This is an archive of posts from both my old blogs (Digital Cellulose, Chartex project) and my current Tumblr blog, Conserve This!
Today I’m working on a treatment that is basically the rare book equivalent of cleaning under the couch cushions. This 2-volume herbal was used by a previous owner as a plant press, and many leaves, flowers and other assorted plant parts were discovered in-between its pages by our special collections librarian. The plants had already […]
How not to fix a book, example #47.
“Please fix this bad fix” is a surprisingly large percentage of my job. This book was sent to me because someone had replaced one of the pages with a photocopy (actually TWO photocopies glued together to make a two-sided copy) by taping it to the adjacent original pages in the book. Sigh.
Some before and after photos of a recent mold remediation treatment I’ve been working on. It’s a collection of more than a hundred architectural drawings, paintings, and photographic reproductions that were damaged by mold prior to their acquisition by the library. Fortunately, most of the mold damage is on the edges of the supports or […]
Sometimes my job as a conservator involves encapsulating the flowers that were sent in a 19th century envelope addressed to the 19th century novelist and poet George Meredith. Polyester encapsulation is not the same as lamination; the inert polyester plastic is never directly adhered to any of the items within, only the edges are sealed […]
Repeat after me: Conservators save paper. Conservationists save trees. Every time a journalist or press release gets this wrong, it makes me want to scream. Please, help spread the right word about what conservators do!
Since I haven’t had much time to take photos of my current work, here’s a throwback photo instead! These are some of the textblocks I made for my historical book models in grad school. The top is for a laced vellum case, on alum tawed thongs with a primary endband on an alum tawed core. […]
But the only other option is using the paper washing sink which has way more space (and water!) than you need…
Well, at least it’s done. Even though I want to keep fiddling with it…