If you didn’t guess from the anatomical pun title, this blog post details the beginnings of my 10-week internship conserving the Thomson-Walker collection at The Centre for Research Collections conservation studio. As a recent MA graduate of art on paper conservation from Camberwell College of Arts I was looking for an internship that would give me the chance to gain project management experience as well as allowing me to become familiar with various printing techniques and how to treat them in innovative ways. This internship permits me to meet these aims as I am the first person to begin conservation work on this collection and shall be creating a treatment and rehousing program as well as undertaking research, experimentation and treatments to get the project underway.

Print from the Thomson-Walker Collection

The Thomson-Walker collection includes some 2,500 prints, which were bestowed to the University of Edinburgh in 1939 by Sir John William Thomson-Walker (1871-1937), a surgeon and committed print collector. The collected prints are mostly in good condition and convey portraits of influential medical men from the UK and Europe ranging from the 16^th-20^th centuries. The main conservation issue for this collection are the backing boards that the prints have been adhered to; the board is of low grade quality, which is not only destructive to the primary support but also prohibits the prints from being exhibited, digitised, or used as a resource for teaching. The unattractive and damaging boards and the tape used to adhere them to the primary support will have to be removed; I shall be experimenting with various treatment methods in the coming weeks in order to create a fast and effective programme of conservation which can be carried out by myself and the interns that follow after me. Additionally, the print collection varies tremendously in size and so I will also be investigating various storage solutions to rehouse this large group of artworks in a way that is not only cost effective but also accommodates how they shall be used now and in the future. Wish me luck, let’s hope my efforts aren’t in vein….

Close-up of a print hinged onto a poor quality backing board

Post by Samantha Cawson, Conservation Intern

There have been many highlights in conservation over the last 12 months, but one of the most enjoyable for me has been the opportunity to take part in outreach activities, whether it’s been writing blog posts, participating in studio tours and visits, holding conservation training days, or representing the University’s conservation department at various local and national festivals.

In October of this year, we were able to leave our natural habitat of the studio when asked to take part in the Midlothian Science Festival. Emily Hick (LHSA project conservator) and Vanessa Johnson (a conservation student and previous blog contributor) ran a booth that demonstrated how conservators can use Ultra Violet light to identify pigments which in turn can assist in informing an artworks treatment plan or long-term preservation needs. Using various pigments that absorb, reflect or fluoresce under UV, the participants were encouraged to draw pictures and then examine them in a dark tent under UV and describe how they changed. As Emily says, the “kids loved seeing their paintings transformed, and learnt that science isn’t all about test tubes and chemicals, but can be used in art as well!”

Last month, we were also delighted to be asked to hold a workshop – entitled ‘Making History: DIY medieval charters, title deeds and treasure maps’ – as part of Scotland’s Previously History Festival, which we held in our conservation studio at the Centre of Research Collections. The event proved popular, with participants of all ages enjoying the practical side – with tea-staining paper, wax seals, painting with pigments, and transcribing using ink and dip pens included – as well as being afforded the opportunity to see first-hand some of the University’s Special Collection and Lothian Health Services Archive Collection material, dating back to the eighteenth century, for inspiration for their creations. Below is an example of the handiwork produced by some High School History pupils during the session, including a replica of a letter written by the artist Allan Ramsay – can you spot which one is the fake?

All our outreach efforts, and these sessions in particular, have been a great opportunity to bring conservation and collection care theory to a wider audience, both within the University and further afield, in what is hopefully a fun and engaging way. Perhaps we may even be influencing the next generation of conservators….

Lastly, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from us all in conservation. We look forward to keeping you posted with all our conservation news throughout 2015!

Emma Davey, Conservation Officer

We have been very pleased to welcome some new faces to the conservation studio over the past month – we now have two new conservation volunteers, Olivia and Collette, and our CRC Graduate Trainee, Alice, who have been spending one-day a week with us in conservation. They have all been doing a fantastic job with their current project of surface cleaning and re-housing a series of Library Correspondence, dating from the 1930-40s, from the University’s Archive Collection. You will be able to read more about their work and their own perspective on their time in the studio in an upcoming blog post.

Our volunteer, Olivia, busy surface cleaning and rehousing the University’s Library Correspondence.

We are excited to be able to add further to this bustle of activity – we are now advertising a 10-week conservation internship at the Centre for Research Collections. This is an exciting opportunity for a newly qualified, or soon-to-be qualified, paper conservator to further their experience in their chosen field, as well as gain wider experience of working in the Special Collections and higher education sectors.

The successful intern with have the opportunity to work on the University of Edinburgh’s Thomson-Walker Collection; a collection of some 2500 prints bequeathed to the University by Sir John William Thomson-Walker (1871-1937), an eminent surgeon and print collector. This internship will see the prestigious print collection assessed for its conservation and storage requirements, with the first phase of appropriate treatment undertaken.

This is a particularly exciting time for us in the studio, not only to have an important collection receive conservation attention, but to also to have the chance to pass on valuable experience and skills to those who are just beginning their conservation careers.

To read more about the conservation internship, please visit: http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.154060!/fileManager/Thomson-Walker%20Internship%20Advert.pdf

If you wish to apply, please get your applications sent in by 28^th November!

Post by Emma Davey, Conservation Officer

With Fresher Week just past, it seems fitting that this post should be based around diplomas – even if graduating does seem a long way off for these new students!

Archival Box containing rolled diplomas from ‘Toward Dolly’ Project.

Several months ago, I was presented with an interesting conservation challenge by ‘Towards Dolly’ Project Archivist, Clare Button, namely a box of tightly rolled diplomas and certificates. As Clare explains these are “certificates for many of Edinburgh’s leading biological scientists, giving an insight into their training, education and society memberships”. There are medical degree certificates for James Cossar Ewart who became Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh in 1882, and who established the teaching of genetics in Edinburgh. There are also Alan William Greenwood’s undergraduate and doctoral certificates in Science from the University of Melbourne. Greenwood emigrated to Edinburgh in 1923 to study poultry genetics and he later became Director of the Poultry Research Centre. Finally, the honorary degree and association membership certificates for Charlotte Auerbach, a pioneering mutation researcher at the Institute of Animal Genetics, show the respect she garnered from colleagues and institutions around the world.

Rolled diplomas and certificates proving difficult to handle

The diplomas and certificates in their existing rolled format proved to be very difficult to handle and view, even with the aid of weights. This was particularly problematic in those rolls consisting of multiple documents, with anything up to eleven sheets – and undoubtedly it is always the one in the centre that is required! It was therefore deemed appropriate to unroll and flatten them in order to improve handling and enable them to be more accessible to potential readers.

On examining the documents, it soon became apparent that dry pressing the sheets would not be sufficient to flatten them satisfactorily. Prior to any pressing, the sheets would first need to be ‘relaxed’ through humidification – a method by which moisture is slowly and carefully introduced to the document in a controlled environment, relaxing the paper and slowly flattening the sheet. I humidified the objects by laying each document upon a layer of Gore-tex® which, in turn, is place on a sheet of non-woven fabric which has been wetted. The Gore-tex® acts as an interleaving layer and, due to its micro-porous nature, gently introduces moisture to the object above. Finally, a layer of transparent Polyester is placed above this set-up and, with the aid of weights, a make-shift chamber is created to maintain a humid environment. This method ensures moisture is kept to minimum, thereby lowering the risk of distortion or disrupting potential water soluble inks. A very close eye was kept on the documents during this process all the same….

Humidification process

When the paper was suitably relaxed and unrolled, the diplomas were placed on a low pressure table which uses suction to remove excess moisture whilst gently restraining and manipulating the sheet to lay flat during this drying process. This is a quick (but very noisy) method, which was subsequently followed up with a period under weight in the press.

drying and flattening diploma on low-pressure table

Blotter surround used to protect embossed seal during pressing

Whilst pressing, extra care had to be taken with those diplomas with embossed stamps or paper seals. Tracings were taken of the seals, the shape of which was cut out of the blotting paper used to sandwich the object during pressing. This ensured the rest of the sheet remained flat, whilst avoiding the stamps and seals in order to retain their raised design. The sheets were pressed for several months to ensure that the diplomas did not retain their ‘memory’ of their previous existence as a rolled document.

Once pressed, the final step was to place the diplomas and certificates into transparent Polyester sleeves, allowing them to be housed safely and, most importantly, flat in acid-free archival boxes. As Clare adds about the ‘Towards Dolly’ project, “these collections are not only an invaluable resource for research on the history of science and medicine, but they also speak to all of us by revealing the fascinating human story behind the science”.

Definitely something to remember when walking up to collect your graduation certificates….

By Vanessa Johnson, conservation trainee and armchair physicist

Well, it’s been six weeks and I’ve survived! Although if archives could kill, the repository of world knowledge would go untapped and we’d be living lives of stone-age simplicity and struggle. Fortunately, archives are relatively harmless and very interesting! They’ve been especially so given their almost unlimited capacity for dirt and equally terrible capacity for retaining said dirt when faced with a tool as effective as a chemical sponge. Upon arriving at the University of Edinburgh’s conservation department for my 6-week placement, I was assigned the task of cleaning and rehousing correspondence from the archives dating from the 1930’s and 1940’s. The task was large but I was up to it! Using the previously mentioned chemical sponges, I wiped away surface dirt and placed the letters in new folders and boxes that were acid-free and sure to preserve them for future use. The old boxes had been rather ill-suited to the task and were glad to be relieved of the burden of keeping so many letters safe.

Library correspondence was originally housed in these beauties. Observe the sooty border along the bottom edge of the orange sheet. The clean area was protected by library correspondence.

Letters were cleaned and rehoused in nice grey, acid-free folders and then in archival boxes. I think they will be much happier there.

The display of menus for the Holyrood event, most sufficient I’m told!

My duties extended beyond rehousing archival materials, though. In the second week, a University Club of London event was hosted at Holyrood Palace and a display of past menus was requested. These menus were from their archive held by The University of Edinburgh, retained from such distant times as 1878 and 1913, years whose existence can be verified largely through such archival relics. I mounted the menus on a board with labels and sent it off to Holyrood to be admired by the guests. I assume this is exactly what happened as I was not informed of any serious disappointment on anyone’s part regarding my attempts. Whew!

While I plugged away at my correspondence rehousing, a huge box arrived full of damaged architectural plans! My favourite! I do have a soft spot for repairing maps and architectural plans, as they are often very well-made and beautiful. The first step was to create condition reports and treatment proposals for all 56 plans. I had learned to write these in my course at Northumbria University, though they were often 10+ pages and full of information gathered by photographing pieces in the dark with only UV lights on. This was highly impractical for the current project, so I created a spreadsheet with every piece listed, a lettering system for conditions (A – pretty good!, B – Some tears, not too bad, C – Emergency intervention needed! Something to that effect…) and included treatment recommendations in my lettering system. This meant that it took MUCH less time to plan my attack.

Once this was done, it was time to bring these plans back to life! I started with a C, something that was extremely dirty and had a tear going almost all the way across. Though it took ages, I finished the repair in the few days. I soon developed a system of overlapping tasks, repairing tears while simultaneously surface cleaning a piece. There’s a lot of waiting when repairing tears, so this worked out well. In a little over a week, I was able to complete 5 plans.

Plan before any treatment. The giant rip made the plan a bit difficult to handle, as did the profusion of surface dirt.

Plan after treatment. What was once torn asunder is made whole again!

So many plans with so many problems! Some were in pieces, some had large, degraded holes in them, while others were just extremely dirty. Regardless! They were all treated and brought up to a level of stability and usability. After treating them, I rolled them together with interleaving sheets of acid-free tissue and stored them in an archival box. A label was placed on the outside of the box and the treatment was complete!

I was back to my correspondence and plugging along when what should happen but a textile rehousing workshop! While I’m primarily a paper conservator, I have every interest in rounding out my skills and learning whatever I can about all aspects of conservation. Plus, this workshop seemed to deal with folder making, which, as a paper conservator, I felt particularly able to do. Little did I know that these folders were very time consuming to make! Tuula Pardoe, a textile conservator from the Scottish Conservation Studio at Hopetoun House, wowed us by showing us these beautiful, elegant folders with padded cloth interiors which would hold onto and protect any textiles in the folder. They were gorgeous and I needed to make one! The rest of the day was spent cutting board, ironing fabric and padding the interior of my custom-made folder which would house a textile from the library’s collection. It was tough but the results were worth it and Tuula was a great teacher.

The textile! I chose this one because of its gorgeous, rectangular shape. It seemed well-suited to a folder.

After a day spent slaving away, my folder is nearly done! After that central linen tape dries, I can consider my rehousing project complete!

After folder making, I realized the clock was ticking. I had lots and lots of writing to do and not much time left to do it! In addition to an environmental monitoring report I had been requested to write, I had a blog post to write, a science fair booth to plan, a power point to prepare and photos to sort out! Gah! The environmental monitoring report was almost done, thankfully, and involved analysing data from an exhibit space. Certain materials have a tendency to leave the physical plane when exposed to conditions which are not within an acceptable range, so it was vitally important that the space did not fall outside of that range. We don’t want to lose archival materials to the environment! Nature is truly a harsh mistress.

Conservation is hilarious! But serious. Laughter is the best medicine for accidentally tearing your mock-up, and then repairing it like a pro.

In the midst of this writing bonanza, a teaching opportunity came out of nowhere and set itself up right in the conservation studio! Well, I suppose I’d known about it for some time, but in the hectic last week of work, it did come at a very busy time. Like all things potentially stressful, this day, which was a conservation taster day, proved to be fun instead! Emma, Emily and I taught some eager volunteers about the joys and pitfalls of the world of conservation. They were introduced to ethical issues, conservation techniques, and had questions answered such as ‘Why do conservators work so hard to prevent nature from getting closer to paper?’ Bugs, that’s why. The studio was a mess and we all had a good time repairing mock-ups that were surprisingly difficult to clean (sorry, volunteers) and very easy to tear (sorry, volunteers). They made a great job of it anyway and hopefully left feeling like they understood this strange world of paper conservation.

Finally, after all is done, it’s time to plan for the Midlothian Science Fair, a lovely place where families learn how science fits snugly into many, many professions. I was gifted the task of preparing a booth that was clear and relatable yet not so technical that it would alienate people. Well….this was tough. I LOOOVE getting real in-depth in my science explorations so I had to come up with something that a non-nerd would really enjoy. If Bill Nye is any indication, that sort of fun-for-the-family, completely relatable science is practically everywhere and I found just such a science concept in the technical examination of paper. That sounds horrible, I know, but stick with me!

Watercolour pigments fluorescing in UV light. From my personal photos.

If you’ve ever been around an ultraviolet light, you know that sometimes your white t-shirt glows or your Day-Glo nail polish. Well, conservators, in our wisdom, will sometimes place pieces of art with unknown pigments in just such a light to see what glows and what does not. Depending on what we see, we can usually come to a conclusion about what a pigment is made of (or at least narrow down the possibilities a bit). This gave me the idea for my science fair booth! Kids could make art, look at it in UV (with protective goggles! I ain’t no slouch about the ol’ H&S) and learn a little about chemistry and physics! Hurrah!

So! Idea is in hand, planning plugging along, all is well! I must say, the past 6 weeks have been busy! After everything though, I’m left feeling happy to have had such a wide range of experiences and a bit sad that I can’t finish rehousing all that correspondence. There really is a lot! Hopefully a future conservator can pick up where I left off and learn to love the archive too.

My name is Emily and I am Project Conservator at Lothian Health Services Archive. LHSA is based at the Centre for Research Collections, where we share a conservation studio with Emma Davey, Conservation Officer for the CRC, and two private conservators.

Lothian Health Services Archive holds the historically important local records of NHS hospitals and other health-related material. I am currently working on a 12-month Wellcome Trust-funded project to conserve LHSA’s HIV/AIDS collections. This material documents the social and medical response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Edinburgh and the Lothians from 1983 to 2010. The first suspected case of HIV/AIDS in Scotland was discovered in Edinburgh in 1983. The infection rate in the city steadily grew and by 1989 it was seven times higher than the national average, which led to Edinburgh being dubbed the “AIDS capital of Europe” in the national press. This is material of vital importance which comprehensively documents an important part of medical history. In 2011 the collections were inscribed to the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register which emphasises its importance to national documentary heritage.

The collections are made up of a variety of media, mostly loose paper documents, leaflets and postcards but also badges, stickers, photographs, 35mm slides and canvas and plastic bags, as well as rubber and latex items such as condoms and balloons.

An example of the diverse range of materials found in the HIV/AIDS collections.

Many people assume that modern collections such as this do not require conservation, however this is not the case, and there are already items in this collection that are severely damaged. For example, previous storage has led to planar distortion, creasing, tearing and the accumulation of surface dirt on paper documents. Low quality materials used in paper making has also resulted in deterioration of paper sheets.

Paper documents in the HIV/AIDS collections. Plastic paper clips causing planar distortion of the sheets.

Damage to other items is often due to the inherent nature of the object. For example, rubber items such as the balloons have become brittle due to loss of plasticiser and objects have become stuck together due to the migration of adhesives.

A balloon from the HIV/AIDS collections. Loss of plasticiser has caused the balloon to become very brittle.

There is also a collection of digital media such as 3.5” floppy disks, VHS, audio cassette tapes and film reels which have been transferred to modern storage facilities to avoid loss of information due to obsolescence of the viewing equipment.

A screen shot from a video in the HIV/AIDS collection. Shows loss of image quality.

In this project, conservation of paper materials mainly involves the re-housing of paper items in acid-free folders and boxes and carrying out basic conservation treatment such as surface cleaning, tear repair and flattening if needed. Conservation of non-paper materials mainly focuses on re-housing the objects in appropriate archival storage, rather than on interventive treatment.

I really enjoy working with this diverse range of material in this collection. When I graduated last year specialising in paper conservation, I never thought I would be working with such modern materials. So since starting here, I’ve had to research plastic conservation and digitisation methods and develop new ways of storing modern objects with paper collections, which I’ve found challenging and fun! With more and more modern materials becoming deposited in archives, I believe skills gained in this project will be really useful in the future, and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to work with such a varied and interesting collection.

If you’d like to find out more about this project and the conservation of modern materials, please visit our blog.

Emily Hick                                                                                                                 Project Conservator                                                                                                  Lothian Health Services Archive                                                                  Emily.Hick@ed.ac.uk

As a conservator, you can often find some rather surprising and unexpected ephemera in archive and book collections. Take, for example, this folder from the University’s Aitken Collection.

At first sight, it may seem like a fairly typical example of paper archive material. Upon closer inspection, however, there was a rather lovely surprise waiting inside.

Pressed flowers are certainly not uncommon, but they can pose a rather tricky conservation conundrum; most ‘pressingly’ (pun-intended!) is whether the flowers should be left in-situ or removed and housed separately.

In consultation with archivist Neasa Roughan, the decision was taken to keep the flowers in-situ but re-house them in order to provide a protective interleaving layer between the flowers and archival material, thereby minimising the risk of any further deterioration. Furthermore, this will also improve access, make handling these pages easier and reduce the possibility of damage and loss to the flowers themselves.

The choice of re-housing material and a knowledge of its manufacture is very important, as poor quality materials that are in close contact with collection items can cause severe damage. Acidity in poor quality materials can migrate to collection items causing discolouration and embrittlement, thereby hastening their deterioration. It was decided, therefore, to wrap the flowers in acid-free tissue, and make a 4-flap folder, also acid-free, in which to keep the flowers secure. This approach allows the flowers to be kept in their original location whilst providing suitable protection to the archive material, as well as the flowers, and helping to ensure the longevity of both items.

Neasa, who has been working closely with this collection, explains further:

“I found these beautiful pressed anemones among the personal papers of the eminent mathematician, A C Aitken. Aitken was born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1895; he was the son of a grocer and the eldest of seven children. Following his military service during World War I, which took him to both the battle of Gallipoli and the Somme, he moved to Edinburgh where he had been awarded a postgraduate scholarship. He studied under Edmund Taylor Whittaker, and was awarded a D.Sc. in 1925. This was something of a surprise for Aitken, who had been working towards a PhD. Furthermore, this qualification was based on a mere 10 weeks work! He kept quiet about the latter fact, as he feared that his research would not be taken seriously if it was widely known that he found his solution so quickly.

Aitken progressed steadily at the University of Edinburgh, becoming reader in statistics in 1936, and gaining the chair of Pure Mathematics in 1946, where he remained until he retired in 1965. For a short time during World War II he worked at Hut 6 at Bletchley Park, though for obvious reasons little is known of his role there.

Besides his prodigious mathematical talents, Alexander Aitken was gifted in many spheres. He was a talented violinist and composer, wrote poetry and prose (he was awarded a fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature for his memoir Gallipoli to the Somme) spoke six languages, and had an eidetic memory (he could recite pi to 1000 places). Sadly, he was also a rather troubled soul and suffered greatly following his traumatic experiences during World War I. His prodigious memory ensured that he was unable forget his time spent in the trenches, and as a result of this he suffered severe nervous strain and insomnia.

I haven’t found many clues about where these lovely blue flowers came from – I believe that they are anemones. The newspaper they were originally pressed in dated from September 1967, two months before Aitken’s death. Wood anemones do grow in Scotland, and Aitken was a keen walker in the hills around Edinburgh so it is possible he picked them himself. I think it’s more likely though that they were pressed by his wife Winifred. She was a very gifted botanist, and set up the first Botany department at the University of Otago in 1919, but gave up her promising career to care for Aitken and their two children. Possibly the flowers were grown in the garden of their last house on Primrosebank Road, or were a gift from a friend during Aitken’s illness. We’ll probably never know, but the flowers are a wonderful and unexpected discovery amongst a fascinating collection.”

“A picture is worth a thousand words”. As this often quoted adage alludes to, photographs have the ability to capture a moment in time. Whether they are images of stern Victorian family portraits or informal snaps of loved ones; spontaneous scenes of celebration or harrowing depictions of war and violence; shots of nature in all its glory or nature at its most powerful and destructive – photographs have the capacity to produce a wide spectrum of emotions in the viewer.

It is for such reasons that photographs form an invaluable part of the collections held by the University and why it is important that appropriate steps should be taken to ensure that they are preserved for future generations. I was fortunate, therefore, to have the opportunity to attend a three day course at West Dean College in Sussex on the ‘Conservation of Photographs’, led by photographic conservator Susie Clark.

During the course, I was introduced to the numerous photographic techniques and processes, which are many and varied. These range from daguerreotypes, developed by Louis Daguerre and introduced in 1839 – a date often cited as the ‘birth’ of photography – to glass plate slides, and right through to modern ink jet printing. What was clear from the outset of the course was that each process comes with its own associated conservation needs and, as a result, there is no “one size fits all” approach that can be taken when deciding on appropriate treatment options.

Damage to photographs can range from gradual deterioration due to natural ageing or poor storage and housing, to actual loss and breakage (to which glass slides, by their nature, are particularly susceptible). It was beneficial, therefore, that part of the course was dedicated to interventive ‘practical’ treatment options that could be carried out, with particular reference to the more vulnerable glass plate slides. This included polishing replacement cover glass (a rather messy process), which is in important step to ensure that any glass that is to come into contact with the photographic emulsion layer is completely clean and free of dirt and residue. We also had the opportunity to undertake different methods of repairing cracked or broken glass slides using various adhesives.

Polishing a replacement cover glass

Repairing glass slides with a resin adhesive

However, when it comes to caring for photographic collections, preventive measures are a far more favourable approach. Adopting correct storage, housing and environmental conditions (as discussed in our previous conservation blog post) can slow down the rate of deterioration, and ultimately reduce the need for more interventive conservation treatment further down the line. These measures can be particularly important when dealing with the more volatile photographic materials such cellulose acetate film. Upon degrading, this film material can suffer from the aptly named ‘Vinegar Syndrome’ due to its propensity to release acetic acid resulting in a distinctively strong odour.

Photographic techniques, for example tintypes (produced by creating a positive image on a sheet of iron), were often inexpensive and easy to produce. They were therefore in popular use at recreational destinations such beaches, promenades and parks, and were often taken on the spur of the moment to mark the day or capture a cherished event. Such photographs were not necessarily intended for longevity, and yet many now form an important part of our shared cultural collections.

This may make you look at your own collection of holiday snaps in a different way!

Preventive conservation, and environmental monitoring in particular, is an important part of my job as Conservation Officer at the University. It was for this reason, therefore, that I found myself heading into our storage and exhibition spaces within the Centre for Research Collections, and beyond, to collect up our Hanwell environmental monitoring sensors (all 37 of them) and prepare them for their annual calibration. Although small, these sensors are invaluable in helping us to monitor temperature and relative humidity conditions, and their calibration ensures that the readings are as accurate as possible.

It is impossible to halt the aging process of a material completely. However, environmental conditions during storage and display can greatly affect the rate of aging and the extent of damage, and, therefore, a well-controlled environment can dramatically improve the condition of a collection, and reduce the need for more interventive treatment in the future. Our Hanwell environmental monitoring system provides regular readings, and helps to ensure that the conditions stay within the recommended limits as set out by the British Standard Institution’s document PD 5454:2012 (Guide for the storage and exhibition of archival material) – namely 13°C-20°C and 35%-60% relativity humidity with emphasis placed on stability within these parameters.

Having successfully undergone their yearly check-up, it was just left to place them all back again….

Hanwell Environmental Monitoring Sensors

In April this year, I was lucky enough to be offered a 10 week internship to begin conservation work on the David Laing Bequest of rare books. This internship was funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust and was the first stage in a series of projects on this collection, intended to stabilise and protect the most vulnerable items. It provided me with a fantastic opportunity for some hands on professional experience.

Based in the main library in George Square, I worked in the conservation studio surveying, cleaning, measuring, and rehousing this prestigious collection comprising around 1000 rare books. The treasures in the collection are worthy of the name, including poems in the hand of Robert Burns, and letters from Kings and Queens, as well as numerous early Scottish documents, and other significant literary papers. In only ten weeks, I had to complete work on the whole collection. It worked out at around ten minutes per book, so I wasn’t able to take the time to read very much of it…

But I was tempted!

The stages of conservation I undertook during this internship were, firstly, surveying and identifying the most vulnerable items in the collection, which were then measured so that individual boxes could be made for them. Secondly, I thoroughly dry surface cleaned the outside of every book, and the inside pages of some of the most vulnerable or dirty. Thirdly, I completed some repairs of loose and torn pages, and finally rehoused any loose pages, and all the vulnerable books into folders and boxes.

Here are a couple of pictures to show the difference a good clean makes to a bookshelf, look at the difference to the book on the end:

Before

After

As well as cleaning a lot of books, I spent a little time during this internship visiting other departments. One of the huge benefits of an internship like this is the opportunity for professional development, with studio visits, lectures, and work swaps, which I took full advantage of. I even spent some time working with the preventative conservation team packing musical instruments, which made an interesting change from cleaning books… although I think I know which I prefer!

A piece from the extensive musical instrument collection- It was a lot heavier than a book!

A huge thank you to Joe Marshall, Ruth Honeybone, Caroline Sharfenburg, Serena Fredrick, and Emma Davey for all the guidance and help they gave me throughout this project, and everyone in the CRC for being unwaveringly welcoming and supportive.