Mostly this red light is focused on a section that has animal fossils arranged around a replica of a mastodon skeleton. I believe I’ve also seen pottery, tools, and weaponry in this section of the museum at various times. Could “regular light” damage some of these artifacts in some way? I’ve seen similar lighting in other museums as well. So what’s the straight dope?
Thanks in advance.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2002, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/2 "2002-12-20T20:54:09Z")
Well, light is very damaging to some types of artifacts… especially paper, cloth, and anything painted or dyed. Does a white (ie viewing) light trigger when someone comes near to look at it?
I recall seeing the Leiscter (sp?) Codex – a work of Da Vinci’s that Bill Gates bought – on display at the Museum of Natural History, New York. The pages themselves were in complete darkness unless a person walked up to them, then a dim light would turn on for about 10 seconds at a time.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2002, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/3 "2002-12-20T20:58:20Z")
I think it may be to minimise the ultraviolet which tends to fade colors.
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/4 "2002-12-20T21:30:00Z")
You have a museum at school? I should be so lucky!
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/5 "2002-12-20T23:15:51Z")
Kids today! In MY day, we had to WALK 10 miles to the museum every day in freezing rain. And we were grateful!
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/6 "2002-12-21T00:54:50Z")
**Mephisto** –I thought that, Prince Of Darkness that you are, you would be _used_ to places lit in red & decorated with skulls.
Keep warm!
Oh…yeah. Never mind.
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### Author:  [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/7 "2002-12-21T01:18:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mephisto \*
> \*\*Every day at school I walk through a small museum, a good portion of which is illuminated by red lights . . . I’ve seen similar lighting in other museums as well. So what’s the straight dope?
> \*\*
The straight dope is that it’s probably a knee-jerk reaction.
That light fades museum artifacts has an element of truth, but also an element of urban legend.
Common items fade even when out of the sun, for example: watercolors, color photographs, and most ink jet prints.
However, many objects don’t deteriorate under moderate artificial light, even after decades of constant exposure.
Sunlight is quite a different matter. As a general rule nothing of museum quality should be placed where direct sun regularly strikes it.
Museums tend to go overboard – especially those who are not conservation experts, but which are just following “common museum wisdom”. For example, many museums will let patrons take pictures so long as a flash isn’t used. However studies have shown that the brief period of the flash has an unmeasureable effect on objects which are considered lightfast. (Many museums, however use the “flash argument” as a convenient way of stopping people from taking high quality photographs. They prefer you buy theirs.) The red museum light could also be a convenient way to stop people from taking quality photographs.
In short, there are various reasons for red lights. Unfortunately, you’re not liable to get a candid answer from the museum, since such matters tend to either be political or matters of security.
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### Author:  [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/8 "2002-12-21T21:43:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lemur866 \*
> \*\*Kids today! In MY day, we had to WALK 10 miles to the museum every day in freezing rain. And we were grateful! \*\*
Wow. That must have been one heck of a museum. Was that ten-mile trek uphill both ways?
[QUOTE]
\*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \*
\*\*Mephisto–I thought that, Prince Of Darkness that you are, you would be used to places lit in red & decorated with skulls. \*\*
At home, yeah, but I didn’t expect it at school. Looks like my university’s gone to hell . . . (well, I tried).
Thanks for the info, Dopers. The museum politics and business concerns hadn’t occurred to me.
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### Author:  [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/9 "2002-12-21T21:45:21Z")
Grrr. . . they really should give us a preview button . . . :smack:
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/10 "2002-12-21T22:07:35Z")
Those aren’t museums, those are brothels! And those aren’t statues in the windows either.
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### Author:  [@Slugworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slugworth)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-purpose-do-the-red-lights-serve-in-the-museum/144104/11 "2002-12-21T22:43:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KidCharlemagne \*
> \*\*Those aren’t museums, those are brothels! And those aren’t statues in the windows either. \*\*
Considering how many statues are missing arms, that’d be one freaky brothel.