Read along to see how four members of the Conservation Division at the Library of Congress deployed to Vermont attached to a FEMA response to the massive summer flooding in the state. These four subject matter experts received and conducted on-the-ground training with FEMA and performed outreach and demonstrations to the people of Vermont.
Preservation Science Intern Jessica McKenzie breaks down some applications of analytical chemistry in the Library of Congress, where she uses Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to expand the Preservation Research and Testing Division’s database for pigment analysis. She then demonstrates how she has assisted in applying her work to collection items.
The Inks and Skins collaboration studies material aspects of medieval Gaelic manuscripts, fusing scientific analysis with codicology and linguistic study. These manuscripts contain a wealth of tales and poetry, historical, legal, and scientific writing from medieval Ireland. The manuscripts themselves, their creation, and their survival each have their own tales to tell.
Upon closer inspection, things are not always what they seem. When Conservation staff find an unwelcome friend inside an object, learn more about what actions had to be taken to remove it.
In 2017, Jeanne Drewes, began an independent oral history project as part of the Occupational Folklife Project to document the occupational trade and work-related experiences of professional bookbinders. Now available, the interviews document the histories of individual binderies, trace intertwined firm histories, and encourage interviewees to discuss how the binders’ occupation and the preservation of books have changed over the years.
Read this post to learn about conservation treatment on silver gelatine, portrait photographs from the Nancy Pelosi Papers. These treatments were performed as part of a post-graduate internship at the Library of Congress.
This is a joint post by Aaron Chaletzky and Gabrielle Alongi. This past June, the Preservation Services Division (PSD) took on a new Preservation Intern: Gabrielle Alongi. Gabrielle is currently enrolled in the Information Sciences program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She comes to PSD with an interest in digital library and management work, …
Scientific research meets the allure of the past as Tineta Nkoronye, an intern at the PRTD at the LOC, delves into the world of preservation chemistry as she explores predictions made by William J. Barrow. Learn about the analytical methods used to carry out this experiment and discover whether Barrow's predictions were accurate or not.
