By teaching Joe, my cat, about archives and preservation, I teach myself the best ways to communicate for each project or outreach event I participate in. Joe serves as my test audience, and while he might not directly tell me if I need to expand upon or parse out a section, presenting to him helps me analyze it for myself.
Micherlange Francois-Hemsley, a 2024 intern working on Identifying At-Risk Underrepresented Community Collections Learning from Our Collection: Assessing and Preserving At-Risk Materials, discusses her summer spent with the Preservation Research and Testing Division.
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 …
Clays, gemstones, corrosion products, poisons, plants, and more – green pigments used in books and manuscripts over the centuries have some surprising origins!
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 …
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.
Smudges on pages aren't always a bad thing. Cultural Historian Bénédicte Miyamoto and preservation scientists at The Library of Congress analyze dirty books to learn more about their prior owners.
Laboratory investigation of material evidence in incunables - early printed books - can reveal not just how they were made, but sometimes when, where or by whom they were owned and read.
Scientific analysis of an unusual image of the face of Christ in a late 15th C German devotional manuscript has revealed critical and surprising information about its current condition, its original making, and its meaning.
