Conservation Lab: Conservation
The Conservation staff regularly performs item-level treatments on damaged materials from the general and special collections and Archives.
Damaged and/or fragile materials are identified during use by library staff and patrons and by Conservation staff through selective surveys of the collections.
Items are individually evaluated to determine treatments appropriate to their age and structure, and in conformity with current conservation practices.
Library’s Collections
The majority of books in the Collection were produced in Europe and the United States between the late-sixteenth and the twenty-first centuries. Included in the collection are case bindings, laced in-board bindings, limp vellum and paper case bindings, and photograph albums. The collections also contain unbound paper-based documents such as architectural blueprints and drawings, photographs, portfolios of loose plates, and printed ephemera.
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 The Conservation Department cares
for Henry Clay Frick's Library in The Frick Collection |
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Structural Problems in Materials
Some of the problems routinely encountered are detached boards and spines, broken sewing, torn or brittle paper, and pressure-sensitive tapes. Some of the treatments that are undertaken reverse damage created by inappropriate repairs.
Treatments
The Conservation staff carries out treatments that employ both conservation and bookbinding techniques.
Minor treatments to stabilize books include surface cleaning, paper mending, plate hinging, joint strengthening, and reattaching boards. Damaged and fragile materials that require minor treatments are generally returned to the stacks within one week.
Major treatments include humidification and flattening, stain removal, aqueous alkalization, water-soluble and pressure-sensitive tape removal, resewing, rebacking and recasing in paper, cloth, leather, and parchment.
Treatment reports contain written and photographic documentation.
Recently Completed Treatments
Le Cabinet de M. Davila. Auction Catalog, November 12, 1767
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Pietro Santi Bartoli. Colonna Traiana eretta
dal Senato, 1673.
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J. James Tissot. The Life of our Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 vols.) 1897-8 |
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