Things they don’t tell you in book conservation grad school: one day your job will be to make a housing for a large papier-mâché chicken puppet.
Tag: archives
Some scenes from the move of our archives and special collections: empty shelves contrasted with full book trays on their way to offsite storage. My library will be undergoing a massive renovation early this coming year, and I am the one managing the logistics involved in moving our collections to offsite storage and other points […]
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Tape of low moral fiber
If you ever need some scotch tape or masking tape in my conservation lab, this is where you’ll find it. Double-sided tape (used for all sorts of conservation housings) is in the “Tape Tape” drawer.
While making photocopies of some moldy archives material, my student worker noticed that someone (presumably the person whose papers these are) had used this document to blot their lipstick. 💋💄
Apparently our first university archivist/historian was a big fan of lamination. This just one of a couple hundred volumes containing some of our earliest university records and history that were meticulously laminated. I cannot accurately describe how aghast I must have looked while examining these. My coworker showed them to me today for the first […]
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I was able to visit the famous Ludu Library and Archive, which is located in Mandalay, Myanmar. One of the library staff knew I was going to visiting, so he showed me this Burmese-language bookbinding manual when I arrived. You have no idea how excited I was to look through this book!
Archival National Geographic
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Mold Remediation
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 […]
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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 […]
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The conservation lab door has been decked out for the holidays! I used a discarded map from our map collection to make this giant paper snowflake. It was really easy, and you can find the instructions here.