This month’s Artifact of the Month is a mid-20th-century booklet advertising different typographical ornamentations for the holiday season (#2021.05.027). Ludlow Typograph Company of Chicago, Illinois printed this catalog full of wintry decorations intended to be used as illustrations or borders on ads and posters as shown in the photographs. Six pages are dedicated to jolly images like Christmas trees, holly, Santa Claus, and reindeer. The assortment, printed in bright red or green, could be ordered in a variety of sizes.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is a Mexican road and railway map made in 1945. The Mapa de Carreteras y Ferrocarriles (Map of Highways and Railroads) is a tall, brown folded booklet with black text on the cover that unfolds into a blue map. The cover and the map itself are in Spanish with English translations. While road and town names are printed in white, the color coding of roads was done by hand, so the brushstrokes of red, yellow, green, and white paint are visible.

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.