When preparing items for conservation, identifying how an object was created is the first step in understanding its context and manufacture. By looking carefully at certain characteristics, like ink color and line quality, contextualizing the items in front of us is possible. This blog post describes these qualities and situates them within a brief context of writing implement evolution.
The Library of Congress holds one of the largest collections of globes in the world. Globes present many difficulties when considering aspects of storage and housing, they are an unusual shape, they have moveable or detachable pieces, can be very fragile, and staff and researchers may need to view the entire circumference of the globe. Preservation Specialist James Thurn explains how the Library of Congress houses these globes in an innovative way that makes the globes easier to view and access and creates secure, protective housing.
Papyrus is a unique material among the vast holdings of the Library of Congress, but these early fragmentary texts give us remarkable glimpses into history. Specialized training was undertaken and given to conserve papyri at the Library, resulting in the recent conservation treatment of a collection of papyri from the African and Middle Eastern Division.
Supporting collections care is incredibly important for the safeguarding of our cultural heritage for current and future generations to appreciate. Hear about a volunteer project at the Mummers' Museum from Chloe Genter and Cheyenne McClain.
A wholly unique object acts as a snapshot in time. The object - an Explainette, and its accompanying film, LPs, and booklets featured a variety of different materials and challenges. It came to the Conservation Division for treatment and housing so that it could be regularly displayed for visitors in the future.
John Bertonaschi is a Senior Rare Book Conservator for the Conservation Division. In this post, John will speak about how he and other Conservation staff made plans on how to get the Law Library manuscript entitled 'Decretum Gratiani' ready for a sympathetic binding.
A cartoon of famous 19th century British jockey, Tom Loates was in desperate need of treatment. This blog explores the work conducted in order to treat this important work, and the results that were discovered.
