As with many of the books that come into our lab, the Baby Bird-Finder (1904-1906), a two-volume illustrated bird guide, was intended to be used. And used these volumes were, more »
Tag: The Fix
The Smithsonian Libraries would like to welcome Daniel Viltsek as the newest book conservator in the Preservation Department. Daniel has been hired to perform conservation treatments for items included in more »
This post was written by Preservation intern Sarah Maj K. Siewartz Nielsen. Sarah Maj recently graduated with a BA in Graphic Conservation from The Royal Danish Academy’s School of Conservation more »
Within the Smithsonian Libraries’ circulating collections, there are a variety of adhesive bound paperback books in need of rehabilitation. As the text blocks of these items are frequently built of more »
In March of 2018 Smithsonian Libraries conservator Katie Wagner, Ashley Jehle, objects conservator for the National Museum of African Art, and Preston Huff of the National Archives and Records Administration more »
Keala Richard arrived In November at the Smithsonian Libraries Preservation Department as its newest member. She applied for the position of Conservation Technician assigned to work on the Libraries’ general more »
In the Book Conservation Lab we sometimes treat books requiring intricate repairs. In November, Kaigara Danmen Zuan printed in Kyoto in 1913 and authored by Yoichiro Hirase came to us for repair work. It was recently adopted through an Adopt-a-Book event hosted at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The book itself is from that museum’s library.
Hirase was a prominent malacologist (mollusk scientist) in Japan who collected over 3,500 seashells, 1,000 of which were new discoveries at the time. The idea for this book came from his experimentation with cutting shells at different angles producing cross sections that, when inked, produced interesting stamps.