#object conservation

Join us next Thursday, 19 September between 4-6p on the 6th floor of Hatcher for our first Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!

This event will feature recent conservation work on Special Collections materials.

The conservation department is responsible for the preservation of the library’s vast holdings of rare and special collection materials. The work they do includes preventive care activities, such as making protective boxes and enclosures for storage and constructing supports for items during exhibitions. They also perform treatments (the conservation term used to describe the repair process) on hundreds of items each year so the materials can be studied and appreciated by students, faculty, and other scholars.

Drop by for refreshments and a chance to chat with conservation colleagues who will be showcasing some of their recent projects, which include a variety of rare book treatments, housing projects that keep materials protected in storage, and figuring out how to care for oddities like a movie prop of a crying newborn baby. 

Attention students interested in conservation, STEM, or archaeology! We are offering a paid summer intern for 10 weeks this summer! The internship lasts from Monday, May 18 through Friday, July 24, 2026.

Pot menders at the archaeological site of Tell en-Nasbeh, Palestine (1929-1935) 

November 4th is #AskAConservator Day! Conservators around the world will be answering questions about their work in the spirit of sharing knowledge and celebrating the growth of the field, and our #BKMConservation staff would love to hear from you. Our conservation lab is made up of ten conservators, four interns working across paper, painting, and object conservation as well as four Collection Management staff. Our conservators worked on approximately 840 objects and artworks this year while our Collections Management team has worked on multiple large, long-term storage/rehousing projects across all our collections.

Have a question for any of them? Look out for our post and Instagram stories on November 4th. The lab will be answering questions from 9am-5pm EST.⁠

How do you lift a stone sculpture that weighs 585 lbs? In preparation for the upcoming exhibition Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt this fragmentary sculpture of Crown Prince Khaemwaset needed a new mount. The sculpture is broken at the base and is not flat on the bottom; it sits at the incorrect angle leaning backward without additional support. 

In order to create a mount for display that would prop up the stone at the original orientation, the sculpture needed to be lifted so that a supportive mount could be built beneath it. The sculpture was wrapped with padding and rigging straps were secured around the object. The straps were set at different heights to that the correct angle for the sculpture could be achieved.

Once the sculpture was raised in the air a separate epoxy wedge was built to support the base of the object at the appropriate slope. The object is more stable for storage and display on the new mount and the object can be easily removed in the future if needed.

ICA Objects Conservator Claire Curran treats a lute from the Music Room at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio.