Tag Archives: x-ray fluorescence

Fun with PhotoDoc – X-rays and CT scans, Oh My!

An alternate title to this blog could be, “That time we X-rayed medieval choir book at the UC Medical Center, and then the pandemic happened I forgot to write a blog post about it”. Oops!

X-ray image of an oversized medieval book

Let’s rewind the story back to mid-2019, when our Associate Conservator, Ashleigh, expressed interest in radiography on a beautiful, oversized choir book from the Classics Library. I, at the time, was the Photographic Documentation Specialist and had never carried out or assisted with any radiography projects, so I was very keen to start reaching out to anyone I could think of on West and East campus who might have access to such equipment. The most logical answer, UC Health, proved to be the winning one when finally the Director of Diagnostic Radiology put me in contact with the Enterprise Director of Imaging, who said yes to my request, and ultimately put me in contact with my main contact for the project, the Radiology Manager at UC Medical Center.

The date was set, October 22, 2019. Ashleigh, Holly and I packed up the heavy, choir book and carefully transported it from West campus to East campus to be imaged. The UC Health staff were beyond friendly, and I think they got a kick out of imaging the oversized leather volume. The technician really worked with us to adjust the intensity of the radiography depending on what we were trying to capture, whether it was the cover, the sewing and the supports, or the illuminated text (which was a little harder to capture with their equipment).

Overall, we discovered…a lot of nails, split thong supports, and on the lower board, four mends to the wooden board that appear to be bracing a split in the wood that is running vertically.

Red arrows indicate metal braces adhered to the wooden boards
The larger red arrows indicate metal braces while the smaller red arrows indicate the crack in the wooden board.
X-ray image of the spine
Image of the spine which allows you to see the split thong supports and you can even see the tattle-tape security strip!

Then following the radiography session, they were kind enough to ask if we would also like to place the volume in the CT scanner. Since the scanner could easily and safely accommodate the volume while keeping it wrapped in foam, we jumped at the chance!

We received all the imaging files on two CDs from UC Health, and then I went about making heads and tails of it. The radiography images were fairly straightforward. For the most impactful imaging, namely of the spine, upper and lower boards, I created composite images using the panorama feature in Photoshop to merge the images. For example, each cover consisted of four separate images.

With the CT imaging, the CD came with a reviewer software (Sorna) to view the files. Frankly, the CT scans were a little bit harder to comprehend, but nonetheless interesting. Ultimately the CT scanner allows you to view the various materials within the object. Whereas normally for the equipment that was used that would mean bones, organs and tissues, for the choir book that meant metal material like brass, leather, ink and pigment. Within the viewer function there was also an interactive component to the CT data as well, which allowed you to manipulate various levels to see various intensities, but even after a lot of trail and error and experimentation I found it very confusing, though I did get some interesting, and some less impactful, results. Let’s just say, I do not have a future as a CT technician!  I’ll stick to my day job.

  • Still image from CT scan
  • Still image from CT scan
  • Still image from CT scan

Jessica Ebert – Assistant Conservator

Poisonous Book Project

In the Victorian era, textiles were colored with a green copper aceto-arsentite, used from 1814 to the late 1800’s.  (Side note: this green is sometimes referred to as Paris green or emerald green and was widely used by impressionist painters.)  And since books were bound in textiles, it’s no surprise that these vivid green cloths were used to bind publisher’s bindings.  Therefore, it’s entirely possible that these copper arsenic covers are lurking within our library collections dating to the 19th century.  In 1855, Viridian green was invented which eventually replaced Paris Green; therefore, green cloth bindings from the 20th century to today are of likely no concern.

So how do we know if a binding is poisonous?  Until recently, there hasn’t been a lot of published research on the subject.  The ability to perform scientific analysis testing is required, such as the use of XRF (x-ray fluorescence elemental analysis). See this article for more info: https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-three-poisonous-books-in-our-university-library-98358.

When faced with the question of how to ID these textiles in the past, I’ve referred researchers to textile conservators who may be more familiar with this subject – as well as paintings conservators since they deal with pigments on a regular basis.  The best resource on the subject I could track down was an adjacently-related conservation study on Navajo Textiles, titled, Coping With Arsenic-Based Pesticides on Textile Collections by Jae R. Anderson, Nancy Odegaard, Martina Dawley, Delana Joy Farley, and Werner Zimmt from the American Institute for Conservation ‘s Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume 21, 2014.

However, new research being conducted by Melissa Tedone and researchers at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library shines new light on the subject. They provide helpful recommendations on ID, handling, and storage.  Please see https://www.iiconservation.org/content/poison-book-project to learn about the Poisonous Book Project being performed by Winterthur Library.

https://www.iiconservation.org/content/poison-book-project

While our lab does not currently perform x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to confirm whether a book is poisonous, there are some visual clues to be aware of.  When handling a copy of Rustic Adornments for Homes and Taste (1857) Melissa Tedone notes how “the bright green colorant flakes readily from the bookcloth with even the gentlest touch of my porcupine quill.”  This pigment seems to be impregnated into the cloth rather than dyed, and therefore prone to brittleness and flaking.

Recommendations to those without the ability to ID pigments: If you suspect that your book may be bound within the Victorian era of the 19th century, treat the book as though it may contain arsenic.

  • Place it in a polyester or polypropylene jacket and house it inside an enclosure.
  • Handle it with gloves that are disposable or are washable
  • When handling, lay it out on a table with paper liner that can be disposed of after use (or clean the table after use)
  • If you are in need of a box for storage, University Products and Talas are great resources for purchasing archival housing supplies.

Additional recommendations for libraries by Melissa Tedone and the Winterthur crew include:

  • Digitize bindings to provide researchers a non-toxic option of handling these texts
  • Identify and store these books together in one location within collections storage.  If these materials are affected in a potential flood or disaster, this will help to streamline handling and containment of these dangerous materials. 

Curious to know if there are specific titles of books that have tested positive for “poison?” Check out this link for a table of books identified by the Poisonous Book project and compare against duplicate titles in your collection:

See http://wiki.winterthur.org/wiki/Poison_Book_Project

Screenshot of the http://wiki.winterthur.org/wiki/Poison_Book_Project
http://wiki.winterthur.org/wiki/Poison_Book_Project#Arsenical_Books_List

Since testing continues, the Winterthur research team has created a color swatch bookmark to assist with identifying potentially arsenical green bookcloth.  The library asks for the consideration of of $5 or more to help cover printing and mailing costs. Email reference@wintherthur.org for more information.

To learn more, check out the 2023 Connecting to Collections (C2C) Care Webinar The Poison Book Project.

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (CHPL) – Rare Book and Paper Conservator, Lab Co-Manager

List of Resources:

https://www.iiconservation.org/content/poison-book-project

http://wiki.winterthur.org/wiki/Poison_Book_Project

https://www.iiconservation.org/content/news-conservation-issue-77-april-may-2020

https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-three-poisonous-books-in-our-university-library-98358

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/arsenic-and-old-books

http://resources.culturalheritage.org/osg-postprints/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/03/osg021-08.pdf