Jan Dariusz Cutajar, graduate student at UCL, began by commenting that inspiration from last year’s AIC conference had caused him to investigate this topic. Cutajar states that in some instances the terms, ‘sustainable’ and ‘conservation’ are used interchangeably, but he argues that each term needs to be carefully defined: ‘sustainable’ as reusable, not causing harm to the environment, people or culture. Sustainability has environmental, social and economic faces – it is a cultural construct.
Cutajar believes that currently sustainability initiatives are not well integrated into conservation programs.
The existing Green Chemistry principles, outlined by the mnemonic “Productively” he has replaced with a mnemonic of his own devising: “To Conserve”, which stands for:
T – Temperature and pressure considerations
O – Only use what you need
C – Conscientious waste prevention
O – Optimizing Health and Safety
N – Negligible toxicity is best
S – Safer, alternative methods
E – Environmentally non-persistent, biodegradable chemicals
R – Renewable materials and energy sources
V – Verify solvent sustainability
E – Examination and monitoring
These principles must work in combination with the eco scale: factors of time, price, safety and fate of materials.
Cutajar surveyed a range of university and institutional conservation laboratories and private practitioners about their sustainable lab practices with regard to chemical usage. He discovered that there is a general awareness in the profession of the impact of chemicals but differences in available time, money and other resources resulted in different approaches. He found that university laboratories had the most sustainable practices, with institutional conservation departments being hampered by time pressures such as digitization and exhibition programs, and private practitioners being restricted by both time and cost considerations. He feels that stronger communication of sustainability principles and a cohesive change in attitude and habits within the sector will further improve sustainable conservation practice.
Category: Topics
43rd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Session, May 16, “Let me Help You Help Me: Outreach as Preventive Conservation”, Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group
The structure of this session was three brief presentations followed by three breakout groups to discuss each of the presentations, with the presenters rotating between the groups.
Laura McCann, Conservation Librarian at NYU Libraries, was the first presenter and spoke about library training of student employees.
She gave an interesting presentation on the process their library has undergone in developing a more efficient and successful training program for student workers. Originally the Conservation Department of 3 staff members conducted hands-on training of small groups of students through workshops. While this had benefits of being able to design their own teaching content, increasing awareness among para-professional staff about the work of conservation and library materials preservation needs, and improving communication between conservation and other departments, there were problems such as the students being distracted during the workshop or not attending due to scheduling conflicts, and conservation issues not being correctly identified or work being poorly performed by the students when in placement.
By reaching out to the other library departments, a new approach was devised. Now there are fewer sessions and they involve a presentation (not hands-on) and pizza! The students’ managers are present and the sessions are compulsory. This has resulted in less conservation staff time required in training, more students receiving the training and a large increase in the number of library books correctly identified for conservation treatment.
The next step from here is to adapt this model to other situations, such as NYU’s new allied libraries in Brooklyn, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai with the challenges of geography and time differences added to the usual constraints of limited conservation resources and staffing. Ideas that they are exploring include Preservation Training LibGuides and short video tutorials.
Dawn Walus, Chief Conservator at Boston Athenaeum, spoke next about outreach and access at her institution.
The Boston Athenaeum has a wide and varied outreach program. They hold architecture tours of the building, open house events for the public to view spaces such as the conservation laboratory, evening events with their curators, tours and workshops with groups of young children, and an annual conservation fundraising evening. Members have special events such as specific tours and conservation lab visits, and digital images of the collection made by the digitization team feature in a digital photo frame in the membership office.
As well as public encounters, the Boston Athenaeum offers summer institutional exchanges, internships in conservation through a relationship with the North Bennet St bookbinding school, and scholarships for researchers to study the collections available in the research room. They also take advantages of public curiosity of collection institutions through articles in traditional and social media.
This last point linked well to the third speaker, Suzy Morgan, Preservation Specialist at Arizona State University Library, who spoke about using social media to promote conservation.
Social media is a very powerful tool that conservators can use to direct and control the conversation about conservation without the message being misrepresented or diluted by traditional media. She pointed out that it is resource-light, requiring ‘only’ staff time and not expensive equipment, specialized staff (such as IT) or knowledge.
People are very curious about conservation, so there is a fresh audience out there waiting to respond to your efforts. The online community is very interactive, allowing you to have a conversation with both positive and negative responses, and presenting teaching moments as well.
Some advice Suzy gave was to look at how large institutions are using different social media platforms and copy the approaches you like. Be humorous, allow for some silliness, and keep it short. She reminded us tha the work conservators do is very photogenic and social media platforms are ideal for sharing photos, sound clips and short videos, which often represent our work better than text.
Finally, she said that there are lots of resources on the internet to explain ‘how to’; don’t be discouraged by the well-established platforms that large institutions have, be prepared to give it a try – start small take it slowly, and have fun.
Discussion groups
The three presentations were followed by breakout groups where each presenter came to speak to a group about the issues raised in their talk.
Laura McCann:
– Q: How many students per year do you train?
– A: About 20 people; they are tied into the general student orientation program for the library. Also, they use short training videos for patrons and para-professionals.
– Q: Have you made your own training videos?
– A: No, not yet. Need management approval. Also, some rare book departments might want more hands on or intensive training for their materials.
– Q: Could we crowd source this?
– A: In theory some of these information guides should be able to be assembled collaboratively, but each institution will likely want to add their own specific or specialized information. Other ways of distributing information include putting information cards around the library and in the reading room, or using table tents to inform general readers.
Dawn Walus:
– Q: What is a good/not good age range for children to come and tour a conservation lab?
– A: Young children can really appreciate a ‘book hospital’ or ‘make a book’ workshop experience and then take home a souvenir to show to siblings and parents; teenagers are hardest to engage – insist on no cell phone usage in the lab
– Have workshops on old audio-visual equipment, as some people still have these things at home but don’t know how to use them
– Q: How can you tell is your lab tours or other outreach programs are a success?
– A: Speak to docents to see if they get questions about conservation programs; have a kids activity table and monitor its usage; talk to membership office and see if have increase in memberships or donations
Suzy Morgan:
– Q: Is the social media you do part of a larger institutional social media program?
– A: No, they are personal accounts, but contribute to the library’s larger social media efforts
– Q: What is your favorite platform and which are the most effective?
– A: Suzy is into Twitter and Tumblr and having a go with Vine; she hasn’t tried Instagram. Tumblr is easy to start, has no length limit, can post text, photos, video, links etc and also schedule posts for future release. Each platform has its own style; some are more personal and interactive than others. You need to work out your communication style and decide on the audience you want to reach, then write appropriately.
– Q: Do you have restraints on your content ?
– A: No, because she is doing it through personal accounts. To avoid onerous institutional policies, it takes time to build management trust in the social media program to see that no inappropriate content is released.
– Q: Any advice on gaining institutional trust?
– A: Start by offering to help with the social media program, provide content and slowly build up your involvement. Show examples of other institutions’ successful social media programs to build faith in your own.
– It was noted that some institutions force staff to spend large amounts of time contributing to social media programs, and that can adversely affect the time available to spend on other work. If this is the case, ask for help from other staff/workshop participants etc and delegate. You could also point back at your job description if social media is not included.
43rd Annual Meeting – Sustainability Session, May 15, "An Investigation and Implementation of the Use of Sustainable and Reusable Materials to Replace Traditional Wood Crates" by kevin Gallup
This talk was of interest to me because I am a former member of the Sustainability Committee, and reusable crates were something that we received several inquiries about. As museums and other lending institutions look at ways to increase their sustainability, one thing they consider is finding an alternative to the typical wooden crate used to ship objects. The problems with wooden crates are: a) they are made to fit a specific sized object, and are difficult to retrofit for something else; b) extra room is necessary to store them until needed again; c) wood is attractive to a variety of pests; d) wood adsorbs and emits odors; and e) locally- and sustainably-sourced wood can be difficult and expensive to aquire. There are some European companies that rent resuable plastic crates, such as Turtlebox, but they are not yet available in the United States.
Yale University turned to Kevin Gallup when their Sustainability Strategic Plan compelled them to find a solution for this problem. They wanted a system of modular parts made of sustainable materials that could be taken apart, stored, and reused as necessary. As Mr. Gallup explains in his abstract: “There were many factors to take into account to obtain an acceptable system. Availability and price of materials, construction techniques, compatibility of materials, and the unique archival material requirements [of] the museum industry…are some of the features of the crating system that had to work together to produce a crate design. The fabrication and creation of the parts withing the design would need to be obtainable either by utilizing their own facility…or by having the parts…made locally. The system would need to be easily put together utilizing as many common parts as possible.”
After 10 years of trial and error, Mr. Gallup is satisfied with his current design. The crate is made with an aluminum frame and Dibond sides. Dibond is a composite sandwich of two thin sheets of aluminum with a white polyester coating bonded to a polyethylene core. There is an outer box with a smaller inner traveler or tray of the same materials to contain the object(s). Various foams or Sorbothane can be used to surround the traveler. Sorbothane feet are attached to the bottom to mitigate the effects of vibration.
He is currently working about a business model to make this available to other institutions. Parts can be cut out in various sizes with a CNC machine, but the system still requires a high skill level to assemble. If you are interested in learning more about these crates, Mr. Gallup suggests that you contact him in about 6 months, and he will be able to provide more information.
43rd Annual Meeting – RATS Session, May 15, "Polymer Coating Removal Nanosystems for Finely Controlled Cleaning of Cultural Heritage" by Piero Baglioni
I was certainly glad that I woke up in time for the first Research & Technical Studies talk of Friday morning’s session, which was presented by keynote speaker Dr. Peiro Baglioni. Dr. Baglioni is the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Florence and CSGI (Consorzio Interuniversitario per lo Sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase, or in English…Center for Colloids & Surface Science).
Dr. Baglioni discussed the systems that they have developed to clean synthetic coatings as well as dirt and grime from pictorial art surfaces. He started by discussing the Florence Flood of 1966, showing images of some of the resulting damage to cultural heritage, and explaining how new methods of conservation really developed as a result of this catastrophic event. Dr. Baglioni explained that his work has focused on searching for new scientific methods and materials for conservation treatment.
His talk then launched into a group of newly developed cleaning methods. This includes nanoparticles, micelles & microemulsions, and containers (gels). These systems can be used for cleaning dirt/grime from mural paintings and wood, as well as for polymer coating removal. Dr. Baglioni even mentioned paper deacidification applications. Some of this information can be found on the Nano for Art site and I would urge anyone interested to check this link out. Dr. Baglioni has also co-edited a book titled Nanoscience for the Conservation of Works of Art.
Dr. Baglioni put forth the question – why not just use solvents for cleaning? He explained that synthetic polymers have been popular for conservators since the 1960s, but can age poorly. He showed examples of poorly aged polymer coatings at the Mexican Mayapan site. Using traditional solvents and swabs in coating removal can cause the solubilized polymer to inadvertently be injected into cracks within the deteriorated art surface. Alternately, using microemulsions not only keeps the cleaning material on the art surface, but also has the added benefit of being less toxic for the conservator.
3 types of cleaning gels were discussed: 1) PVA/Borax hydroxide gels, 2) Hydrogels, and 3) Organogels. Dr. Baglioni explained that the PVA/Borax hydroxide gels could be used as a peeling gel, i.e. can be placed on a surface and then peeled off later. The hydrogels could be a carrying system for various solvents and solutions. They can also be cut into gel squares and even re-used. Impressive visible light, UV light, and SEM photos of surfaces at various stages of cleaning showed how effective yet safe these cleaning gels can be.
Personally, I would love to try out some of Dr. Baglioni’s cleaning materials! There are definitely applications for a wide range of art surfaces. The cleaning materials are trademarked, but I believe they are available commercially (does anyone know where to purchase them?). Dr. Baglioni has so much valuable information to share with the American conservation community. I’m sure I’m not the only one that wished that his talk could have gone on a bit longer so that he could go into more detail. It seems like this talk only covered the tip of the iceberg in regards to his research. Excellent way to start out the RATS session!
43rd Annual Meeting – RATS Session, May 15, "New Inorganic Consolidants for the Restoration Market: Results From Nanomatch EU Project" by Adriana Bernardi
Dr. Adriana Bernardi was the presenter for this co-authored talk. She is affiliated with Padua University, a senior researcher at CNR-ISAC (Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council of Italy), and head of the ISAC Unit of Padua. First, Dr. Barnardi explained that 13 partners from 7 European countries were involved in the Nanomatch project. This was a large-scale collaborative project with the aim of developing better consolidants for stone, wood, and glass artifacts. Discussions of wall painting consolidation were included as well. The developed consolidants had to be sustainable, react well with the substrate, and be safe to use. This talk discussed the testing and results of several new consolidants.
For stone and wood the class of consolidants that Dr. Barnardi described were calcium alkoxides. For glass, the consolidants were aluminum alkoxides (A18). Dr. Bernardi talked about the strategy for developing these consolidants. A mix of lab experimentation and field exposure was used in their development and testing. Mock-ups were made of wall paintings, wood, glass, and stone artifacts for testing purposes. Field tests were also done in several EU countries and Dr. Bernardi mentioned historical samples being tested as well.
The results of the Nanomatch Projcect were quite positive. There was too much detailed information to include everything in this blog post, but here are some of the highlights:
- Stone – developed consolidant had good workability and use, was comptablible with stone, and there was no color change.
- Wall painting – good workability and ease of use, good aesthetic results but decreased concentration needed for some colors.
- Wood – acid neutralization in alkoxide treated wood. The consolidant acts as an alkaline supply.
- Glass – consolidant A18 is highly compatible with glass (transparent, similar refractive index), good adhesion to glass, can penetrate cracks.
Dr. Bernardi showed videos during her presentation that demonstrated the use of the consolidants on stone, wood, and glass during Nanomatch training workshops. In conclusion, the newly developed limestone, wall painting, and glass consolidants all seemed effective as consolidating materials, while the wood “consolidant” was more effective in acid neutralization. If you’d like to know more about this project and the composition of the consolidants, visit the Nanomatch website for more information.
43rd Annual Meeting – Joint Painting Specialty Group and Research and Technical Studies Session, May 14, “Franz Kline’s Paintings: Black and White?“ by Zahira Veliz Bomford, Corina Rogge, and Maite Leal
Three works by Franz Kline in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston were discussed with regard to their condition and construction: Wotan (1950), Orange and Black Wall (1959), and Corinthian II (1961). While the first two paintings exhibit alarming craquelure and flaking, the latter is in good condition. Rogge details the Museum’s investigation into the circumstances which lead to such differing states of preservation, presenting a clear, thoughtful look at Kline’s working methods and legacy.
Prior to this study, it was suspected that condition issues stemmed at least in part from the presence of zinc white, which Kline is known to have used; however, the causes of instability were not quite so “black and white.” The three aforementioned paintings were examined using a range of analytical methods, and an array of inherent vices were identified, including underbound paint, zinc/lead soaps, interaction with the gelatin sizing in the canvas, the thickness of paint layers, and the use of poor quality canvas. Kline also seems to have modified commercial paints.
It was found that Kline’s methods of layering paint and use of various materials was crucial to each painting’s relative (in)stability. It was suggested additionally that Woton’s integrity was compromised due at least in part to transportation. In the presentation, an animated map charted the painting’s transit, making the point of how excessively well traveled the work has been during its somewhat brief lifetime.
While treatment options for the paintings discussed were and are limited by inherent vice, the work undertaken to specify the various forces at play was remarkable: this talk above all highlighted the incredible ability we have today to begin to unravel the complexity of intertwined degradation mechanisms.
43rd Annual Meeting – Photographic Materials, May 14th: “Organizing a Photograph Preservation Workshop in West Africa” by Debra Norris
Debra S. Norris, Chair of the Art Conservation Department and Professor of Photograph Conservation at the University of Delaware, is enthusiastic about fund raising for art conservation. Along with her coauthors, Nora W. Kennedy and Bertrand Lavédrine, she encourages conservation education and the expansion of international networks for all conservators. These two major contributions for the conservation profession were the bases for the project presented during this talk: Organizing a Photograph Preservation Workshop in West Africa.
Norris started by evoking the need for photographic conservation in West Africa, and the previous projects organized in Sub-Saharan Africa by the Getty, ICCROM, the Ford Foundation, SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and UNESCO. Then she presented the “3PA”: Préservation du Patrimoine Photographique Africain (Preservation of Photographic Heritage in Sub Saharan Africa), a collaborative project developed with Nora W. Kennedy, photograph conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and Bertrand Lavédrine, director of the Conservation Research Center (CRC) of Paris. Their goal is to work on the improvement of the preservation practice in this particular area of the continent, where the photographic collections are highly valuable but vulnerable because of the environment.
Last year, from the 22nd to the 25th of April, a workshop has been held at the Ecole du Patrimoine Africain (EPA), in Porto-Novo (Benin). It was called “Préservation du Patrimoine Photographique Africain: West African Image Lab“. 21 participants (80% of them were artists or photographers, the others were museum and archive professionals and curators) attended the workshop, and discussed the preservation of local photographic collections of West Africa; adapted solutions were proposed. Organizers were Jennifer Bajorek and Erin Haney, co-creator of the Resolution organization. Founded in 1998 with the help of UNESCO and ICCROM, and based in Porto Novo in Benin, the EPA school offers a professional training for 26 sub Saharan countries. It is a non-profit institution, dedicated to photographic collections in Africa, with a focus on preservation, collection management, and exhibitions.
Norris then evoked Nigerian photographers and collectors met by Nora W. Kennedy and Peter Mustardo, photograph conservator and director of the Better Image in New York, who went to Nigeria. She shortly presented the work of three of them: Andrew Esiebo, Abraham Oghobase, and J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, whose artist book, containing 200 photographs, was published a few months after he passed away, in 2014. Kennedy and Mustardo met his son who owns the collection.
As Norris aims to connect different conservation initiatives, she promoted the project “History in progress Uganda”, created in 2011 by a Dutch photographer and an advertiser. Their goal is to acquire and to diffuse images about Uganda history. According to Norris, this action, like 3PA’s, must proceed in connection with education and community organization.
She promoted the Center for Contemporary Art in Lagos (Nigeria), “an independent non-profit making visual art organization set up in December 2007 to provide a platform for the development, presentation, and discussion of contemporary visual art and culture” (see their website). Bisi Silvia, the founder, curator, and director of CCA was a participant of the 2014 workshop at the EPA.
For the future, 3PA’s goals will consist in organizing more workshops to teach the fundamentals in photo preservation in sub-Saharan countries. The conservation professionals will explain “the keys concepts in preventive conservation and materials”, spend some time on both hands-on and lecture, visit collections, and share some tools kits and published resources. Brainstorming sessions about techniques will follow. She emphasized on the fact that the 2014 workshop was the first talk about conservation in French and English in Africa. As photographers are an important part of the participants, development of conservation strategies for photographers in West Africa will be discussed. Funding for the workshop in photograph preservation was made possible thanks to many sponsors that Norris listed – AIC/PMG was one of them.
Some observations were done. First, to Norris, “community engagement and connections are clear” in Africa, which is a wonderful advantage. Then, the specific challenges: “lack of electricity”, and “dealing with material and digital collections simultaneously”. For the EPA, in Benin, where the workshop happened, the next steps will consist in “renewing commitment to preservation of photo collections”. Thanks to the “saving photo heritage” website, they began to rise money to create “a major center for photographic preservation, archiving, and digitization on the African continent”. Every one can help them!
The next 3PA workshop will be held in 2017 in Zimbabwe.
She finished the talk with a quick look on beautiful African textiles!
To discover the Nigerian photographers:
http://www.andrewesiebo.com/index.htm
http://www.abrahamoghobase.com
About the Center for Contemporary Art in Lagos: http://www.ccalagos.org
About the Ecole du Patrimoine Africain in Porto Novo: http://www.epa-prema.net
Resolution organization: https://www.resolutionphoto.org
History in Progress Uganda: http://www.hipuganda.org
To help Saving the Photographic Heritage: https://t160k.org/campaign/help-save-africas-photographic-heritage/
43rd Annual Meeting – “Investigating Softening and Dripping Paints in Oil Paintings Made Between 1952 and 2007” by Ida Antonia Tank Bronken and Jaap J. Boon, May 14
Issues encountered during analysis and treatment of contemporary artworks by conservation scientists, conservators, and other professionals have been brought into the limelight during recent years. Both in the United States and throughout the world, contemporary art collections have introduced new concerns regarding the use of modern materials, artists’ intent, and so on. Even the modern use of materials such as oil paints have demonstrated conservation issues. During this presentation, Bronken described her team’s research into oil paintings (created after 1950) which have exhibited softening and dripping media. The team’s research was conducted on works produced by Jean-Paul Riopelle (Canadian, 1923-2002), Pierre Soulages (French, b. 1919), Georges Matthieu (French, 1921-2012), Paul-Émile Borduas (Canadian, 1905-1960), Frank Van Hemert (Dutch, b. 1956), Paul Walls (Irish, b. 1965), Jonathan Meese (German, b. 1970), and Tal R (Danish, b. 1967).
Softened paint shows decreased surface gloss in normal light and drip material fluoresces in ultraviolet light (sometimes misinterpreted as fluorescing varnish). Softening/dripping impasto and thickly applied paints are easier to identify, but analysis has demonstrated the presence of softening in thinner paint layers as well. Possible causes of this phenomenon are the use of semi-drying oils in recent decades and the development of fatty acids in paint. In their abstract, the authors mention: “There is ample evidence from a number of paints studied by mass spectrometry that the exudates are rich in polar fractions with triglycerides with moieties of mid-chain oxygen-functionalised stearic acids and azelaic acids . . . observations led to the hypothesis that exudation is caused by a loss or absence of anchor sites for the acidic fractions that develop over time.”1
Lead II acetate and europium II acetate were tested by brush and gel application. These compounds treated the softening and dripping oil paint at the molecular level by penetrating into the sample to create carboxylates and forming a hard crust on the paint surface. Brush application was determined to be the most effective method. At this time, the only disadvantage appears to be the lack of reversibility.
About the Speakers
Ida Antonia Tank Bronken, Touring Exhibitions Coordinator, The National Museum, Norway
Bronken graduated from the University of Oslo with a Candidata Magisterii in Fine Art Conservation (2002) and a Masters in Conservation (2009). Bronken has been working for the Touring Exhibitions Department at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway since 2011. Her main interests are collection management and chemical change in modern paint. Bronken has cooperated with Boon since 2007 on different studies on softening and dripping paint, and has contributed to four papers since 2013 about dripping paint (currently at different stages of publication and review).2
Jaap J. Boon, JAAP Enterprise for Art Scientific Studies
Boon, PhD was trained in Geology and Chemistry at the Universities of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Delft Technical University (1978). He became Head of Molecular Physics at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (1987) and Professor of Molecular Palaeobotany at the University of Amsterdam (1988). His first survey studies on painting materials and traditional paints were performed in 1991, which resulted in collaborative research with Tate Gallery London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Limburg Conservation Studio (SRAL) in Maastricht and EU supported development projects. His research focus changed gradually from identification of constituents towards chemical microscopy and spectroscopic imaging of pigments, binding media and their interactions in paintings. Boon was Professor of Analytical Mass Spectrometry in the University of Amsterdam (2003-2009) and is presently author/coauthor of about 400 research papers and supervised 33 PhD theses. Boon received the KNAW Gilles Holst Gold Medal for his innovative work at the cross roads of chemistry and physics in 2007.3
1 Bronken, I., & Boon J. J. (2015). Investigating Softening and Dripping Paints in Oil Paintings Made Between 1952 and 2007 [Abstract]. AIC Annual Meeting 2015 Abstracts, 81-82.
2 Bronken, I. (2015). Ida Bronken – AIC’s 43rd Annual Meeting [SCHED Speakers]. Retrieved from https://aics43rdannualmeeting2015.sched.org/speaker/ida_antonia_tank_bronken.1t1j0ku0
3 Boon, J. J. (2015). Jaap J. Boon – AIC’s 43rd Annual Meeting [SCHED Speakers]. Retrieved from https://aics43rdannualmeeting2015.sched.org/artist/boon1
43rd Annual Meeting – Book and Paper Session, May 16, “Unlocking the Secrets of Letterlocking to Reseal the Letters of John Donne and Other Early Modern Letter Writers", Jana Dambrogio
Jana Dambrogio, Thomas F. Peterson Conservator, MIT Libraries, presented the first of three sections in this talk – an introduction to the work she and others have been doing to discover letterlocking.
As letterlocking models were handed out to the audience, Jana began by defining letterlocking as “the folding and securing of any object so that it becomes its own sending device”. This is a 10,000 year tradition, Jana said, dating all the way from Mesopotamian clay tablets to Bitcoin.
Examples of letterlocking Jana showed included the letters of Tomaso di Livrieri at the Vatican secret archive and the letters of Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth used more than ten techniques in her letters, often with two techniques per letter.
Jana described how letters of this type have traditionally been viewed simply as two-dimensional objects. But as a result of this research conservators and scholars are beginning to look at them as 2D/3D hybrids, and they must be treated accordingly.
Jana and her colleagues have been constructing models of the locking techniques based on evidence in the original letters. Jana believes that making models of letterlocking techniques is helpful because they are both a learning tool and a teaching tool for discovering and sharing the patterns.
If the goal in conserving these letters is to preserve their past function conservators are faced with the decision of what to repair and what not to repair, and the question of how to preserve the evidence.
During her talk Jana highlighted recent collaboration such as with Nadine Akkerman of Leiden University in The Hague, with Daniel Starza Smith of The University of Oxford, and with Heather Wolfe of the Folger Shakespeare Library. See links to various demo videos, blogs and publications that have resulted from these collaborations at the end of this post.
Daniel Starza Smith spoke about applying letterlocking to literary history.
Normally scholars look only at the text they can see in letters. But now they are learning to look for folds, seals, and intentional damage – the damage that occurs as a result of opening a letter. These days Daniel asks himself ‘what other messages are there than just who the letter is from and to?’
He took us through some basic background on the development of the writing and sending of letters, from a manual for letter-writing, The English Secretary published in 1586 by scholar Angel Day, to the relatively modern invention of the commercially-produced paper envelope in the mid-19th century.
Daniel noted that the word “secretary” itself comes from the idea of secret keeping. A secretary is one entrusted with secrets, and literary scholars such as Daniel are occupied with revealing secrets and unpacking texts – now in a physical sense.
Delving into the letters of John Donne, Daniel revealed that Donne would use as many as four techniques in locking his letters. Why would you need four ways of locking? For various different purposes, including security and aesthetics. In fact there was even a class difference in the way letters were folded; your folding technique said something about you as a person. Some methods were simple and some were complicated – even “fantastically difficult” – and this reflected on your own sophistication and status.
Daniel concluded his talk with the following three main take-aways:
- Tiny bits of evidence are key in deciphering the folding/locking patterns, and these details are revealing about the history of communication.
- This research has the potential to reach further than just scholars
- The collection of Donne letters – from which much of this research has stemmed – numbers only thirty-eight. More data is needed, and this starts with conservators.
At the beginning of her portion of the talk Heather Wolfe emphasized three points that have come to light during this project.
- The importance of a three-way dialogue between curators, conservators, and scholars.
- This dialogue leads to discoveries, and informs decision making in conservation when considering whether or not to treat
- The need to standardize letterlocking vocabulary, referring to physical details. This is especially important in treatment documentation, and also for catalog searching.
In what Heather described as the “pre-envelope era” a letter was a single leaf that was transformed into a packet. Tearing was required in order to open the letter, and this is the damage we can see today that aids in reconstructing the locking patterns.
Communication with Jana was informative for interpretation of the collection at the Folger – Heather noted that the type of evidence in question tends to me more visible to conservators. For example, Heather no longer refers to the area bearing the address as the “address leaf” of the letter, but rather the address panel of the original packet. Heather went so far as to say that physical evidence such as the folds and intentional damage contains information critical to the interpretation of the letter itself.
She reiterated Jana’s remark that it is very difficult to imagine the folding and locking patterns without practice, and this is the reason they decided to make models.
In letters from the 16th-17th centuries there is evidence of hundreds of riffs on just a handful of basic techniques, such as the pleated letter genre, and the papered seal genre in which a strip is harvested from the letter itself to use as the locking mechanism. The many riffs tend to be associated with specific people.
Finally Heather took us on a whirlwind tour of these various letterlocking genres, but particularly highlighted the technique of binding a pleated letter with silk floss, first used by Queen Elizabeth I. Heather pointed out that while many letters would have been written in the hand of a secretary taking dictation, the nature of this technique suggests more intimacy. Letters of this type were usually written in the hand of the person composing the letter on high quality thin Italian paper.
Question and answer
Q: Have you seen any evidence of postal censors opening letters?
Heather said that she had not seen this specifically. But in the same vein she noted that a distinctive triangular-shaped 20th century Russian letter from the WWII front that was invented due to adhesive being forbidden.
Daniel pointed out that in the early modern period, people would sometimes employ a seal forger, in order to open and re-seal letters; he has seen some examples of this.
Q: Are you presenting these findings to archivists (specifically for the purpose of standardizing vocabulary? Where will you be publishing the vocabulary?
Heather said that the vocabulary is still in development, but that there are currently a lot of resources online, such as the MIT TechTV videos, the youtube letterlocking channel, and blogs. Heather has written in a recent British Library publication on pleated letters, and Jana has a forthcoming article.
Demo videos
Check out the video demos of letterlocking, hosted by MIT TechTV.
Blog posts etc:
A post by Heather and Jana at the Folger
Jana’s letterlocking website
Jana Dambrogio guest post on whatisaletter.wordpress.com
Publications:
‘Neatly sealed, with silk, and Spanish wax or otherwise’, a chapter by Heather Wolfe in the British Library’s In the Prayse of Writing
43rd Annual Meeting – Object Session, 16 May 2015, “Ivory: Recent Advances in its Identification and Stringent Regulation" by Stephanie Hornbeck
Stephanie Hornbeck wrapped up the morning OSG session with her talk, “Ivory: Recent Advances in its Identification and Stringent Regulation.” She set the stage by noting how international and U.S. laws were strengthened in 2014 to combat the rise in ivory trafficking, drawing the connection to conservators since we may be involved in the identification and sampling of ivory materials. It is important for us to be aware of the methods to identify ivory and of the new regulations that apply to it.
Stephanie presented some history about ivory and its use, including a detailed description on what ivory is and how it is formed. Stephanie carefully outlined the diagnostic features for identifying different types of ivory and included a host of images to illustrate her points along the way. Some excellent resources to help with this include Stephanie’s web article for the National Museum of African Art and the Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) website, including this page on identification. A point that Stephanie drove home is how critical it is to have comparative data when attempting to identify and unknown specimen. Photographs of morphological features and known reference material are essential tools to use. An additional aid is the use of UV light as a screening tool to classify the unknown as animal versus vegetal or synthetic. Animal ivories will fluoresce blue-white due to the presence of apatite, while other materials are likely to absorb or produce yellow or orange. Stephanie reminded the audience that the presence of Schreger lines is indicative of Proboscidean ivory, and the angle of the lines can help distinguish between mammoth and mastodon versus elephant. However, she also pointed out that the angle of the lines is variable depending on where along the tusk the lines are being examined. Beyond these visual tests, Stephanie also outlined analytical methods that require sampling. These included FTIR and DNA for identification, as well as isotope analysis, bomb-curve radiocarbon analysis, and the potential of measuring water ad/absorption as methods for possible dating.
From here, Stephanie shifted gears to talk about the ivory trade and new international, federal, and state regulations. She pointed out that the US is the second largest consumer of ivory behind China and that the ivory trade is often a cover for other illicit trade. Although ivory was already a highly regulated material since the 1976 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), these facts, along with the rapidly diminishing population levels of the elephant due to rampant poaching, have led to newer, tighter regulations. After an outline of the various laws and regulation that affect ivory, Stephanie explained that it is now illegal to buy or sell ivory of any age. Only well documented works that can prove a date of more than 100 years and ownership before 1977 can enter the US. The new requirements ask for species-specific identification and specific dating. These regulations are problematic because identifying and dating artifacts to those levels is difficult, if not impossible. The FWS has provided useful information on the new regulations here.
Because of time constraints, Stephanie was not able to fully delve into the implications for traveling exhibitions. She skipped over a case study in which documented ancient ivories owned by the Bolton Museum in Bolton, England were delayed at the Miami International Airport for four days in a tropical environment where climate controls were unknown. Following the new 2014 regulations, the local FWS agent wanted species specific identification of the ancient ivories, which was not readily proven in the existing documentation. That level of identification is also not possible to obtain without destructive analysis. Although ancient worked ivories should have been allowed as part of a traveling exhibition, and CITES permits were provided, the entry into the US was nevertheless delayed at great risk to cultural artifacts. For this reason, coupled with her long-standing research interest in ivory, Stephanie has joined a sub-committee to help develop an AIC position paper on the subject.
N.B. For information on the changes in regulations download: Hornbeck, S. 2016. “Ivory: identification and regulation of a precious material”. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. available via the AIC wiki.