{"id":2218,"date":"2026-04-01T10:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/?p=2218"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:06:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:06:45","slug":"preserving-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/2026\/04\/01\/preserving-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving People, Not Just Paper: My Internship Conserving the New College Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s blog comes from Katherine Richey, an Edinburgh student who undertook a five-month internship with Heritage Collections from March to the end of July 2025<\/span><\/span>. The internship focused on the care, documentation, and rehousing of two key paper-based collections held within the New College Collections at the University of Edinburgh: <\/span>The<\/span>\u00a0Alumni Photograph Collection, and the Chaplains\u2019 Files of the Church of Scotland.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

People are at the heart of every collection, but never have I felt that more\u00a0strongly\u00a0than during my time working with the New College Collections.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I began my role as the New College Collection Conservation Intern back in March 2025, I expected to learn a lot about paper. I didn\u2019t, however, quite expect to encounter so many people \u2013 their stories, their portraits, their grief, and their humour \u2013 and to feel so connected to them through the material they left behind. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Split between the new conservation studio on the fifth floor of the Main Library, and New College itself, my role has involved caring\u00a0for two very different, but equally fascinating collections: a series of graduation photographs dating from 1857 to the present day, and a group of Chaplains\u2019 files belonging to the Church of Scotland.\u00a0While the work focused on conservation and collections care, it also offered a rare glimpse into the lives that passed through these institutions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Collection of Faces<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The heart of my internship was spent with the New College Alumni Photograph Collection, a series of over 180 class portraits dating from 1857 to the present day. Each one captured a graduating class from New College,\u00a0tracing\u00a0students, professors\u00a0and expressions over a\u00a0century and a half of history.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"An

Class portrait from the New College Collection<\/p><\/div>\n

When I first\u00a0encountered\u00a0the collection, it was tucked in the corner of stores\u00a0and had\u00a0seen\u00a0better days. Although loosely organised by decade, the folders were all one size, meaning items were often sliding around or sticking out of the sides. Some were torn or delaminating, others just very, very dirty.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Folders

Collection on the shelf, before treatment<\/p><\/div>\n

With a project of this scale, the first step was planning (and in turn,\u00a0testing my love-hate relationship with excel). I logged each item into a spreadsheet, recording dimensions, condition issues, treatment\u00a0plans\u00a0and rehousing needs. This helped me break the project down into\u00a0stages and\u00a0order the right materials for rehousing down the line.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then came the cleaning, with some photographs gathering more than a century of dirt. Cleaning was done in two steps: first brushing away loose debris, then gently lifting ingrained dirt with a smoke sponge. In some case, for example an 1857 image with a hand-drawn name map, I used only dry brushing to avoid damaging sensitive areas.\u00a0The images responded incredibly well to this non-invasive\u00a0method, with many\u00a0vastly improving aesthetically as a result.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"smoke

Surface cleaning the photographs with smoke sponge<\/p><\/div>\n

After cleaning, I moved on to repairs. Using Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste, I reinforced tears and crumpled corners, repaired delaminated board, and stabilised weak areas.\u00a0The\u00a0limited timescale of the project\u00a0meant that treatments were focused on function over aesthetics,\u00a0ensuring they could be handled safely ready for future digitalisation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Photograph with delaminating corners, before treatment<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Photograph with delaminating corners, after treatment<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, I rehoused the collection in individual photon paper folders, placing them into groups inside drop-spine boxes. These were mostly organised by decade, where\u00a0this correlated with\u00a0the object\u2019s\u00a0size, but any outliers were also placed in size-appropriate boxes, with each item carefully labelled.\u00a0The result is a clean, stable, and much more accessible collection, ready to be accessed more easily in New College.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Working on this project deepened my understanding of conservation as both a practical and intellectual task, and a careful balance of ethics,\u00a0planning,\u00a0and material knowledge.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Meeting the Ministers\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Midway through my internship, my focus expanded beyond the photo collection when I was asked to support a second project: the Chaplains\u2019 files held at New College.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These files, mostly\u00a0dating from the early to mid-20<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0century, trace ministers of the Church of Scotland, offering a moving portrait of Scottish clerical life across the period.\u00a0Many of these men had served during periods of enormous social upheaval, particularly the Second World War, with many files reflecting the emotional weight of that time, including items such as death notices, letters from ministers taken as prisoners of war, and quiet reflections on personal trauma.\u00a0Here, my job was to\u00a0catalogue the contents of each file, adding\u00a0additional\u00a0administrative data from the\u00a0<\/span>Fasti Ecclesia\u00a0Scoticanae<\/span><\/i>\u00a0to ensure our records were up to date. Then, I cleaned and stabilised the materials, removing damaging fastenings, before rehousing them into archival folders for future longevity and reference.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Newspaper clipping from the Chaplains’ files<\/p><\/div>\n

Taken together, these records show how spiritual leaders themselves were shaped by the very crises they helped others to navigate.\u00a0Many letters were steeped in a deep sense of duty and service, framing ministry as both a calling of faith and an act of national resilience. What stood out to me in each file was the emotional control embedded in their language; their need to appear strong,\u00a0composed,\u00a0and unwavering. At the same time, these documents subtly reveal how psychological strain was minimised or spiritualised, couched in terms like \u201cexhaustion\u201d or \u201cunsuitability\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope,\u00a0from this project,\u00a0further study can be done into the impact of attitudes of the period, and it goes to show how even\u00a0in\u00a0the most seemingly administrative\u00a0of\u00a0collections, the human voice finds a way through.\u00a0While this collection gave me immense technical experience in rehousing, surface cleaning, and cataloguing, it also taught\u00a0me to slow down, read between the lines, and\u00a0respect the weight that paper can carry.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflections<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

As I come to the final days of this experience, I cannot help but to look back and realise how much I have learnt over the last five months.\u00a0Where my practical conservation and collections management skills have\u00a0flourished\u00a0thanks to working so closely with experts,\u00a0I have\u00a0also developed a\u00a0deeper appreciation of the true value of collections teams, and the quiet but vital\u00a0work they do to ensure that our history is accessible for those to come.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My time has been greatly enriched by some brilliant experiences: hearing all about developments of the discipline at the Scottish Paper Conservators News and Ideas Exchange in the National Library of Scotland, spending time learning to treat 19<\/span>th<\/span>-century books, and seeing the daily ins\u00a0and outs of the conservation studio, from pest traps to acquisition choices.\u00a0Each of these\u00a0moments\u00a0have\u00a0given me a wider perspective of what conservation looks like across an\u00a0institution.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More than anything, however, I did not expect this work to feel so personal. A lot of conservation is described in technical terms and processes,\u00a0and of course that is a significant part of the job. But what I quickly realised was that I was not just handling\u00a0paper, but\u00a0encountering people. Someone was in this space before me, and this is what they left behind.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just a week before this internship ended, I graduated myself. After spending so long with the classes who had come before me,\u00a0this work\u00a0made my own moment even more special.\u00a0I was more aware than ever, when crossing the stage, of the community\u00a0I had\u00a0stepped into, and the importance of the work we do to ensure their stories\u00a0do\u00a0not\u00a0disappear.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to support that work, and\u00a0more importantly,\u00a0to the\u00a0incredible\u00a0team who have aided me\u00a0in making\u00a0these collections remain accessible\u00a0in\u00a0the future.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s blog comes from Katherine Richey, an Edinburgh student who undertook a five-month internship with Heritage Collections from March to the end of July 2025. The internship focused on the care, documentation, and rehousing of two key paper-based collections held … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[223,14],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lwn4-zM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}