The goal of RMS Titanic, Inc.'s artifact conservation program is not to restore but to arrest deterioration, thus allowing the objects to be exhibited wearing the face of the trauma they have experienced. The procedures to accomplish this are varied and detailed depending on the composition of the artifact; but generally, each object is desalinated, cleaned, dried, appropriately protected, and maintained using preventative conservation methods.

Preventative Conservation is the mitigation of deterioration of artifacts through the implementation of policies and procedures concerning appropriate environmental conditions, object handling, storage materials, exhibition materials, packing and crating, and transport. This is an ongoing process that continues throughout the life of the artifact, and does not end with the initial conservation treatment. At all times the artifacts are under the protection and supervision of the Collections Manager who supervises their progress through conservation, catalogues and photographs each artifact, and practices preventative conservation. 

Upon arrival in the laboratory, ceramics and glass are cleaned to remove any remaining surface corrosion before they are immersed in a series of baths to extract embedded water-bearing salts.  Following this they are dried, numbered, and, as with all artifacts, stored in an environment with controlled humidity, temperature, and light, using archival storage materials. Metals of a manageable size are cleaned of extraneous debris and placed in chemical, or electrolytic baths to extract the embedded salts, where they often remain for many months.  When the desalination process is completed, they are dried and protected with a wax coating.

Titanic’s organic artifacts, such as wood, paper, textiles, and leather, to quote conservator Rhonda Wozniak in Voyage 22, Winter 1996, “… are not kept in desalination baths since prolonged storage in water can be damaging to material.... Organic materials are hydrolyzed by seawater and subject to biological attack.  Therefore, before drying the object, it is necessary to replace what was lost from the structure during burial.  For instance, leather is lubricated so that it will not be brittle, wood is impregnated to support the structure, and paper is re-sized to bind the fibers.”

Detailed record keeping is critical due to the great number of artifacts and the large staff of conservators. The artifact's recovery information, condition, treatment, storage, and exhibition history is tracked in a database by accession number; e.g. 98/0001.A1.  The “98” indicates that the item, in this case the “Big Piece” from the hull, was retrieved during Expedition 1998. The “0001.A1,” specific to this artifact, indicates the sequential inventory number within the dive year. The complete accession number is written on the artifact in an inconspicuous spot with a removable medium.

Once conserved the artifacts are ready for exhibition. The Collections Manager then meets with the exhibition design team to determine which artifacts are available for display and which artifacts need special support mounts. She supervises crate construction, the packing of artifacts for transport, organizes climate-controlled transportation, and keeps detailed movement inventories. The Exhibition Manager, Collections Manager and conservators travel with the collection to oversee the installation of artifacts and to establish maintenance procedures for the artifacts while they are on public display.