Monthly Archives: July 2024

Meet Me at Main: Exhibit Prep for Reopening!

After a 43 million dollar renovation spanning three and a half years, the CHPL downtown library reopened July 12th, 2024!

In preparation for reopening, the Preservation Lab has been working closely with a variety of CHPL staff to prepare collection items and exhibit cases for display.

To celebrate the dramatic reveal of updates, we’ve provided before and after pictures of the Main downtown library followed by a sneak peek at some of the exhibits.

Main Library Before, During, and After Renovations

Before construction
Installation of scaffolding for skylight maintenance
Nearing completion
July 12th, 2024 – Opening Day! A view of the atrium with a new social staircase.

Exhibits

Exhibit prep work consisted of treatment, matting, creating custom supports, install on site (and more!) for eight different exhibits!

1. Eugenia Rhein Doll Collection

Eugenia holds a Spanish doll wearing a cofrades hat symbolizing penance, often worn on Easter

Located in the Nolan Room (namesake of John T. Nolan Jr, president of the board of trustees from 1951-1983, known as “Jack”), are a collection of dolls from all over the world, representing nearly 100 countries. The dolls were gifted to the Library by Eugenia Rhein who was an administration assistant and a deeply committed employee for over 40 years. During Eugenia’s extensive travels she collected the dolls from countries such as Kuwait, Algeria, Rhodesia, Korea, Pakistan, Whales and more. In the 1970’s the dolls were often used in displays at the library to tell stories about children from other cultures by the Children’s Librarian.

Image of Eugenia is courtesy of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.

The Nolan Room

Now open to the public, this uniquely round room is located on the third floor next to the tower room.

During Doll Installation

Matt McCoy cleans the glass inside and out
Empty doll boxes during installation

Dolls were examined for condition during install. Dolls too fragile (or broken) were left stored in their corrugated clamshells. Dolls in good condition were carefully placed on stands, secured around their waste. Larger dolls required special strapping or additional supports to secure the object in place. Minor treatment was performed on site to repair dolls, reduce creasing in outfits, or clean dust and debris.

2. Veterans Exhibit

Located on the second floor at the top of the social staircase, a new purpose built space was built for the Veteran’s exhibit where artifacts are displayed in concert with stories provided by a digital exhibit and recorded interviews. The Book of Homage is highlighted with the pages turned periodically to reveal lists of names. Original War Bond posters, that were conserved and matted by the Preservation Lab, show the Victory Book Campaign requesting Americans donate books to their local library. War Bond posters will be rotated periodically to protect the vibrant printed colors from fading and the papers from darkening, but perhaps more importantly, show the wide range of art and messages conveyed during times of war.

New purpose-built Veterans exhibit the day of opening
One of my favorite war bond posters drawn by DR. SEUSS! (Not currently on display but available upon request.)

You might also be interested in:

  • This blog post where Jessica has highlighted war bond poster photographic documentation.
  • Conservation treatment reports for the War Bond Posters on the UC Libraries Digital Repository can be accessed here.
  • Digitized copies of many posters can be viewed on the CHPL Digital Library.

3. Real Art for Young Artists: Original Illustrations from Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells

This exhibit, initially installed in the North building in 2019, was moved to the NEW children’s library location, now on the first floor in the renovated South building.

New Children’s Library

The new children’s library in the South building contains interactive sculptures with lights and sounds, such as this replica of the Roebling Bridge

Updated Exhibit Location

The exhibit showcases original hand-drawn illustrations created for the book Noisy Nora, donated to the library by the author and artist, Rosemary Wells.

Original 2019 location in North building
New 2024 installation in South building

Exhibit Preparation

Luckily, much of the exhibit prep work had already been completed in 2018 for the initial installation (you can read about the original conservation and matting of the illustrations here that are UV protected and waterproof!), but now it was time for maintenance and upkeep.

In particular, the glazing on the frames had developed an iridescent coating residue from well-intentioned cleaners. This made detailed viewing of the illustrations problematic.

Other issues stemmed from the art being at children’s height. The matting and glazing packages had come loose from the frames in a few instances from being pushed inward. Others, such as the illustration “Jack had gotten filthy” had been drawn on with yellow crayon. The crayon marks were not easily removable and needed evaluation by the conservation team to improve.

Despite these issues, due to our forward-thinking work in 2018, the tightly sealed matting packages kept the original artwork completely safe and undamaged. Improvements required adjustments to the frames only!

Before exhibit maintenance, the glazing of the matting package suffers from being drawn on by crayons
Before exhibit maintenance, a matting package was pushed into the frame
During treatment, the matting package is secured with strong nails to the inside of the frame rather than using the folding metal tabs
After treatment the art is secured in the frames and the UV coated glazing is clean

4. History of the Library

With the establishment of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library in 1853, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the oldest libraries in the county and thus full of history to highlight! This physical exhibition beautifully compliments the online virtual exhibit located here.

The physical exhibit is located on the 3rd floor in the Cincinnati Room along the connector where special collections are carefully monitored while on display with specialized light, humidity and temperature controls.

On view are captivating images of the iconic lost library of Vine Street as well as other branch locations, many of which are Carnegie buildings. You can also get up close and personal with past library technologies and special collection objects such as stained glass from the original Vine Street location.

For this exhibit (and many others!), Conservation Specialist, Matt McCoy worked diligently to replace non-archival black felts at the base of the cases with fresh polyester velvet covered boards. This great improvement is not only archival, but no longer slips and slides when objects are set in place and it’s easily removable to clean crumbs of books off with a brush.

Matt created custom boards covered in polyester velvet in the lab…
Then tweaked and installed on site!

5. Circulating Art Books

Located on the third floor of the South building, these stylish 1950’s cases were also refreshed by the lab with new bases of polyester velvet covered boards.

Currently on display are a variety of beautiful art books, sometimes referred to as coffee-table books. Unlike materials in the Cincinnati Room, these materials can be checked out and taken home!

Interested in an art book you see? Scan the QR code to check out any of the titles on display!

6. Birds of America by John James Audubon

Located in the reading room, named the Cincinnati Room, on the 3rd floor connector is where one of the library’s most famous special collection items lives. This item is proudly back on display after resting during renovations. It is the early 19th century double elephant folio known for its gigantic size: the Birds of America Vols. 1-4 by John James Audubon.

With pages that are turned once a week, their grandeur enables you to see the birds represented to scale! Even the flamingo is life size (albeit the neck is wrapped around the page instead of upright).

The Washington Sea Eagle is nearly four feet tall, located in Volume 1.

Exhibit Installation

Cleaning the cases was the first step before installation as they were covered in construction dust inside and out! Before main closed for renovations, the Cincinnati Museum Center modified these cases for us so that the beds pull out for easy access. Their generous modifications were provided as a thank you for loaning all four volumes of the Birds of America for their 2019 exhibit titled In the Audubon Tradition and were a wonderful improvement!

Volumes are protected with custom wrappers. Wrappers consist of strong but lightweight Dibond, archival corrugated board, cloth spines, and ethafoam sheeting secured with cloth ties.
Volumes are also covered in polyester jackets
These heavy books require at least two people to carry
Books are supported with hinging cradles from Benchmark Catalog. The cradles adjust to the weight of the book when pages are turned.
Polyethylene strapping attaches to back of the cradles with Velcro. Strapping protects pages from sagging due to gravity.
The digitized pages are available on a touch screen next to the display case. Nearby, the 1848 eight-plate daguerreotype panorama is also on display!

Supplemental Materials

Perhaps less well-known but just as captivating are the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. In nearby cases, these supplemental materials beautifully complement the Birds of America.

Read more about this amazing collection item that was recently on exhibit March 2024 at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra here and see images of the vibrantly colored lithographs. Or, check out the book America’s Other Audubon by Joy Kiser to see reproductions of the illustrations and learn about the female artist and her family who produced them.

The prospectus of Nests and Eggs is temporarily on display that may have been owned by the illustrator, Gabrielle Estelle Jones, used to entice funders
View the original Nests and Eggs by requesting the material in the Cincinnati Room
Check out and take home this reference material with reproductions of the illustrations and learn about the history of how they’re made

7. Satellite display of reference materials about the Birds of America

Located near the 1950’s cases on the 3rd floor of the South building are supplemental materials relating to the Birds of America. For example, John James Audubon also collaborated with his two sons to depict 150 plates of four-legged animals. While the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library owns these two original volumes which can be viewed in the Cincinnati Room, this display shows reference materials relating to such items.

8. The Inland Rivers Steamboat Exhibition

This exhibit utilizes the Inland Rivers Collection at CHPL to illustrate the historic steamboat and river culture in the region. It is located on the 2nd floor connector.

While much of the materials in the exhibit are owned by the Public Library, some of the more unique treasures are on loan from the Cincinnati Museum Center who provided items such as a heavy life preserver made of cork and a leather-bound bible with handwritten inscriptions salvaged from steamboat wreckage.

Exhibit Installation

Exhibit Installation consisted of creating custom 3-D supports for special collection items on loan while CHPL materials were supported with flat mat board supports. Photographs were mounted to archival boards to prevent them from curling in changes of ambient humidity.

Three people are necessary to lift the vitrines safely over objects within these cases
Life preserver ready for showtime!
This steamboat relic was previously mounted and matted at the Preservation Lab by Chris Voynovich
Steamboat salvaged bible needed strapping and a custom cradle to show the handwritten inscription
View of Inland Rivers Steamboat Exhibit from the opposite end of the connector

With so many exhibits and a variety of content for all ages be sure to head downtown and visit them in person!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer [CHPL] – Conservator and Conservation Lab Co-Manager

Bonus Images of Main

Front of library is easily accessible
The new Story Center with large touch screens for digital exhibits
Terraces available during certain hours