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Posted by: Tana Villafana
Diego Rivera, well known for his reintroduction of large frescoes into modern art, was commissioned to create a series of illustrations for a book that would have been the first English translation of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation story. Although the book was never published, the Library has three of the original illustrations, Creation, …
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Tana Villafana
The Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD) is equipped with many wonderful analytical tools to investigate the Library’s vast collection. Material identification is key for preservation; knowing what materials make up a particular object will guide preservation policies and treatments. PRTD has several different laboratories, including a non-invasive optical properties lab, which is generally where …
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Aaron D. Chaletzky
What does the Library do when certain collection items are so worn they cannot be served for fear of further damage? What actions can be taken to prevent the loss of content from the eventual failure of certain technology? How about migrating content from one preservation technology to another, more usable and accessible one? In …
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Beatriz Haspo
Finding the original book through pieces and fragments that got disassociated from it.
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
This post was authored by Katherine Kelly. Katherine is a Senior Conservator at the Library of Congress where she works primarily on repairing and rebinding books from the Geography and Map Division and the Music Division. In December of 2016, a group of conservators and conservation scientists from the Library of Congress (LC) and the …
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
The Library of Congress stewards hundreds of thousands of paper-based and special format materials, and the Conservation Division at the Library employs a diverse staff of conservators, preservation specialists and technicians to treat and care for the incredible range of collections. Special collections materials, as well as the expansive general collection, are cared for according …
Posted in: Preservation
Posted by: Tana Villafana
I’m a research scientist and I’ve worked in a laser, microscopy, or spectroscopy laboratory (and sometimes a lovely combination of the three) for the past seventeen years. The last five of those years I’ve been lucky to call myself a Chemist at the Library of Congress, working in the optical properties lab of the Preservation …
Posted in: Conservation, Heritage Science, Preservation, Tools of the Trade