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Category: Heritage Science

A boy wears goggles and gloves standing at a workbench in a laboratory.

Is this going to work at all? My summer exploring the non-invasive analysis of organic colors.

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

American Chemical Society SEED intern David Kim waded into unknown terrain during his summer internship in the Preservation Research and Testing Division with the research question - would it be possible to identify traditional Meso-American organic yellow colors, using only non-invasive analytical methods?

One woman listens intently while another speaks, gesturing with her hands towards a display screen and book on a counter behind her.

Knowledge Shared is Knowledge Squared

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

The following is a guest post by Meghan Hill, a preservation specialist in the Preservation Research and Testing Division of the Library of Congress. Conference season is upon us; a time to learn about exciting new initiatives in the preservation field and in turn to showcase our own work, to reconnect with colleagues from other …

One person crouching to record information at the base of the stacks.

Reflections of a Librarian-in-Residence in Preservation

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

The following is a guest post by Lauren Quackenbush, Librarian-in-Residence, Preservation Division. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) program was created in 2018 for newly graduated librarian students to gain invaluable experience at the Library of Congress. LIRs are assigned throughout the Library, this year’s 2023 cohort consisted of 5 recent graduates. As the LIR in Preservation, I …

Upcoming: Charting New Discoveries of the Manuscript Map of the Dagua River Region

Posted by: Amelia Parks

The Manuscript Map of the Dagua River Region, created in 1764, depicts a remote gold mining frontier in today’s Colombia. Art historian Juliet Wiersema and preservation scientist Meghan Hill will share results from their collaborative analysis which unearthed stories about African resilience, resistance, adaptation, entrepreneurship, and survival within the Spanish empire. A scientific examination of this map further draws back the curtain on how this large watercolor map was assembled using pigments and paper from across the empire.