Tag Archives: Ashleigh Schieszer

Sharing Our Work With The Public

Happy Preservation Week 2020 – Day 3!

Working in the basement of Langsam Library, we’re not often afforded many opportunities to connect directly with the general public. As Catarina mentioned yesterday, therefore, our usual “go-to” is to host an open house once a year during Preservation Week. Since we’re all hunkered down at home, we’d like to invite you check out some of the work we do, DIGITALLY.

If you’re curious about what we’re working on at home, be sure to check out this prior blog post.

This Friday, May 1st, 2020 at noon:

Please join Special Collections Conservator, Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer on Facebook Live to talk about scrapbooks.

Facebook Live with the Public Library, May 1st, 2020

Designed as a family event, there’s a little something for all ages:

  • During the session, we’ll fold a One-Page Wonder coloring book comic strip (created by Senior Conservation Technician, Christopher Voynovich) that highlights treatment of a 3 x 4 foot oversized scrapbook!
  • We’ll also talk about typical condition issues found in historic scrapbooks, such as those owned by the Public Library
  • As well as answer any questions you might have about preserving your own at home.

If you were unable to join, you can still check out the FB Live archived event here.

You can also download and print Chris’ comic and check out this video on how to fold a One-Page Wonder:

Airing after May 2nd:

Be on the lookout for the Lab’s 30-minute segment with Cincinnati’s Waycross Government TV station, or watch below.

This video highlights the collaborative nature of the Lab’s work that spans a variety of preservation and library-related activities. Meet conservation staff and hear stories from each staff member about some of their favorite projects, including the treatment of an iron gall ink manuscript, as well as where you can check out the lab’s online treatment documentation.

Stay tuned for more Preservation Week updates tomorrow, and don’t forget to check out ALA’s Preservation Week resources: http://www.ala.org/alcts/preservationweek. Take advantage of free webinars, information on preserving oral history, and more!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer [PLCH] – Lab Manager, Conservator

Exhibition Prep for Upcoming Show: Real Art for Young Artists

Join us September 15th, 2019 at 2pm as the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County unveils the newly acquired pen and India ink illustrations from Rosemary Well’s Noisy Nora in the beloved nook in the Children’s Library.  The illustrations are richly hand colored in watercolor, colored pencils, acrylic ink and gauche pigments.  With so much detail, they are a treat to see in person!
Acclaimed author and illustrator, Rosemary Wells, has written many endearing children’s books, including Noisy Nora (a story about a mischievous young mouse) and an entire series about the bunnies Max and Ruby.  As part of Ms. Well’s initiative, Real Art for Young Artists, Rosemary Wells has generously offered the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County the opportunity to exhibit more than a dozen original drawings for long-term display in the Children’s Library located in the Main building downtown.

Since the spring of 2018, the Preservation Lab has been collaborating with colleagues in the Public Library’s Programming, Digital Services, Cataloging, and Facilities departments, as well as the artist herself, on an exhibition of Wells’ Noisy Nora illustrations.  To prepare the materials for long-term exhibition each department lent their expertise to ensure a balance between preservation standards, viewer’s needs, and the artist’s vision.   This blog post highlights some behind the scenes activities leading up to the exhibition.

Above is an image of the nook in the Children’s Library selected as the exhibition space for the illustrations.  The nook is a perfect spot where the light can be controlled, preventing the artwork from fading overtime and it’s a great place to showcase the art at a height children can easily interact.  Facilities updated the nook with new paint and wall decals where the artwork will be hung.  In addition, to inspire young generations to create their own artwork, seating and tables for crafts will replace the current audio visual shelving and television.

At the Lab, approximately 16 pen and ink drawings and one booklet were received directly from the artist as a group within a folder. Many drawings were attached to illustration boards with translucent overlays wrapped around from behind, taped into place, giving the feeling as though they were just recently mocked up for production.    Graphite notes to publishers were written on the transparent papers to inform the size the images should be enlarged or reduced for printing.  While not exhibition ready, seeing the artwork in this preproduction state is a rare glimpse into the creative process of the artist!

After the drawings were carefully removed from the illustration boards, using conservation tape removal techniques, some unique features were discovered on the verso of two illustrations.  The drawings were digitized to document their condition prior to exhibition.  Digitized images of the backs of two illustrations are shown below.

Left: Verso of “And then she dropped her sister’s marbles on the floor” showing an impression of a Windsor and Newton watermark. Right: verso of “No Nora in the Mailbox, No Nora in the Shrub” with a prior sketch crossed out on the back.


To visualize how the illustrations would look in their frames, mock up window mats were created to experiment with how the drawings and captions should be arranged.  Below, the frame on the left centers both the artwork and the caption with a small margin around the art; whereas the frame on the right centers mostly the artwork with a much larger margin around the art.  Ultimately, our aesthetic preference was the extra margin around the art since the artwork itself was not square.  We also decided that no matter what option we chose, we wanted the bottom of the caption to line up throughout all of the frames, whether there was a single or double line of text.

Next, the artwork was measured to estimate material costs for matting and framing.  Following exhibition preservation standards, Rising rag museum mat board, UV filtered glazing, and wood frames were selected by the Preservation Lab.  We choose using glass over Plexiglas glazing so there would be less concern of harming the glazing surface with cleaners.  Because the artwork will be displayed a children’s height level, we also took into account how the artwork will be hung.  With the aid of security locking devices, the frames are not removable from the wall by the public, therefore there will be no danger of the frames falling.
To mimic how the artwork was mounted on the original presentation boards (preserving the artist’s intent), the work was matted with captions from the children’s book added below the art.  The artwork was mounted with Kozo (mulberry) tissue v-hinges that were pasted to the back of the artwork and then adhered to the back mat with with Zen Shofu wheat starch paste.  To maintain a 45% relative humidity environment, the matted artwork was housed within a sealed archival framing package.

Kozo hinges were adhered to the verso of the drawings with Zen Shofu wheat starch paste.


The hand colored drawings were then attached to the back mat using the kozo v-hinges, also adhered with wheat starch paste. The hinges were lightly pressed under weight to dry using pressing stacks.


Landscape window mats were hinged along the top edge with P90 Filmoplast tape.


View of the v-hinges after they are dry.


Drawings are float mounted so the rough cut edges of the drawings are visible.


Recto of sealed framing package.


Verso of sealed framing package.


The framing package contains:

  1. UV filtered Tru View Museum glass (purchased from our local art supply framing store).
  2. Float mounted artwork with two Usu gami hinges applied with wheat starch paste inside matting system. Window mat hinged to the left edge of back mat with P90 filmoplast tape.
  3. Blue corrugated cardboard used as a backing board to the matting package.
  4. Conservation note loosely set into place for future reference on the back of the corrugated backing board.
  5. Sheet of Polyester film added behind the corrugated board as a moisture proof barrier.
  6. To fully seal the entire package, the edges of all the materials were first sealed with pressure sensitive P90 filmoplast tape. A second foil backed framing tape from University Products (part of the Perma/Seal label line) was applied as a barrier to prevent moisture and gas exchange.
  7. A Dove Gray dust cover was attached to the back of the frames with 3M 415 double stick tape. Barcode labels and an additional conservation note were added to the dust cover.
  8. Lastly, Three security hangers were attached to the back of the frames; two at the top and one at the bottom.

With the exception of one frame, the original metal prongs were reused to secure the matting packages within the frame.  The one exception includes the booklet mounted with a sink mat, this thicker package required nailing brads secured to the inside of the frame rabbet to hold the matting package in place.

Booklet was mounted within a sink mat to account for the thickness of the object.


Before exhibit prep:During exhibition preparation:

After installation (the art is hung at children’s height!):

During Will Hillenbrand and Rosemary Wells visit on Sept. 15th, they discussed inspiration for books such and Max and Ruby (who are modeled after Ms. Well’s own children!) and delved into the subject of creating a “noisy” book. Mrs. Wells explained her process of conveying sound through illustrations – which by nature are a silent, quiet experience.

You can view the treatment report and treatment documentation for this original artwork on the Preservation Lab’s Digital Resource Commons site here.
Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) – Book and Paper Conservator
Photographic Documentation by Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer, Jessica Ebert & Sidney Gao

The Protective Power of Interleaving

You might know the importance of a protective enclosure, but how often to you consider the quality of storage materials?  In fact, the composition of storage materials plays a significant role in the preservation of archival collections.  But how?
Since storage plays a passive role, the positive and negative interactions of storage materials may not be readily apparent.  Chemical reactions that occur between library and storage materials are often a slow process, spanning over a number of months or years before a visual change occurs.  Without the gratification of seeing immediate effects, many may not realize how some storage materials can be problematic, let alone the ramifications for using non-archival materials.

 
To illustrate some of the effects, I thought I’d share a vivid example of protection from acidic materials during storage. The following photograph shows the positive effects of archival buffering paper (also known as interleaving), as well as the danger of using non-archival boards and tapes – even when they are not in direct contact with the object!
The protected object is a 17th century printed broadside.  It’s a single sheet of paper with printed black text on the front.  The broadside was stored for many years in a green cloth-covered portfolio.

Within the portfolio, the broadside was secured beneath with folded sheets of plastic film with a blank sheet of paper.  You can see the plastic film is attached to the portfolio around the edges with green tape.


This image shows the front of the blank sheet of paper stored side the plastic film, below the broadside. The plastic has yellowed overtime.


Here, the blank sheet is removed, revealing yellowish-brown discoloration around the top and right edge. This discoloration aligns perfectly with the green tape that is adhered on top of the plastic –located on the top and right side of the plastic.


When you flip the paper over, the back of the blank sheet shows even more discoloration. In fact, the discoloration is a mirror image of the materials below the plastic! This has occurred because the plastic is “breathable.” The materials below are all acidic, except for the white fragments of paper, which protected a portion of the paper from turning brown.


The interleaving paper served two purposes here:

  1. Acts as a support for the broadside when handled.
  2. The interleaving served as a sacrificial barrier that absorbed the bulk of acidic off-gassing from the non-archival paper and tape.

In summary, this enclosure is an excellent example of how different materials can interact with one another in nuanced ways, and how plastic is actually a permeable barrier to gasses overtime!
General storage tips:

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) —- Book and Paper Conservator

Upcoming OPC workshop

Our conservator Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer will be assisting paper conservator Jamye Jamison in an upcoming Ohio Preservation Council workshop.  Seats are still available!  prints in mylar sleeves and backing paper
Workshop description: This course is for archivists, librarians, or anyone who is interested in caring for their family documents, print collections, or other ephemera. The class will begin with a short discussion of materials and what to look for when making archival enclosures for flat paper objects. Each participant will then make a small portfolio of reference samples of various enclosures for paper materials, including a simple four-flap, polyester sleeve, paper envelope and a “back and wrap” enclosure, which can be used for display. Each participant is asked to bring four objects no larger than 4 x 6 inches (roughly postcard size) that can be used to make the reference samples. No previous experience necessary.
Learn more and register at —-  http://opc.wildapricot.org/event-3357153

A Virtual Preservation Lab Tour

Click on the link below for a virtual tour of our newly updated space:

Preservation Lab Virtual Tour Jan 2019

In October, the Preservation Lab welcomed special collections digital imaging to our workflow (for UC Libraries’ materials).  This new function necessitated a small lab renovation:

During (top three images) and after (bottom two images):

 

The results are wonderful and we are so happy to have a new staff member!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) – Special Collections Conservator, Lab Manager

Two ways to compensate for loss. Textblock loss, that is.

Before the age of endless digital writing space, it’s easy to forget that blank paper was a commodity. Below are two fun examples of writing ledgers that remind me just how precious paper was.
While it’s possible that salacious writings were once written and removed from the back of these bindings… another theory is that the blank pages were no longer needed for their original intended purpose, and since they were going to waste… an opportunistic writer hastily cut and ripped out pages, seizing the goods for use elsewhere.

Half leather binding with cloth boards, Registry of the Leonard Hotel, 1886 – contains a page that features Grover Cleveland’s signature. Pages are lost from the back of the textblock. Fragments of pages remain sewn along the gutter where pages were removed.


So what does that mean for the ledgers left behind whose guts have been partially removed?
The covers no longer fit the pages inside.  The spines sag or pop off, and the covers extend beyond the fore edge of the book’s textblock – making both handling and long-term preservation problematic.

Registry of the Leonard Hotel, 1886, view of the head


Registry of the Leonard Hotel, 1886, view of fore edge and head


In order to relieve stress, conservation treatment can be undertaken to compensate for loss.  For extremely important bindings, treatment may entail replacing lost pages with new paper, resewing the sheets into the binding.
However, in the following two examples below, the textblocks were otherwise in fairly good condition, so the Lab explored a lower cost route by inserting foam spacers.
The Leonard Hotel registry (which contains Grover Cleveland’s signature from 1885!) was treated overall to reback and consolidate deteriorated leather.  A closed cell polyethylene foam was loosely inserted as a placeholder for the missing text. In this case, the foam can be removed at any time and the jagged edges of the page fragments can be observed.  Simple, yet effective!

After treatment, foam is loosely inserted in the back of the binding to help the textblock fit inside its covers.

Before treatment images are displayed on the left, after treatment images on the right:


 
A similar treatment taken a step further builds upon the treatment solution above.  The following ledger contains early Cincinnati baptismal, marriage, and funeral records that predate city records, dating to 1838-1885.  A large section of lost paper in the back of the binding has caused the stiff spine to pop off.  The loose covers no longer support the textblock pages.

Volume 2 of a collection of “Third German Protestant Church of Cincinnati Records”. Full suede leather springback binding with stiff board spine. Sewn on cloth/linen tape supports. Receiving stabilization treatment in preparation for future digitization.  A large section of the textblock is lost in the back of the binding.


Treatment was conducted by our senior conservation technician, Catarina Figueirinhas, to stabilize the ledger for digitization out of house, as well as long-term storage.  Rather than insert foam loosely, this book was in need of a rigid support that would not be in danger of becoming lost.  Therefore, foam was sewn into the back of the binding as if it was a gathering.  This was achieved by wrapping the foam in an archival e-flute cardboard.  Essentially, the blue cardboard was folded into a “u-shape” with sharp corners and treated as an outer folio.  The corrugated cardboard was then sewn through each fold onto the original sewing supports, as though the cardboard was two gatherings.  The foam was adhered inside the cardboard with adhesive.

Volume 2 of a collection of “Third German Protestant Church of Cincinnati Records” after treatment.


Because this condition issue is unique – it’s part of the object’s history, yet presents us with preservation challenges – treatment solutions are not one-size-fits-all.  Each book calls for solutions based on how it will be used and interpreted.
In these cases, the foam gatherings, both sewn and loose, functioned well in the back of the bindings while also retaining the history of use. The constructed gatherings helped to improve handling and support the bindings in a cost effective and reversible way (with differing levels of reversibility).  I imagine this will not be the last book to come across my bench with chunks of missing text; I am excited to be armed with these simple solutions.
Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) —- Book and Paper Conservator
Photographic Documentation by Jessica Ebert & Ashleigh Schieszer

Polyester Encapsulated Page Binding *Part Three: The Workflow

This is the third installment for the Althea Hurst scrapbook conservation treatment that outlines the workflow for the long-term project.

To read previous installments, please see: Polyester Encapsulated Page Binding * Part One: The Structure, and *Part Two: The Parts.

The following is a presentation from the 46th Annual American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Artworks (AIC) meeting in Houston, TX, as part of the Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group (LCCDG).  The panel’s topic was Matters at Hand: The evolution of staffing and prioritization in library conservation labs. The title of the Preservation Lab’s talk was Teaming up on Treatment.

During large special collection projects, a conservator’s role is similar to that of a project manager, particularly when working with a team of skilled technicians, such as in our lab.  To illustrate this collaborative working style, the presentation will discuss how a unique 1930’s scrapbook was treated to improve accessibility by our team of conservation staff.

THIS is Althea Hurst, and THIS is her scrapbook.  In the summer of 1938, Althea and three other female African American Educators from Cincinnati traveled abroad, alone, by steamship and train, to eight countries in pre-WWII Europe, including Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini’s rule.

The pages are personalized throughout with handwritten inscriptions.  Here, Althea notes their Jewish tour guide and documents travels through Heidelburg –  just three months before Kristallnacht and the deportation of Jews to Dachau concentration camps.
Compelling letters in the back of the binding date to 1939 and 1947 as they describe the changing reality of life for a friend in Budapest.  In 1939, the friend remarks how, “the situation changes with rapid speed; what was absurd and inconceivable only yesterday is tomorrow already an irrevocable fact.”  And in 1947 she reflects, “we ask ourselves terrified, if it was all true, that we could survive all this?”

The purpose of the women’s travels?  To share first hand experience with students to serve as an inspiration for learning.  What resulted was an interactive scrapbook filled with rare ephemeral components and Althea’s personal notes.

So how did we get from before treatment to after treatment?  A bit like eating an elephant. One bite at a time, with a team of people who broke down larger goals down into manageable, digestible parts.

We first defined the Mission, Workflow, and Scope from which all else trickled into place.
The mission: improve accessibility, both in digital content and physical use.
The multifaceted project had a defined workflow that helped to serve as measurable milestones:

Conservation evaluation and treatment in preparation for digitization → led to digitization of full pages and parts → which was followed by final conservation treatment, encapsulation and housing.

Since the experiential importance of the tactile components was determined as equally important as the intellectual content, the overarching goal was to preserve the interactive nature and original organization of the binding.  It was also noted, the parts were particularly rare on their own as standalone objects. In short: a Level 5 treatment according to Jennifer Hain Teper’s guidelines for managing scrapbook treatments in libraries.

Three of the most important resources for the project was a model I created of various encapsulated page solutions, an archival pigmented ink printer for printing surrogates, and an ultrasonic welder for encapsulating individual components.

Outside of shared problem solving, team roles were defined early and shaped by a combination of a staff’s skill and passion.

A rough survey categorized treatment needs for each page.  The survey itself was cut up into slips that traveled with individual pages as pages were batch processed by one team member to the next.

Notes written directly on the slips of paper served as both our indispensable communication plan and tracking system.

The lab’s internal workflow was a simple yet effective solution.  Labeled carts held groups of pages that physically traveled from one treatment stage to next.  For example, when pages filled senior conservation technician, Veronica Sorcher’s treatment pile, she immediately knew that they were surface cleaned by Chris and were ready for tear repair.

We also discovered that decisions, such as what tissue paper to use for repair, were helpful to make collectively as a group to ensure effectiveness and consistency.

As the technicians began their roles, we outlined treatment parameters and solved challenges until a game plan was formed.  Throughout the project I was often consulted, however, the techs quickly built areas of expertise that they naturally gravitated toward.  Conservation technician, Chris Voynovich’s previous expertise was in encapsulating posters, which easily translated into creating encapsulated pages.  After teaching additional welding techniques and strategies for retaining original placement, he was soon incorporating Hollytex hinges and polyester pockets on top of full page encapsulations and devising systems with blue tape to register complicated page parts.
Heavy components or extra parts without support leaves were also incorporated into the binding by Chris.  Using my model as a guide, he constructed mat board support pages to mount objects housed in four flap enclosures.

A few attached booklets would have been problematic to remove, such as pamphlets with clay coated covers.  As an alternative, our printer was used to recreate attached parts from digitized images. Senior conservation technician, Catarina Figueirinhas, took quickly to understanding ICC color profiles since one of her first projects in the lab was assisting in creating exhibit surrogates.  She was designated as the project’s printer and utilized a multitude of fine art papers. Inkjet prints were created in such similar appearance to the originals that labels were required to identify surrogates.

Catarina also prudently printed labels as visual clues to identify contents within pockets and boxes.

Discovering a solution to incorporate the original covers into the new encapsulated binding without causing irreversible damage was no easy task.  Luckily, with the technicians tackling other parts of treatment, I was able to invest time experimenting with Vivak. After some trial and error, I was able to weld polyester sleeves to the clear support to include attached components, as well as use the clear sheet as a backing for a sink mat package to hold the covers.

In the end, we were proud to meet the needs of numerous clients.  A team of 3 people spent 53 total hours for treatment to improve handling and legibility for Digital Services.

After digitization, 126 hours of treatment were invested by a team of four staff and one student to meet the needs of the Public Library librarians.  Collaborating with special collections staff, we were even able to add a customized Table of Contents and an introductory paragraph to the front of the volumes.

The entire project from start to finish took a full calendar year, with a grand total of 183 hours.  I’d like to note, while the project took longer than usual since it was a learning opportunity, only 43 treatment hours were invested by the project conservator, and the project was able to be worked in alongside the usual lab workload.  The use of the students and technicians significantly reduced the overall cost by using the best person for the job.

The increased visibility has brought users to the Main Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, both locally, and abroad from Italy.  The Italian magazine, Internazionale, traveled to the US to experience the materials in person.

Subsequently, they featured the Althea Hurst Scrapbook in a 6-page spread.

To conclude the project, the lab held an in house workshop where we archived our inventive encapsulated page solutions. Staff made two models– a post bound structure with a plethora of attached parts  – and a side sewn version. Since Althea, the lab has tackled treatment of over a dozen other scrapbooks – including an oversized album with an opening spread of over 4 feet. Having tackled such a complex encapsulated binding as one of our first endeavors, we’ve developed our own language for scrapbook parts, such as “Chibap” (which refers to the acronym CHBAP, a Cloth Hinge Board Attachment Part), and the techs have discovered that they are armed with skills to problem solve any scrapbook that comes their way.

Special thanks to all Preservation Lab staff, Public Library librarians, Digital Services and conservation colleagues who shared their knowledge on bindings with encapsulated pages.

If you’d like to create a scrapbook comic of your own, here is a link to our 8 sided zine comic strip, created by, Chris Voynovich.   Check out this link to WikiBooks for instructions on folding your own one page wonder

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) — Conservator, Conservation Lab Manager

The Preservation Lab…in the news

Check out this new article about the work of the Preservation Lab by our collaborator Melissa Norris, with assistance from Ashleigh Schieszer, Jessica Ebert, and Kevin Grace at https://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/source/preserving-taft/.
Isn’t Preservation just so cool!

Conserving a head sculpture.

Ashleigh Schieszer works on Taft’s maquette. (Photo credit Jessica Ebert)


And for our loyal followers a bonus image of the housing of the William Howard Taft letters…
Taft letters bound

Encapsulated binding by Chris Voynovich, design by Ashleigh Schieszer (photo credit Jessica Ebert)


 

Cincinnati Human Skin Bindings: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy

What is Anthropodermic Bibliopegy? 

Anthro is a prefix meaning human, podermic is a suffix referring to skin, and bibliopegy is the art of binding books. The practice of binding books in human skin began in the 18th century for reasons foreign to our American culture, contemporary to today.

Before the digital age, family members found unique ways to honor and remember their loved ones.  Beyond painted portraits, women commonly saved lockets of hair and integrated braided strands into unique and personalized jewelry.  In the early days of photography, family portraits were an expensive and rare endeavor for most families. As a result, post mortem photography became common practice during the Victorian era.  It’s possible that a post mortem photograph may be the only image a family would ever own of that person!

Likewise, not all anthropodermic books stem from a gory past such as tales told of procuring human corpses for the sake of science.  Surprisingly, there are a handful of libraries around the country that claim to have a book or two within their collections with a direct connection to a historic figure, that are bound in honor of that person.

Discussions today surrounding the preservation of skin tattoos are not too dissimilar.

Cincinnati Bindings

In 2016, the lab was asked to sample the leather of not one, but two bindings for a national survey confirming the existence of these anthropodermic curiosities.

As part of the Anthropodermic Book Project, two Cincinnati books were sampled, one owned by the University of Cincinnati and another owned by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Both were identified as bound in human skin.

Interestingly, both bindings contain 18th century works by Phillis Wheatley – one of the earliest African American writers, titled Poems on various subjects, religious and moral.

Frontispiece and title page of the ARB binding is identical to the CHPL copy.

Both books appear to be bound by the same binder showing similar gold tooling along the spine, but with one major difference.  The UC binding is a half leather binding, covered in parchment boards while the PLCH boards are covered in full leather.  The source of the human skin – we do not know.


     

Public library copy on the left is covered in full human leather.  The UC copy on the right is covered in half human leather with sheep parchment covered boards.  Both contain the title tooled in gold on the spine.

Provenance of Cincinnati Bindings

Documentation of the CHPL copy shows the Phillis Wheatley poems were presented to the Director of the Public Library in 1958, Ernest Miller, by the General Manager of Acres of Books, Bert Smith.  Smith refers to, “two copies” of this title which he was able to obtain (the other copy owned by UCL). These were once owned by the Charles F. Heartman Collection as evidenced by the CHPL bookplate.  At the bottom of the correspondence to the public library Director, Smith notes that the particular copy is “referred to in paragraph three, page seventy eight, of Walter Hart Blumenthal’s Bookman’s Bedlam…”, where he infers these books may have been bound by Zaehnsdorf bindery in London.

Documentation stored with the CHPL binding

Scientific Test Results

In 2016, samples taken from the books by the lab conservator were sent to scientists to confirm the source of the covering materials.  Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF) analysis concluded that there were three species involved with the bindings: human, cattle, and sheep.  All leather showed positive results for human, the parchment for sheep, and traces of cattle were most likely present as an adhesive.

Closing Thoughts

Books such as these remind us that in the 18th and 19th century, the human experience of death was much different than we experience today.  While today we tend to think of death from a more sterile and distant vantage point, the experience was much more personal in the past.  Books bound in human skin would not necessarily have had held the same macabre connotations as they do today.

I especially like how Chris Harter from the Archives and Rare Books department frames the subject, “As uncomfortable as they make us feel, we can’t undo what has been done to create such books, but our main goal should be to be good stewards of the books and their histories.”

Further Reading

  • Learn more about Phillis Wheatly by reading the UCL Archives and Rare Books blog post and visiting the Library of Congress website
  • Check out the book titled, Dark Archives, by Megan Rosenbloom who writes about the histories of many sampled books and thoroughly writes about Cincinnati bindings in the chapter titled, The Long Shadow of the Night Doctors.
  • The News Record (TNR) article published by the University of Cincinnati students

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer — Conservator (CHPL)

A Tale of a Preservation Horror: The Mystery of William Howard Taft’s Oozing Head…

Photo Credit: http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/sites/lookingeast/taft-and-uc/


William Howard Taft’s family has strong historical connections to both the city of Cincinnati, and the University.  Taft served Cincinnati both as a federal circuit judge and as Dean of the Cincinnati College (the forerunner of The University of Cincinnati).  In honor of Taft’s contributions merging the UC law department with Cincinnati College in 1896, a statue was erected in front of the Law building in 1992.

And now, for Halloween, William has made it across campus to the Preservation Lab.  And this surprise has taken a gruesome turn.  A maquette of Will’s head from the Archives and Rare Books Library collection is aging poorly and in need of treatment and preservation storage.  In preparation for bronze casting, Will’s head was sculpted by an artist out of a moldable putty and mounted to a metal rod.  It is where the two materials meet that the preservation horrors arise!

A reddish-orange, oily slime is oozing from the interior of the putty down to where the rod stand is secured into a wooden base.

Preliminary research indicates the head is sculpted from a material commonly referred to as plastiline, Apoxie or Milliput.  Recipes of putties such as these are vast, but generally contain a filler, a wax, and an oily component such as castor oil or petroleum jelly.  Fillers might include clay, starch, talcum or even sulfur depending on the proprietary or homemade concoction.  By the 1990’s the negative effects of using sulfur would have been known, so it’s possible that the putty is sulfur-free; however, the possibility should not be discounted.  According to plastiline research by Gerhard Eggert, located on the Museum of Fine Arts CAMEO website, putties containing sulfur were preferred by artists for their superior sculpting properties.  Another likely alternative is that the putty is suffering from its own inherent vice.  In other words, the weeping could be due to the putty’s unstable chemical composition that is leading to its own demise… not to mention off-gassing that might be corroding the metal below!
While the specific type of metal that the head is mounted on is currently a mystery, we do know it is ferrous.  Using a magnet, I discovered the metal rod contains a magnetic pull, indicating it is at least partially comprised of iron.
Despite this research, there is one pressing questions left to answer:
Is the weeping due to an inherent vice of the putty alone… or is oozing liquid created by a unique chemical reaction resulting from contact between the putty and the metal rod? 
The answer to this question will help us to determine whether a barrier between the two materials might help prevent weeping in the future.
In order create a more informed treatment proposal, more research and analytical testing will need to be conducted in order to better understand what is leading to this mysterious preservation horror.  Since this project ranges out of scope for the Preservation Lab, the expertise of an Objects Conservator will be sought!
Happy Halloween!

Photograph Filter by Jessica Ebert


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ashleigh Schieszer (PLCH) – Book & Paper Conservator
Resources and Further Research:
http://magazine.uc.edu/issues/0413/taft_influence.html
http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/sites/lookingeast/taft-and-uc/
https://sites.google.com/site/ucwalks/points-of-interest/william-howard-taft
http://cameo.mfa.org/images/c/c8/Download_file_542.pdf
http://resources.conservation-us.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/02/osg019-05.pdf
http://resources.conservation-us.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/03/osg020-01.pdf
http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2011/06/what-do-julia-childs-spatulas-say-about-preservation.html