Thursday, May 9, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Cradles for Miniature Books
I gave a training session to a colleague last week, she needed to know how to display a group of miniature books safely and so I showed her a very simple, cost-effective method for making custom cradles out of 20 pt. board.
My colleague has good hand skills although hands-on is not her primary role (she talks about this in her blog post), and I felt comfortable showing her the method and then leaving her to the task. This can be a tough choice for a conservator who, in most cases, has the primary responsibility for the physical well-being of the collection. Should I examine and document every item that goes on exhibit? should I make every custom cradle and install every item to ensure that nothing happens to our books? Perhaps, in an ideal world yes, but those who work in libraries know that life is far from ideal. There are many projects and exhibits that happen on short notice and the more people who can "pitch in" the better. Being the lone book conservator at a large special collections library means I have to make strict choices about how I spend my time so that the really needy books get the treatment they need. Having trained my colleague means I can step back from the exhibits role just a little, and knowing that I do spend a lot of time with our library collections and will see or hear about any difficulties gives me confidence in this choice.
My colleague has good hand skills although hands-on is not her primary role (she talks about this in her blog post), and I felt comfortable showing her the method and then leaving her to the task. This can be a tough choice for a conservator who, in most cases, has the primary responsibility for the physical well-being of the collection. Should I examine and document every item that goes on exhibit? should I make every custom cradle and install every item to ensure that nothing happens to our books? Perhaps, in an ideal world yes, but those who work in libraries know that life is far from ideal. There are many projects and exhibits that happen on short notice and the more people who can "pitch in" the better. Being the lone book conservator at a large special collections library means I have to make strict choices about how I spend my time so that the really needy books get the treatment they need. Having trained my colleague means I can step back from the exhibits role just a little, and knowing that I do spend a lot of time with our library collections and will see or hear about any difficulties gives me confidence in this choice.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Increase Mather has remarkably neat handwriting
from his manuscript "Concerning Apparitions"
click to see the manuscript on my flickr account
his father, Richard Mather, not so much
his father, Richard Mather, not so much
I won't bother with a flickr link for this one since his writing is truly illegible. When you work in libraries and archives, this is more of what you're used to. Researchers often become familiar with a given person's hand, but the cramped script of the good old days is often beyond me, which is why I was so struck my Increase Mather's neat printed hand. Remember, they were most likely writing with a goose quill pen!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Don't Let the Pigeon Play with Tape
There is a fabulous children's book called "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late" about a tired little pigeon that doesn't want to go to bed. It is part of a series of books about all sorts of things you shouldn't let the Pigeon do, and after last Thursday, I want to add a new title to the series: "Don't Let the Pigeon Play with Tape".
The Special Collections Library recently acquired the archive of a bank from a small town in southern Virginia. The staff at the bank had carefully saved many documents from the bank's founding and from important events throughout the bank's history. This is just the sort of news that makes archivists very happy. What the staff also did was frame a number of the documents and put them on display.
This is just the sort of news that makes archivists and conservators anxious, because where there are window mats and framed documents, there is often tape. (Insert dramatic, horror-movie scream here.)
In a better world, the framer would have used some sort of photo corner to hold the document in place instead of taping it to the top of the window in the window mat. Perhaps the roll of tape said "archival" on the package. Who knows the tape may even be pH neutral, but that does not mean that directly applying tape to an artifact is ever a good idea. With pressure sensitive tapes (the kind you pull off a roll and smush into place with your fingers) the adhesive doesn't really cure but rather becomes tangled in the fibers of the paper and that is what is holding everything together. So removing the tape means you are trying to untangle the adhesive from the glue without tearing the surface of the paper.
This was the scariest piece since not only did I have to get the tap off the top of the document, but there were two additional sections of tape toward the bottom of the document. It was nerve wracking work, but we were very, very, lucky. After two hours and some very fine work with my casselli spatula I was able to liberate all of the documents from their window mats.
So even though we had a happy ending, I would still say Don't Let the Pigeon Play with Tape!!
The Special Collections Library recently acquired the archive of a bank from a small town in southern Virginia. The staff at the bank had carefully saved many documents from the bank's founding and from important events throughout the bank's history. This is just the sort of news that makes archivists very happy. What the staff also did was frame a number of the documents and put them on display.
This is just the sort of news that makes archivists and conservators anxious, because where there are window mats and framed documents, there is often tape. (Insert dramatic, horror-movie scream here.)
In a better world, the framer would have used some sort of photo corner to hold the document in place instead of taping it to the top of the window in the window mat. Perhaps the roll of tape said "archival" on the package. Who knows the tape may even be pH neutral, but that does not mean that directly applying tape to an artifact is ever a good idea. With pressure sensitive tapes (the kind you pull off a roll and smush into place with your fingers) the adhesive doesn't really cure but rather becomes tangled in the fibers of the paper and that is what is holding everything together. So removing the tape means you are trying to untangle the adhesive from the glue without tearing the surface of the paper.
This was the scariest piece since not only did I have to get the tap off the top of the document, but there were two additional sections of tape toward the bottom of the document. It was nerve wracking work, but we were very, very, lucky. After two hours and some very fine work with my casselli spatula I was able to liberate all of the documents from their window mats.
So even though we had a happy ending, I would still say Don't Let the Pigeon Play with Tape!!
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