the safe arrives

the safe arrives!!!
my last essential piece of equipment, to provide security and fire protection for the collection materials that I am going to be working on.

It's big, it's heavy, and it's got to get from the loading dock to the lab...









since there were only single-width doorways, the safe had to be moved by people, no room for forklifts,



















and I did a lot of research and measuring to make sure that I could get the maximum amount of storage, but the safe would still fit through the door






















I think there was a total of seven guys working on this, can you find them all in the picture?













hooray!!!!

Old Tools

Sometimes it's nice to get new tools, something shiny and sharp that you get to break in your own self... a new paring knife perhaps.

But sometimes old tools are even better.

I've got a project due around August, it isn't a conservation treatment, but rather a request for a facsimile of a book in our collection.

This project is going to present some fun challenges, and I have started my research already, but the one that is currently at the top of my brain is finding the right tool to represent the blind tooling on the original cover. The tooling on the original is kind of smudgy, as if the tool itself had seen better days. So I can't order something shiny and new, but rather have to look around to see if there is something in my personal collection, or perhaps the collection of another binder that will fit the bill.

This wheel is one of my own and one of my favorites. I love the design but also the signs of the handwork that created it. The stamps on it say "Morris & Co", "Ludgates" and "London". I've glued some test leather to a board and am warming up the stove, stay tuned to see how it turns out!

Building a Better Book Cradle- pt 2

So this is the second prototype of the new reading room book cradle. We made the front lip a little deeper even though some people were worried that it might catch the bottom edges as you turn the pages of bound material. That is a possibility, but in general, the square at the bottom of a book's cover should help create enough clearance.

We also made the back edge a little shorter so that the slope of the cradle is about 25 degrees, just enough to help the reader view the book, but not enough to cause a significant amount of text block drag.















The next step is to take this cradle to the reading room for people to use and evaluate, if there's more feedback we'll have a third prototype made, if not, we'll have a bunch of these made for the reading room. Stay tuned!

Linotype

Someone left the Linotype out in the rain...

Jones Falls Bridge plans

The plans take a bath...