LRMH stands for Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments Historiques. Imagine a government-funded laboratory with material scientists who specialize in identifying materials and their pathologies in historic buildings. In addition, the scientists conduct research on new repair, cleaning, or coating materials, techniques to kill insects and microbiological growths, or other pressing concerns for buildings and objects identified as national historic monuments.

This is a resource that is unique to France. Other European countries have laboratories with similar expertises, but not under one roof and not always government-funded. The logic for the availability of this expertise stems from the government's fiscal responsibility for historic monuments. There are a significant number of historic monuments in France, a large number of which are owned and managed by the government, and furthermore, the government financially assists private owners with the maintenance and restoration of privately held historic monuments. While many have told me this financial aid is becoming less and less, it is still substantially more than what historic monuments in the USA can anticipate. In the USA, a building can be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but the only financial benefit to this are historic tax credits, up to 20%, for restoration work that complies with the Secretary of the Interior Standards.

Understand as well that French historic monuments include furniture and church organs, not just buildings and historic districts! There is also an inventory of significant art work. The LRMH works parallel with other government-funded laboratories, who specialize in art and paper objects, objects usually held in museums or archives. The LRMH works closely with the Architects en Chef des Monuments Historiques when there is an usual or difficult case - or when their scientific expertise is needed to confirm an original stone, mortar, paint or metal finish, or to determine an appropriate protocol, for example, the best method to clean the exterior of the Louvre for the next 30 years -- or to understand the long term effects of consolidants on stained glass windows -- or the efficacity of waterproofing coatings on stone.

This kind of research takes years, and the research is published in several ways. In the bi-annual journal, Monumental, that is published by the Centre National des Monuments Historiques. LRMH has also begun to publish their own research - online or in print (all in French for now). LRMH also maintains an online database of the documents held in their archive; it includes items in both French and English. Expect to see more in English in the coming years, as it is the official language for the European Union.

Note that there are also many private laboratories in France that are also frequently used by preservation architects, but only one LRMH!