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Posted by: Meg Gray
The General Collections Conservation Section routinely performs urgent treatments on books needed by Congress and interlibrary loan. Sometimes, though, a request comes through that’s special even for them. Staff member Meg Gray offers an inside look at one such request.
Posted in: Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Chloe Genter
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.
Posted in: Care and Handling, Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Meg Gray
Luke Ayers reminisces about his summer internship in General Collections Care(GCCS) where he learned techniques on how to care for, preserve, and repair books in both GCCS and the Rare Book Division.
Posted in: Collections Care, Conservation, Internships, Preservation, Rare Books and Special Collections
Posted by: Meg Gray
This year the Conservation Division welcomed a brand new addition – a digital box cutter! This tool is crucial to creating collection enclosures in a fast and efficient manner. Farewell, old boxmaker, you served well, and welcome to our newest conservation tool.
Posted in: Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation, Tools of the Trade
Posted by: Amelia Parks
It’s not very often that you have the chance to look at 99 copies of the same book. However, among the Library’s vast collections are an extraordinary 99 copies of Ptolemy’s Geographia, divided between the Geography and Map Division and Rare Book and Special Collections. Book conservators in the Library’s Conservation Division, undertook a survey of every one of these 99 copies of Geographia, and found some fascinating things that provide context for the rich history of book binding and manuscript arts.
Posted in: Conservation, Preservation, Rare Books and Special Collections
Posted by: Chloe Genter
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.
Posted in: Care and Handling, Collections Care, Collections Storage, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Chloe Genter
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.
Posted in: Care and Handling, Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Chloe Genter
Heather Wanser is a Senior Paper Conservator for the Conservation Division. In this post, Heather speaks about how she performed treatment on a concept drawing for one of America’s most beloved comic book characters, Captain America.
Posted in: Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: K.F. Shovlin
In 2025, the Library celebrates 125 years of binding and hereby commemorates the hard work that went into making this happen.
Posted in: Care and Handling, Collections Care, Conservation, Preservation