stabilization |

How to store a 15ft paper scroll?

Back in October of 2024, we received something slightly more unusual from the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, a 15-foot-long, hand-drawn rolled map of the Allegheny River. Yes, fifteen feet. This map was created by joining smaller sheets edge-to-edge, forming one continuous scroll that looked more like a treasure map than your typical library item.

Scroll with photography target in front of it — Before Treatment – 15ft rolled map as it was received.

A dilemma quickly followed, how do I create a housing solution that’s safe and functional, but won’t turn future handling into a logistical nightmare? Like many libraries, they didn’t have a 15-foot shelf just waiting for this (because who does?), so storing it flat was out. Storing it rolled became our only real option. The enclosure needed to be secure and protective for the map, and ideally, easy and elegant to display when needed.

First things first, some stabilization treatment. Before tackling the housing design, the scroll underwent conservation treatment to mend small tears and fill losses, particularly at the “beginning” and “end” (depending on which direction you follow the river). Once stabilized, it was ready for some housing trials.

scroll partially unrolled — Before Treatment – Large loss and tear at one end.

While researching solutions online, I stumbled upon a fantastic blog post by J.M. Iacchei from the Cornell University Library Conservation Lab (link here). Their approach to scroll housing was clever, practical and elegant, and it just gave me the spark I needed to create our own version.

Here is how we rolled:

A support core – To give the scroll structure while rolling, I created a polyester cylinder core with a polyethylene sling. The sling supports one end of the scroll as it begins to wrap around the core, providing gentle guidance and protection as you start to roll the map. The map can be easily inserted into the sling to begin rolling.

Polyester cylinder core with a polyethylene sling to secure one end of the map.

The end can be easily inserted into the sling and supported as the map is rolled around the polyester core.

Protection of the ends – The opposite end of the scroll was placed into a soft, transparent polyethylene pocket. It’s flexible, unobtrusive, and doesn’t need to be removed, even during after treatment photography.

Keep it rolled – Once fully rolled, the scroll was secured with a polyester belly band. The polyethylene pocket helped protect the scroll surface from any abrasion caused by the belly band.

rolled scroll with belly band to hold it in place — The rolled map is secured with a polyester belly band.

Display ready? – For display,I built a removable tray that cradles the rolled scroll without letting it rest directly on a surface. This tray doubles as a mini display platform, so the scroll can be partially unrolled and supported during handling and exhibit. Functional and elegant.

Rolled scroll secured within an enclosure tray — Display tray that offers support to the rolled map for long term storage.

I also tested a few other methods along the way, like supporting the entire scroll in a single 15-foot polyester sheet or sandwiching it between two. But the seams where the map’s original sheets were joined caused additional creases with those solutions. In the end, supporting the scroll in its entirety just wasn’t viable, so I pivoted to protecting the ends and letting the core do the heavy lifting.

Also: cutting two 15-foot-long sheets of Mylar by hand? Let’s just say I don’t recommend it… and I definitely don’t miss it.

Here is what a 15ft paper map looks like:

Catarina Figueirinhas – Assistant Conservator

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

A Blog of the Preservation Lab at UC

Tag Archives: stabilization

Allegheny River / Capt. J.W. McLaughlin

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