Museum Conservation Spotlight

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.  

One of the student employees here at the museum, Kathryn Higinbotham, works closely with these artifacts, repairing the books and laboring diligently to ensure that each book is met with the care it deserves. Caring for these artifacts often starts in a similar way for each book. This process usually involves cleaning the books, which requires something quite familiar: a white rubber eraser. The eraser is used to remove marks left on the book by smog, smoke, and dirt that has found their way onto the books from general use over time. After cleaning the books, Kathryn follows up with more basic repairs such as folding down dog-eared pages and fixing small tears. Following the more general repairs, she begins working on repairs specific to the artifact, like constructing a hollow tube repair for the spines of books whose covers have separated from the book itself. Once the book has been cared for a unique polyester cover is then cut and placed on it to protect the artifact from further damage. All books are cleaned and undergo basic, non-specific repairs before moving into individually specialized repairs and each book finishes by getting a handmade polyester jacket or, for smaller books, getting placed in an envelope.  

A large aspect of repairing these artifacts is the attention to the artifact's aesthetics and functionality. The ultimate goal with the care of each artifact is to leave it looking like it had never suffered any damage to begin with while also maintaining its ability to be used for its intended purpose. To achieve this, conservation grade materials are used throughout the entire process, making sure that any repairs made now do not harm the artifact in the future. Although Kathryn notes that these materials are fairly accessible and affordable, those working with these materials must be incredibly aware of what is in them. Altogether, the museum works avidly to restore, repair, and protect the precious artifacts in its collection.  

We hope that you enjoyed this peek into the inner workings of the Museum! We'll be back next month with another artifact. Have a great May!