John shared with us his particular torment, a project that has occupied him daily for over six years, a highly deteriorated psalter uncovered from a peat bog in 2006. He still has his sense of humor, even though he freely admitted the project was pretty nightmarish at times. The psalter was uncovered from a commercial peat bog in July of 2006. Research suggests that the sphagnum moss in these bogs is what helps organic material survive so much better there than in regular soil, as the moss has a tanning effect on the organic material.
Once the psalter was uncovered, work stopped in order to rescue the fragile book. The psalter was covered in a wet layer of peat, then silicone Mylar and finally cellocast resin bandages were wrapped over the psalter to keep it wet until help arrived. This was exactly the right thing for the bog excavators to do. These men were not archaeologists or conservators themselves, but they knew what to do to keep it stable until conservators could arrive due to extensive museum outreach in the area. Local museums have provided a lot of training in order to help protect the wealth of archaeological materials located in Ireland’s bogs – most of which are commercially owned. Back at the lab in Dublin, the manuscript was kept wet and cold – at 40°C in a walk-in fridge. The media hyperbolically reported the discovery of the Psalter as being an apocalyptic omen due to a misidentification of one of the psalms. Really, psalters like this were used by monastic novices to learn their bible.
John’s first goal was to establish a collation map of the psalter. This usually easy task took two years due to the extensive trauma to the book. The psalter has five quires, 60 folios, no flyleaves, and it does not follow the insular nor the continental tradition of orienting the hair and flesh sides of the parchment folios. As John said, it seems to be “in the best Irish tradition, of completely ad hoc”.
Using a grid system, John mapped out each chunk of parchment before putting it through the drying process. He used a database to compile the veritable mountains of information the treatment of the Psalter generated. They cleaned the manuscript with water, removing thousands and thousands of seed pods with tweezers. One of the most challenging parts of the project was the “letter fishing” the group had to go through, to snag words and letters and letter-bits out of the bog. The tanning agents in the iron gall ink tanned the vellum so that frequently words or letters… or letter-parts would survive when the rest of the inner manuscript did not. In general, the inner portion of the manuscript was more likely to dissolve than the outer edges, which were exposed the tanning elements of the bog, would be preserved.
After cleaning, the Psalter page fragments underwent hyper spectral scanning, which John and his team undertook in an effort to read some of the illegible areas of the manuscript. After scanning, the fragments were ready to be dried.
The process that creates vellum creates a lot of tension in the material, and that tension shows itself most dramatically when drying wet vellum…. in intense shrinking and warp. John’s talk mostly focused on the de-watering of the vellum. Using some old historical vellum flyleaves the he had laying around the lab, John recreated putrefied vellum on which to test various drying methods. He and his crew kept track of changes in color, size and flexibility. After months of testing, they decided to proceed with a solvent bath of alcohol. They needed to restrain the vellum while it dried to minimize dimensional changes. The solvent exchange took place in a vacuum sealed bag that exerted even pressure against the entire fragment. This neatly solved the problem of restraining fragile vellum.
The National Museum of Ireland has a page devoted to the Faddan More Psalter project, with the full report on the psalter freely available.
Category: Book and Paper Conservation
42nd Annual Meeting — Book and Paper Session, May 30, "The Conservation of Tiffany Studio Drawings: Finding New Ways to Reconstruct Complex Paper Loss," by Marina Ruiz Molina
Two of the motifs in the book and paper presentations and posters this year were 1) paper pulp, for example in Debra Evans and Victoria Binder’s poster “Pulp Addiction: The Use of Dry Cast Pulp,” and Renate Mesmer and Jennifer Evers’ poster “Cast Paper Pulp,” and 2) flood and mold damage, which were represented in Katherine Kelly and Anna Friedman’s presentation “Conserving the Iraqi Jewish Archive for Digitization” and Fernanda Mokdessi Auada’s “Salvage of Paper Materials from the Flooding of Saõ Luiz do Paraitinga.” Marina Ruiz Molina’s presentation united these themes, in using paper pulp to conserve mold damaged items.
Marina Ruiz Molina’s case study objects were part of a collection of drawings used as guides in the Louis Comfort Tiffany studio in manufacturing stained glass. The firm went out of business in 1924, and the drawings were later found in an attic room of a marble dealer in Long Island. The collection entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1960s but they have been inaccessible due to their extensive mold damage from water damage, as seen in this combined before and after treatment picture.
Marina Ruiz Molina gave a quick overview of mold and what it does to paper, causing both structural weakening and aesthetic damage from the pigments it produces. She then presented three case studies of the use of cast paper pulp. The Tiffany drawings had been executed on illustration board that was made of imported Whatman paper adhered to local wood-pulp board. She first mechanically reduced the mold by cleaning with suction under the microscope, followed by application of solvents, enzymes and chelating agents in an attempt to reduce the stain.
The paper was still stained and extremely weak. The weakness of the original paper made it especially important to match the strength and expansion properties of the infill to the original paper. Marina Ruiz Molina achieved this by mixing cotton and flax to get the right hydrophilicity and using pre-dyed reactive dye pulp to achieve the right color. She is still experimenting with pigments, but the dyes were much easier to work with. She beats the pulp with a Vita-pro3 Vitamix blender, using the blending time to control the properties. She has found that any blend time under about 30 minutes still gives good fiber length.
Once the pulp is prepared, she pours it onto a Hollytex screen (the 0.0029” Hollytex is an ideal weight). She taps the fibers with a brush to distribute the fibers and then lifts the whole screen onto blotters. For the first case study, she cast two sheets, one as an infill and one as an overlay. To adhere them she humidified the object along with the infill and sprayed the infill with a dilute methyl cellulose solution, aligning it over the drawing on the suction table.
In the second case study, the decision was made to leave the drawing on its illustration board and to mechanically remove only the damaged part of the board, cutting it away in a stepped pattern to give a better surface for infilling. Marina Ruiz Molina then adhered several layers of Richard de Bas paper to build up the inner layers, using methyl cellulose. The outer visible layers were cast paper fills.
The third case study had thin lines on the recto traveling into the mold damaged area. Marina Ruiz Molina showed pictures of casting the overlay with holes in it so the design is still visible.
Marina Ruiz Molina is still refining the technique and would like to compare dyed pulps and pigmented pulps with a microfadeometer, investigate the quantitative effects of different blending and drying techniques, and find more sustainable methods for cast paper fills.
42nd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Group, May 31 – “Made of Paper: Robert Motherwell’s Collage Materials in the 1940s” by Jeffrey Warda
Jeffrey Warda, Paper Conservator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, presented a fascinating technical study of the collage work of Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell (1915-91). Warda completed this study in preparation for the exhibition Robert Motherwell: Early Collages organized by the Guggenheim. The exhibition, which was presented at Guggenheim venues in both Venice and New York in 2013, featured exclusively Motherwell’s papier collé works dating to the 1940s and 50s.
This presentation discussed the evolution of Motherwell’s collage work as a function of his relationship with other artists and patron Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979); collaborative efforts to better characterize Motherwell’s process and palette of materials; and the artists’ perspective on the aesthetic of his works and the inevitable changes that result with the passage of time.
Warda began the presentation by describing the importance of the Motherwell’s relationship with Peggy Guggenheim to the artist’s pursuit of collage as an artistic medium. In 1943, Guggenheim organized an exhibition of contemporary collage at her gallery in New York City, Art of This Century. In preparation, she paired emerging artists to collaborate with more established artists to produce collage work for the exhibition. Motherwell was among the younger artists invited to participate along with Jackson Pollock (1912-56) and William Baziotes (1912-63). Encouragement by the artist Roberto Matta (1911-2002) was also cited as influential in Motherwell’s pursuit of collage and the creation of The Joy of Living, which was exhibited in Guggenheim’s 1943 exhibition and is now located in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Clearly this was a formative moment for the artist who continued to produce collage work, numbering nearly 900, throughout his entire career.
Illustrated with examples from the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Harvard University Art Museums, the presentation continued with a discussion of Motherwell’s palette in terms of both color and materials. The former owes much to his the artists travels in Mexico and California. Modern art critic and curator James Johnson Sweeney related Motherwell’s color selections to these landscapes, relating the pinks to bougainvillea and terracotta. The blue grays and yellow ochres in his palette are often viewed as allusions to his childhood spent in California.
The survey of his collage work revealed Motherwell’s use of diverse materials including paperboard, colored artist’s papers, hand-coated papers, cloth rag, inks, paint, pastel, found paper objects (e.g. labels), and several adhesives including LePage’s® (fish glue) and Duco Cement® (cellulose nitrate). His favor for decorative papers is evident in his repeated use of a unique crinkled, Western-fibered paper with Japanese aesthetic qualities, seen in Harvard’s Collage No. 1. When Motherwell’s stock of this paper runs out, he continues to allude to it in his work by manipulation of other papers. Also of particular interest in this technical study was the characterization of a specific magenta-colored paper found in several of Motherwell’s collages. This paper was first observed in Motherwell’s collages by paper conservators Kimberley Schenck and Tom Primeau at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The fugitive nature of this colorant used in this brilliant paper was emphasized through examination of Mallarme’s Swan. In this work, exposed areas of the magenta paper have become severely discolored while areas protected from light by other paper elements remain vibrant. During this study, the colorant was identified as a Rhodamine-based dye and its light-sensitivity relative to Blue Wool Standards determined. For the exhibition, a virtual reconstruction was created using Adobe Photoshop to give visitors a sense of the original appearance of this work as the artist intended. In Harvard’s Collage No. 1, an interesting phenomenon was observed where a particular adhesive was applied, the magenta paper elements were somewhat protected from light-induced discoloration. The adhesive as identified as cellulose nitrate using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The protective qualities of the adhesive may be attributed to the fact that cellulose nitrate is an ultraviolet-absorbing material.
Finally, Warda discussed Motherwell’s perspective on the aesthetics of his collages with regard to materials employed and his views on the changes that occur over time as a work ages. Maintaining a matte surface was important to the artist and he was reportedly “loathe” to see a collage varnished. Accordingly he employed artist materials with binders that would help achieve this effect, many of which were identified through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) during this project by the Getty Conservation Institute: gum Arabic, animal glue (distemper), and casein. Generally, Motherwell tended to accept change in works as they aged and, in an interview with conservators Betty Fiske and Rita Albertson during the 1980s, described that he actually liked the visual effect of discoloring adhesives in his collages.
42nd Annual Meeting – Angels Project, June 1, California Historical Society
This year’s Angels Project took place at the California Historical Society (CHS), a non-profit organization founded in 1871 to celebrate California’s rich history. Textile conservator Meg Geiss-Mooney and photograph conservator Gawain Weaver led the group of about 25 enthusiastic volunteers and had our project and supplies ready to go early Sunday morning.
Prior to the AIC meeting, Gawain had surveyed the CHS collection for approximately 200 photograph albums that were in need of treatment and/or re-housing. We divided up into teams based on specialty and skill set, and went to work to assess, surface clean, stabilize, and box each album. The library was organized into stations to help with workflow and I joined the group that was examining each album to identify the photographic processes and provide recommendations for treatment. Not only was this a great way for me to put my photo conservation skills to the test, but as a native Californian, it was a pleasure to look through these beautiful albums featuring historic images of local monuments and people. Using a pre-made single page survey form, we denoted all necessary identification and condition information to help with the following treatment steps and for later catalogers at CHS.
Station two began treatment, and was set up to vacuum, brush, and clean with eraser crumbs the dirtiest album covers and pages. A special table of volunteers was armed with the proper PPE to tackle any possible mold. Next, a group of expert conservators were completing treatment steps such as re-attaching loose photographs, mending torn pages, and tape removal, as needed on a case-by-case basis. Finally, the albums were whisked away to be housed in new archival-quality boxes that were labeled and placed on a cart to return to storage.
At the end of the day, all albums were assessed and boxed, and many received significant treatment steps that will no doubt prolong the life of these valuable objects. For those albums that did not receive treatment, they can be flagged by priority and sent out to a private conservator in the future. As with Angels Projects that I’ve participated in in the past, I appreciated the opportunity to meet, learn from, and work with many new conservation professionals, and I was especially happy that this project allowed me to directly benefit the photographic collection through treatment and re-housing.
Many thanks to Meg, Gawain, Ruth Seyler, and the rest of the AIC staff for organizing this year’s project, and to the CHS staff for generously providing the volunteers with ample working space and supplies, a delicious lunch, and a bonus free annual membership to the Society!
For more images from this and previous Angels Projects, please visit the AIC Angels Projects Flickr page.
42nd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Group, May 31, “Indian Coloured Drawings: Modern Repair Techniques for an Album of 19th Century Paintings on Mica by Sarah Reidell”
In this talk, Sarah Reidell gave a detailed description of her treatment of an album of 19th century paintings on mica from the New York Public Library collection.
Her treatment steps included:
- Hows and whys – background research
- Stabilize – consolidation
- Digitize – high quality files
- Accessorize – new archival mats and housings
- Publicize – increase awareness to researchers/public/staff
The albums had red buckram, generally indicating NYPL bindery work, and perhaps also associated with the WPA. There were two volumes of albums, Volume I was opaque watercolors on mica, and Volume II was watercolor on European and Indian papers. Mica is a material that is used in make-up and the mining industry. It is chemically inert, stable, and somewhat flammable. It is a cheap substitute for colored glass and lanterns.
They started the project in 2007 by removing the papers from the acidic album paper using traditional paper conservation techniques. This revealed ink inscriptions on the verso of the watercolors. Once digitized, these were encapsulated and housed in boxes and also on the NYPL online gallery. There were 29 pages total with 135 mica paintings. The full extent of the damage was now clear.
Reidell stated that since she is not a paintings conservator or an objects conservator, her aim was stabilization for future exhibition. The mica paintings were marketed for westerners, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Library have large holdings of mica paintings. The NYPL mica paintings had catastrophic media condition because the mica was damaged. None of the conventional paper techniques were suitable. Reidell used PLM and known McCrone samples to confirm that it was mica and not cellulose nitrate.
Relative humidity and temperature fluctuations were apparent in the albums and mica paintings. There was paint on the verso to create shadows and there was major media loss and damage to the lining and mica. Reidell tried cast fills using B-72, which didn’t work because it was not even and trapped dust. In-painting was also not an option because there was too much damage and loss. Consolidation with an ultrasonic mister did not work because everything was water-soluble. The damage was extensively documented and the works were put in temporary mats. Due to a previous mounting, the versos had even more damage. After testing JunFunori, Isinglass, methyl cellulose, Paraloid B-72, and Aquazol, Aquazol was chosen. Aquazol’s refractive index was the closest to the mica and various types of Aquazol were used for consolidation of large flakes, wetting out cupped or lifted flakes, and general consolidation and cohesion. B-72 was used for adhering large flakes of mica together.
The work flow consisted of using Excel for notes, copies of slides to color-map (using different colors for different adhesives, and silicon shapers to hold down flakes. After consolidation, the paper linings were removed and worked under the microscope on a Teflon-coated board. To repair the mica, BEVA 371 was used for fills and B-72 was used for complex tears.
After treatment, the paintings were digitized before mounting. Mounting was a challenge because Reidell needed to determine how to mount the paintings without messing up the micas but still enabling access. BEVA 371 film was attached Mylar-to-Mylar. BEVA 371 was used because it is pre-made, has a consistent thickness, and is fast. A silicone-coated Mylar barrier was used because it left no cloudy surface, unlike silicone-release paper barrier.
Finally, the project was publicized on social media and reached over 550,000 people through twitter, Instagram, Vine vidoes, and much more!
42nd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper, May 31, Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group
The theme of this year’s Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group was “Options for Sustainable Practice in Conservation”, which tasked speakers to examine how conservators could lessen the carbon footprint of conservation work. Speakers included Brian Baird, from Bridgeport National Bindery, Danielle Creech of ECS Conservation, Julie Newton from Emory University, and Marieka Kaye of the University of Michigan Libraries. The speaker line-up was notably diverse, in that it included speakers from commercial binderies as well as those from labs within academic libraries.
Brian Baird had some good points about why conservators and labs should focus more on reducing waste, rather than just relying on recycling, to lessen their carbon footprint. For instance, recycling some items, such as ink cartridges, doesn’t do much good – the cartridges are shipped to China, where they remove the last few drops of ink, and the plastic cartridges still end up in the landfills. His ultimate take-away lesson was that no recycling program can be as efficient or cost-effective as simply reducing consumption of materials.
Danielle Creech spoke about the various iterations of ECS Conservation’s recycling program. Over the years, they’ve recycled everything from linotype and monotype waste, old equipment, old book covers, shrink-wrap packaging, and paper dust. They built a relationship with their County Solid Waste Management District, who helped partner them with a business-to-business recycling business called Quincy Recycling. With each iteration of their recycling program, ECS had to come up with creative solutions to reduce consumption as well as find ways to recycle various types of materials. Danielle made a very important point that recycling is NOT free, as it requires time and labor to train employees in the proper recycling procedures. She also mentioned that they have noticed some “recycling fatigue”, as employees constantly have to remember which of the 17 recycling barrels should be used for different kinds of waste.
Marieka Kaye outlined how both the library and her lab play a large part in promoting sustainability in the overall University of Michigan community, via the Library Green Team program. This program encompasses more than just recycling bins, by providing avenues for both staff and students to creatively reduce consumption as well as reuse materials within the library. For instance, their library staff intranet has a Craigslist-style office furniture swap listing, and the library sells reusable water bottles which can be used with the recently-installed water-bottle refill stations. In the conservation lab, they replaced the incandescent bulbs in the overhead lights with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.
Julie Newton started her talk off with the statement that “a box of lab scraps is a hundred tiny art projects waiting to happen”, which will resonate with anyone who loves to collage or make other types of paper-based art. Through her vigorous efforts, Julie was able to extend the life of many materials before they went into the recycling bins. She noted that while conservators are usually very frugal with their materials, such as Japanese tissue, they tend to be less frugal with more plebian materials such as box-making board or paper towels. She encouraged her staff to re-use scraps in creative ways, either within the lab or outside of it. She also acknowledged that you do have to ask yourself on occasion if the effort and time it takes to accumulate and repurpose scrap is worth it, versus just getting new materials. Making scrap useful is again, not a “free” activity, as it requires staff time to sort and organize it in a useful way.
I’ve made a list of the some of my favorite creative uses for scraps and “waste” that were presented by these speakers:
- Several thousand pounds of paper dust were repurposed as horse bedding when it was donated to an Amish farm by ECS.
- Excess rubber bands were donated by ECS to a teacher in Indiana, who is trying to break the record for the largest continuous rubber band ball.
- Some materials can be composted, such as paper towels, old paste, used tea bags.
- Scraps of board and paper can be donated to schools or local art programs and clubs.
All in all, the speakers acknowledged that recycling and reducing consumption requires some effort and staff time, but in the end it can make a big difference by improving the environment and providing a positive impact on our society. In addition, contributing to sustainability efforts helps strengthen our relationship with our surrounding community, by forging partnerships with local businesses and environmental groups.
What creative solutions for repurposing “waste” or reducing material consumption has YOUR lab undertaken? Share them in the comments!
42nd Annual Meeting: BPG Tips Session, May 30, moderated by Emily Rainwater
There were sixteen tips presented by twelve speakers in this session, with a very lively question and comment period at the end.
Tip 1: ‘Beading: A Japanese technique used to relax laminated paper’ presented by Betsy Palmer Eldridge.
When two sheets of paper have been pasted together overall, the result is a sheet that is much thicker and stiffer than the two individuals. Ms. Eldridge described her technique of using a string of beads known as ura-suri to soften, relax, and remove cockling from the laminated paper. She forms the beads into a coil, then makes a repeated circular motion with a flat hand. During the Q&A, Rachel Freeman mentioned that marbles or a Japanese printmaking baren work well too.
Tip 2: ‘Quick and Easy Plexi Paste’ presented by Cher Schneider.
Ms. Schneider developed this method for adhering two pieces of Plexiglas together to make mounts. Step 1: Collect Plexi shavings into a glass container. Step 2: Dissolve first in drops of acetone until it gets milky white, then add drops of toluene until it becomes transparent. Do not stir too much. Step 3: Apply to one side of the joint with a glass stir rod, then attach the other piece. Clear excess with a piece of matboard, then with a swab dampened with toluene. Step 4: Cure for 15-20 hours. Step 5: Clean glass tools by popping the dried Plexi paste right off. She does not recommend trying to re-use dried Plexi paste. During the Q&A, John Baty suggested a bake-out to cure the paste.
Tip 3: ‘Alt Training’ by Beth Doyle.
After struggling with the difficulties of providing care and handling training to temporary and permanent staff and students, Beth Doyle of Duke University Libraries figured out that using social media to make short training videos on specific topics is a great way to reach everyone in a timely manner. The instagram videos are 15 seconds and the youtube videos, such as this one, are 2 minutes. If you want to make your own, she recommends using multiple paths to reach the largest audience, exploiting what each platform has to offer, reusing and recycling clips where possible, accepting that what you have is good enough, and keeping it short.
Tip 4: ‘Studio-Lab Weight Sources’ by Stephanie Watkins.
Ms. Watkins reviewed the types of weights that conservators use, with suggestions for how to find or make your own. Because they are by nature heavy, she suggests above all that looking locally or making your own is the most cost-effective, and in the spirit of the meeting, ecologically sound. If you do have to have some weights shipped, she recommends USPS flat weight priority. Items that have been used as weights include magnets, sewing weights, scuba, exercise and fishing weights, car tire balancing weights, glass scraps, paperweights, flat irons, shoe anvils, weights manufactured by conservation suppliers, hand-crafted weights, scrap metal, and heavy items from freecycle. Home-made weight fillings include ball bearings, BB shot, coins, stones, sand, glass, beads and beans. Modifications can include polishing, covering, and adding smooth boards, felts, handles, and fabric. Form follows function, so determine the size and shape needed, then look around to see what is available.
I commented on this tip to add that a friend who sometimes has to travel out of the lab to do conservation work on-site brings empty containers and fills them with water for make-shift weights.
Tip 5: ‘Cling and Release: Silicone Mylar+Japanese Paper+Wheat Starch Paste= A One-Step Hinge for Float Framing’ by Terry Marsh, read by Anisha Gupta.
This PDF ( TerryMarsh-OneStepHinge ) explains the process.
Tip 6: ‘Aquazol as a heat-set adhesive’ by Adam Novak.
Mr. Novak presented two quick tips. First, he shared his recipe for heat-set tissue, based on research by Katherine Lechuga, summarized here. He makes a 6% solution of Aquazol 500 in deionized water and brushes it on very thin (2 gram) tengujo paper. After cutting the repair strip, it can be set in place temporarily using the heat of his finger. Then, he places silicone release paper over the repair and sets it with a tacking iron. (When questioned later by Sarah Reidell, he indicated that he did not know the exact temperature used with the tacking iron, but supposed that it is in the range of 150 degrees F.) The repair may look shiny in comparison with surrounding paper. If this is the case, shine can be reduced by brushing on a bit of ethanol.
Tip 7: ‘Using pH strips with filtered water’ by Adam Novak.
The second tip addressed the issue of very different readings with a pH strip and a pH meter when measuring deionized water solutions buffered with calcium hydroxide. This is something that I had noticed in my lab at NYPL, and was glad to hear an explanation. Mr. Novak has discovered that the conductivity is very low in the calcium solutions and that there is not enough ionization to get an accurate reading with the strips. This is only the case with calcium- other buffers have higher conductivity and the strips read more accurately.
Tip 8: ‘Cellulose Powder’ by Becca Pollak.
(photo of slide taken by Valerie Faivre)
Ms. Pollack described her technique of spraying cellulose powder with an airbrush to minimize local discoloration on paper, cover foxing, or prepare for inpainting. She sprays the powder directly through stencils and adds pigments for toning if necessary. The basic recipe is below as a starting point, but adjustments may need to be made depending on its moisture sensitivity of an object or the desired effect. She also sprays films on Mylar and allows them to dry for future use. In that case, she sprays a layer of plain methylcellulose first to improve cohesion of the sheet. Ms. Pollak is preparing a tip sheet to be posted soon.
Basic recipe:
- Approximately 20mL 0.5-1% Methocel A4M (Ms. Pollack reports that Elissa O’Loughlin prefers 1-2% of A15C; and Jim Bernstein prefers a mixture of cellulose ethers or gelatin.)
- 5-10mL isopropanol
- 1g of micro-cellulose powder
Tip 9: ‘Applying New Techniques On A Traditional Adhesive For Book Conservation’ by Marjan Anvari.
Traditional, western conservation training in book and paper conservation centers around the use of wheat starch paste. Ms. Anvari is an Iranian conservator working on middle eastern objects and decided to develop a repair adhesive based on a traditional Iranian adhesive that is also flexible and reversible in water. This adhesive, used by artists and artisans and known as ‘green paste,’ is dark yellow in color and leaves a stain, so Ms. Anvari worked to purify it, and came up with an acceptable recipe. She gave out samples at the end of the session. The paste can also be acquired from Raastak Enterprises, which can be contacted for more information.
Tip 10: ‘Flattening translucent paper’ by Laura Neufeld.
Ms. Neufeld tested four techniques for flattening thin papers: Mylar flattening, the hard-soft sandwich technique, friction flattening, and edge flattening. A gampi-fibered paper was used for testing. The Mylar flattening technique, featured in the article ‘The conservation of three Whistler prints on Japanese paper’ by Catherine Nicholson, required the paper to be fully wet and gave the paper a slight sheen. The hard-soft sandwich technique, featured in the article ‘Architectural Drawings on Transparent Paper’ by Hildegard Homburger, did not require much moisture and removed severe creases. The sandwich calls for polypropylene fleece., but Ms. Neufeld found that this can be substituted with polyethylene fleece or Gore-Tex with the fuzzy side away from the object. Friction flattening, described in the article ‘The Use of Friction Mounting as an Aid to Pressing Works on Paper‘ by Keiko Keyes, can have similar results as using a kari-bari and has been found to work well on both old master and Japanese prints. She found edge flattening to be the most difficult. This slide (Flattening_Slide) shows the results in normal and raking illumination.
Tip 11: ‘Tek-wipes’ by Gwenanne Edwards.
Tek-wipes, which are used in the computer and custodial industries, were mentioned on the DistList and handed out at last year’s Tip Session, and it seems that the word is out; many people have been discovering uses for them in paper conservation. Ms. Edwards likes to use them for capillary washing, slant washing, suction washing, as a support for lining, for drying and flattening, and in emergency response. She recommends them because they are highly absorbent, strong, reusable, machine-washable, dimensionably-stable, you can vary their saturation, they pull discoloration out well, they are safe with solvents, and they are way cheaper than blotter. They are available from a number of sources under various trade names, such as Texwipe or Technicloth. The overwhelming majority of commenters at the end of the session wanted to talk about Tek-wipes and other blotter replacements. Seth Irwin uses them to pull tidelines from paper using a tacking iron. Betsy Palmer Eldridge suggested that they would work in some of the drying techniques tested by Laura Neufeld (above.) In Australia, they use bamboo felt and interfacing in place of blotters. Bill Minter said that Christine Smith uses bath towels. Anna Friedman uses Sham-wow(warning: this link takes you to the company page with a video commercial).
Tip 12: ‘Rare earth magnets to make solvent chambers’ by Anne Marigza.
(photo of slide taken by Valerie Faivre)
Ms. Marigza uses rare earth magnets in a solvent chamber. One on either side of the inverted glass or Mylar container will hold the solvent-saturated blotter (or other absorbent material) in place. The magnet can be discarded when it becomes powdery.
Tip 13. ‘Flattening Rolled Drawings for Digitization’ by Bill Minter.
(photo of slide taken by Valerie Faivre)
Mr. Minter developed a method for flattening architectural drawings by reverse-rolling. He places a cardboard tube at the edge of the table with an attached paper extension hanging down to the floor. He places the leading edge of the drawing in the roller, then rolls it the opposite way and lets it sit for a day. When unrolled, it lays flat enough for digitization.
Tip 14: ‘Velcro for Phase-Boxes’ by Bill Minter.
Do you find your velcro hooks and loops to be too strongly attached to each other that they do not pull apart easily? Mr. Minter has discovered a less aggressive velcro. Instead of being labelled as such, the only way to distinguish is that the box is marked ‘clear.’ It comes in strips, discs, or rectangles.
Tip 15: ‘Dry-Tearing of Paper for Infills’ by Bill Minter.
(photo of samples taken by Valerie Faivre)
Lay some wire mesh on a flat surface and place the infill paper on top. Run the tip of an awl, needle, or other pointed instrument along the line you want to tear. It will create a perforation that can be dry-torn. McMaster-Carr sells wire mesh different gauges and materials. Above are samples of two sizes.
Tip 16: ‘Toning of Paper’ by Bill Minter.
The Preval sprayer works great for small paper-toning projects. Clean well after use. During the Q&A, we learned: They sell replacement valves if the ones you have get clogged. The glass jars can be saved and reused.
42nd Annual Meeting- Book and Paper Session, May 29, 2014, "The impact of digitization on conservation activities at the Wellcome Library by Gillian Boal"
The Wellcome Library relies on cross-training and written policies to facilitate the increased involvement of non-conservators in the digitization workflow. Gillian Boal explained that the Wellcome Library, the UK’s largest medical library at over 4 million volumes and the public face of one of the world’s largest private charities, aims to digitize its entire holdings. In order to provide free online access to the entire collection, they have to involve a large group of internal and external partners. Some items are scanned in-house, while others are contracted out to the Internet Archive.
The role of the conservators is primarily to ensure safe handling of the original physical items. To that end, they have trained allied professionals to serve as digital preparators, empowered to perform minor conservation procedures. Treatments are divided into two groups: dry and wet. Dry treatment includes removal of paperclips and staples, for example. These dry procedures are often performed outside of a conservation lab by archivists and librarians in many institutional contexts where there are no conservators. Those procedures are an obvious fit for the non-conservators working on the project. Wet procedures include both aqueous and solvent treatments. Wet treatments are more likely to require the skills of conservation personnel with lab equipment.
Complex folded items presented a special challenge that was met with creativity. The presentation included examples where overlapping parts were lifted onto a cushion of Plastazote™ cross-linked polyethylene foam during digitization. Boal pointed out the shadows visible in the scanned documents where overlapping parts were supported by these foam shims. This is important because the customary use of a glass plate to hold materials flat for photography would have added extra stress or new creases in the absence of a cushion. The digital preparators were empowered to use their own judgement to open non-brittle folded items without humidification; such items were held flat under glass for scanning. Other items were photographed without glass, to accommodate three-dimensional paper structures.
The Internet Archive also acted as a preservation partner, re-routing items to conservation as needed. For example, a volume with a torn page was intercepted by the Internet Archive’s assessment process in order to receive treatment by the conservators.
The digitization of collections is primarily about access. To enhance that access, the Wellcome Library developed “the player” as a tool to view a variety of different types of content from the same interface. It enables downloading or embedding a zoomed-in part of a page, in addition to options for high-resolution and low-resolution images. “The player” also functions as a sort of e-reader interface for books, and it responds dynamically to create the appropriate interface for the type of item accessed, including audiovisual files. It supports both bookmarking and embedding content into other webpages. The Wellcome library is offering the digital asset player as an open-source tool through GitHub.
Boal emphasized the role of policies and documentation in ensuring good communication and trust between partners in such a large project. She also showed examples of handling videos that were created for the project. She would like to see the use of videos expanded to help to create a common vocabulary between conservators, allied professionals, and other stakeholders. The responsibility for collection care is not the exclusive territory of the Collection Care Department, so the key to the ongoing digitization process at the Wellcome Library is the distribution of that responsibility to all of the staff (and external contractors) involved in the project, guided by training, planning, and policies.
42nd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Group Session, May 30, “Conserving the Iraqi Jewish Archive for Digitization” by Katherine Kelly and Anna Friedman
Katherine Kelly and Anna Friedman presented on a two-year project funded by the Department of State and carried out at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to conserve and digitize the Iraqi Jewish Archive. This is not an archive that was collected in the traditional sense, but rather materials taken from the Jewish community over many years–the collections were discovered in the flooded basement of the Iraqi Intelligence Headquarters in Baghdad in 2003.
National Archives conservators Doris Hamburg and Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler traveled to Iraq shortly after the discovery to advise on recovery and preservation of the collection. The damaged materials were frozen and flown to the US, where they were vacuum freeze-dried. Following a smaller-scale project in 2006 to assess the collection, the hard work to clean, stabilize, and digitize the heavily-damaged and moldy collections was carried out during the two year project that was the focus of this presentation.
I am always amazed at the sheer scale of projects undertaken at NARA and the organization required to tackle the work within a limited timeframe. Katherine and Anna’s presentation included discussion of adaptations of the usual National Archives workflows to increase the efficiency of the project and to aid conservators in their work. For most materials, the first step in stabilization was to remove inactive mold. Distorted items were humidified and flattened, and tears were mended. Items that had originally been attached to documents with water-soluble adhesive, like stamps and some photographs, had often released due to the flood waters and subsequent humidity; these items were repositioned and reattached whenever possible. Once stabilized, materials could be rehoused, catalogued, and digitized. Through every step of the process, materials were tracked through the workflow using SharePoint software.
The culmination of the project is a digital collection of all 3846 items, which allows the materials to be made available to everyone. An exhibition featuring highlights of the collection was shown both at the National Archives in DC and at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. Another component of the project was the creation of a website with detailed information about the collection and its history, documentation of procedures, and an online version of the exhibit. I particularly enjoyed the short video describing the history of the project, featuring many of the conservators who were involved over the years.
I often listen to NPR while working in the lab, and last November I was excited to hear my former classmate Katherine Kelly in a feature on All Things Considered. If you missed Katherine and Anna’s presentation in San Francisco, I highly recommend a visit not only to the project website, but also to the NPR feature to learn more about the important work to preserve this collection and make it accessible.
42nd Annual Meeting – Case Studies in Sustainable Collection Care, May 30, “Becoming ‘Fit for Purpose’: A Sustainable and Viable Conservation Department at the British Library,” by Dr. Cordelia Rogerson
In this presentation, Dr. Cordelia Rogerson spoke about radical changes in the approach to treatment decision-making at the British Library under her direction as Head of Conservation. The changes in approach were sparked by deep cuts to the Library’s budget, resulting in a reduction of the number conservators working in the lab by half–from 70 conservators to 35. At the same time, there was increased demand for conservation work in the busy library where collections are constantly in use. These cuts forced conservators to evaluate the fundamental nature and purpose of their work to determine if they could do less treatment without compromising use of the Library’s collection.
In response, the British Library conservation department adopted a “fit for purpose” model to govern how much treatment to do for materials sent to the conservation lab. Items are evaluated to determine what treatment is absolutely necessary for the immediate projected use of the item, and only this necessary treatment is undertaken. “Vulnerable damage” (such as a long tear across a page) is likely to be repaired, while “stable damage” (such as a loss at the corner of a leaf that does not interfere with safe handling) will be left untreated in many cases. This represented a shift away from a previous emphasis on full (or more complete) treatment for the majority of the materials coming to the lab. The new model does still allow for high priority items and items selected for exhibition to receive treatment beyond stabilization.
After applying “fit for purpose” to seven discrete projects with positive results, the model was adopted as the guiding principle for all work in the lab. By doing only the work deemed necessary, the lab has greatly increased the number of repairs completed each year. At the same time, the efficiencies gained have actually allowed the conservators to devote more treatment time to high priority collections.
As one of only two conservators working in a lab for a medium-sized special collections, I found that many of the challenges, decisions, and compromises of the changing operations at the British Library sound familiar. I appreciated hearing how a “fit for purpose” decision-making structure works in the setting of one of the largest institutions of its kind and the dramatic impact it can have in cost-savings and efficiencies on this scale.
In the future, I would be interested to hear more discussion of “fit for purpose” decision-making in the conservation of library and archival collections, digging deeper into the diverse interpretations that might emerge for a range of materials in varied contexts.