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.
Though the binding staff at the Library no longer binds items on site, they do conduct a thorough review of each item once it returns from the commercial bindery. This peer-review system provides complete accountability and quality assurance for over 2,000 items each week.
Preservation Librarian Jon Sweitzer-Lamme describes how the Library of Congress tracks down, identifies, preserves, and sometimes replaces its aging items using library knowledge, ingenuity, and digital resources.
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.
Following the Jikji Colloquium which took place at the Library of Congress in early 2023, Conservation staff member Chloe Genter sits down with Dr. Banda, the UNESCO Chief of Documentary Heritage, to discuss UNESCO’s role in raising awareness of the impact of the Buljo jikji simche yojeol.
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 the first of our new staff series, Backgrounds as Vast as Our Collections: The Research and Testing Division, we meet Chris Bolser. Chris is a preservation technician who has been with the library for about 8 years.
