This month’s feature is a bookbinding leather roll tool. It is numbered in the Museum’s Collection as #1996.002.31. This tool was used in a process called ‘gold-tooling’, where gold leaf would be applied to the cover of a book. The process used an adhesive called ‘glair’ that would be smeared onto the surface of the leather, followed by the gold leaf. The gold was then coated in grease in order to hold it in place.

This month's feature is a Chinese joss paper (also known as spirit paper or ghost paper) robe and pants. In our collection this pair of objects share the number 1993.006.728.  

These articles of paper clothing were never meant to be worn by the living. For almost 2000 years, Chinese mourners have been making joss paper objects for the dead. These objects are usually burned in ceremonies after the funeral but are sometimes buried with the deceased. It is believed that the joss paper items will become their real equivalents in the afterlife.  

This month's feature is a spotlight on the museum's conservation efforts. Within the museum's vast collection are many rare and aged books, some published as early as the 16th century. The books cover topics ranging from paper making, paper chemistry, to botany.  

This month's feature is a collection of bark samples. Although they are stored among our collection, they are uncatalogued. In a collection as vast as ours, it is not uncommon to have hidden treasures, like these charming bark samples. Bark samples of this nature are often kept and shared in order to better understand which fibers would be good candidates for pulping and pulling sheets of paper. Samples of this type can either be in the form of solid pieces of a branch including both the bark and meat of the tree or solely the stripped bark.