The head, the hands, the heart

Just in case you needed another reason to wash your hands… 

The vibrant emerald green cloth on these bindings gets its shocking color from copper acetoarsenite, more commonly known as arsenic. The inorganic pigment was also famously used in Victorian era wallpaper. 

The bindings seen here, along with others in our collection, were tested by Melissa Tedone, Conservator at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, in December 2019 as part of the Poison Book Project. The sample is comprised largely of green cloth case bindings, but some green paper (upper left) also tested positive. They have since been properly rehoused, along with updated safe handling instructions. Read more about the Poison Book Project here.

We couldn’t resist.

UV Magic!

Heather Bain, a graduate student from @uicb was taking a look at some pages under UV light in order to see some faded marginalia and inscriptions. Heather is compiling information about the copy-specific features of our incunables for inclusion in the Material Evidence in Incunabula database, part of the 15cBOOKTRADE Project. 

 She was very kind to share some photos with us. Here’s what Heather had to say about it:

“As you can see, in visible light you can just barely tell that the inscriptions are there at all, but they’re much clearer under UV. I especially like the inscription in the top right margin (image uvlight) that says “Joannes 1616 emit me” or “John bought me in 1616”. There’s also an inscription from Claudius Mingron (?–not sure about his last name) from 1672, another owner’s inscription at the top, and some Latin that is unfortunately still not very legible inside the versal.

The book is a copy of the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Varagine from 1480 (Call # BX4654 .J3 1480). The inscriptions were washed or bleached out after the book was rebound in the 18th century, as was common practice.”

THANKS HEATHER!

PSA:  Always protect your eyes when working with UV light.

Preservation Week: Day 5 (part 2 of 2)

It’s the American Library Association’s Preservation Week, and we’ve been sharing some glimpses into The Huntington’s preservation department.

Earlier today, we shared some gifs in which book conservator Kristi Westberg was scraping away old adhesive and degraded leather from an 18th-century book that had detached spine leather and broken joints. The gifs here show the next stage of the process: adding a new paper lining to the spine. Spine linings help support the sewing and pages while the book is open. First, Kristi spreads a layer of wheat starch paste onto a strip of Japanese tissue that she’s already cut to size. She transfers the paste-laden tissue to the book and lays it on the spine. Then she presses the tissue into place first with her fingers, tamps it down with a brush, and finally smooths everything into place with a bone folder.

Once this layer dries, Kristi will adhere a thin layer of something called airplane cotton and another piece of Japanese paper that has been toned with acrylics before re-adhering the original spine leather.

As the week comes to a close, we invite you to check out our other Preservation Week posts:

Day 1: making solvent set tissue

Day 2: map repair

Day 3: making wheat starch paste

Day 4: testing pigment stability

Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the GIF with an #ArchivesGIF!

Looking for that perfect vintage GIF? Come find animated history of all flavors including major historic events, celebrities, National Parks, newsreels, animated patents, dancing WACs, and more on the National Archives Channel on @giphy!

Happy 30th Birthday GIF!  We love you!