A treatment we commonly perform in the Conservation Lab is re-backing. A weak point in many case bound books is the gutter. When it fails the spine typically deteriorates and falls off the back of the book. A re-backing replaces the original spine and enables the book to be used again without sustaining further damage.
Category: The Fix (Preservation)
The Book Conservation Lab periodically receives artist’s books from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library with special housing needs.
The Conservation Lab was excited to receive another Adopt-a-Book recently. The volume was Ostéographie ou description iconographique comparée du squelette et du système dentaire des mammifères récents et fossiles(1839–64) by the French Anatomist and Biologist, Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville.
Sometimes the treatment performed on an item is minimal but the item being treated is fascinating! This was the case with this recently acquired letter from State Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt to the prominent ornithologist Elliott Coues. The letter, dated April 21, 1882, outlines Roosevelt’s interest in shrews and his desire to donate his collection of shrew skins to the Smithsonian.
The Book Conservation Lab received a rush request to repair
a two volume set of “Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio.” The set is to be displayed at a May 9th event with author Joy Kiser discussing her book “America’s Other Audubon,” chronicling the publication of this work.
April 22nd – 28th is Preservation Week! In honor of the event, we will be hosting our first ever Tweet Up at the Book Conservation Lab on Thursday, April 26th. Follow along on Twitter with #SILTweetup. In the meantime, enjoy this post by Katie Wagner, our book conservator.
An interesting book with an intriguing provenance arrived in the conservation lab this month from The Dibner Libray of the History of Science and Technology. “Lectiones Cutlerianae”, a book created more »