The use of mercury- and arsenic-based antimicrobials to preserve educational and ethnographic collections ceased nearly four decades ago. The mercury and arsenic still present on treated materials, however, currently pose health risks to museum personnel and to indigenous peoples upon repatriation and return to cultural use. While remediation technologies are being investigated, little is known about the microbial populations associated with museum collections and in particular with metal-treated collections. Representing a unique metal-contaminated environment, the long-term goal of this research is to identify microorganisms capable of removing mercury from contaminated museum materials. To this end, the mercury-resistance of microorganisms associated with mercury-treated museum collections have been determined. Microorganisms were isolated directly from the surface of mercury-treated cultural items from the Arizona State Museum. Cultural and molecular methods, including 16S rRNA sequencing, were used to purify and identify isolates. Maximum mercury-resistance levels were determined by growth of individual isolates in mercury-amended broth. Mercury concentrations were confirmed using cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy. Sixteen bacterial isolates were collected from the ethnographic materials, with mercury levels from 27 to 2,147 ėg/cm2, as determined by X-ray fluorescence analysis. While belonging to common genera, including Arthrobacter, Bacillus, and Pseudomonas, isolates showed varying resistance when grown in the presence of mercury concentrations ranging from 100 ėg/L to 50 mg/L. Upon growth, some isolates showed evidence of mercury volatilization removing up to 20% of the mercury from 10 mg/Kg mercury-amended substrates, including paper, within 10 days. The results here demonstrate the potential use of bacteria in the removal of mercury from contaminated museum collections.