This post is coauthored by Kelsey Beeghly, the 2023-2024 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress and Amanda Satorius, preservation science specialist. It is the third in a series focused on the science being done at the Library and engaging students in exploring the research methods used by the scientists. Visit the Library’s YouTube page to see the video connected to this blog post.
Have you ever seen a curious mark or stain on a page and wondered, What is that? The Library’s Preservation and Research Testing Division’s Go Team is here to provide answers with their mini-lab. The mini-lab, a cart filled with small but powerful analytical instruments, consists of tools that measure properties of materials for identification, supporting the Library in learning more about its collection items and providing useful information to researchers that aid in interpretation of an object and contribute to historical understanding. Through activities and a video, students can explore material identification for themselves using low-cost tools like the Library’s free resources, magnifying glasses, or miniature USB microscopes, available from many online retailers starting at less than $20.
Working with researchers, curators, and librarians raises interesting questions about collection items that can often be aided by scientific analysis. One researcher working in collaboration with librarians in our Rare Book Division had a question about how 18th century artist manual books were used. Were they simply purchased and placed on a bookshelf by the wealthy and upper classes? Or were they actually used for educational purposes? After pulling 11 examples that showed promising marks and notations within the text in color washes, pencil, and ink, PRTD’s Go Team used the portable non-destructive instruments to analyze these marks to determine whether or not they were made from artists’ materials based on their chemical compositions. This in turn would help the researcher confirm her ideas about how these books were used.
Before watching the video, invite students to identify objects that they would like to learn more about through up-close examination. Students might create their own paint colors using natural sources such as leaves or berries, and then investigate the pigments with a magnifying glass, microscope, or mini microscope, which will enhance surface features. Students can draw what they predict they’ll see, and then compare that to their actual observations. Students can also make a reference sheet of known pigments like the ones the Library uses, shown below, and then be challenged to identify the source of an unknown pigment through visual analysis.
This video takes students along into the Library’s Rare Book reading room to follow the investigation into an ink found within one of the 18th century artist manuals, once thought to have been stored on a shelf as a symbol of wealth, and not used by its owner. With careful measurement and analysis, Amanda and the Go Team members were able to provide evidence that the red ink in the book was made using the recipe written out in that chapter, suggesting that the person in possession of the book actually did read the book and was testing out the recipe. Ask students to brainstorm other questions that could be answered through analytical chemistry.
Amanda has degrees in Art History, Chemistry and a master’s degree in Conservation Practice. Having a passion for both art and science, with particular interest in identifying materials that can be found on objects in library and museum collections and how they can change over time, she found a job as a Preservation Science Specialist that enables her to use diverse interests to help preserve and improve understanding of the Library’s vast collections.
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