Monday, August 3, 2009 Ongoing efforts to clean and flatten flood-affected archives manuscripts from the African American Museum of Iowa have turned up yet another form of adherograph deterioration. (See June 30, 2009 entry) As seen in the example to the left, the powder medium that holds the adherograph text image has irreversibly adhered to theContinue reading “Adherograph Reformatting Continues”
Author Archives: Bryan Stusse
Adherography
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 While processing manuscript archive documents from the African American Museum of Iowa we fortuned upon an old, mysterious and extremely problematic form of document duplication. What we believe we have, perhaps hundreds of, are adherography documents. A definition, found in “Guide to the identification of prints and photographs : featuring aContinue reading “Adherography”
Inventorying Flood-Affected Collections
Friday, June 26, 2009 As conservation work moves along for flood-affected artifacts from the African American Museum of Iowa, we momentarily shifted away from treatment of metals to pick up our inventory of small objects comprised of a variety of media. Two primary functions of the inventory are to verify the holdings under our care againstContinue reading “Inventorying Flood-Affected Collections”
Parchment Maker Jesse Meyer visits Conservation Lab
On June 2nd, Jesse Meyer, the only maker of parchment in North America, came to the Conservation lab of University of Iowa Main Library to show his leathers and vellum parchments. Jesse Meyer is the youngest member of a family that has been tanning leather for over 450 years in Germany and the United StatesContinue reading “Parchment Maker Jesse Meyer visits Conservation Lab”
UI Preservation Librarian Keynote Speaker
University of Iowa Libraries Head of Preservation, Nancy E. Kraft, will be delivering the keynote address at the 10th annual Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium S.O.S. Save Our Stuff! preservation seminars. Kraft will discuss Connecting to Collections, a national preservation initiative and Iowa’s role in this effort. Conference topics include identification of 19th century photo processes andContinue reading “UI Preservation Librarian Keynote Speaker”
Gary Frost to direct library conservation project in Peru
A University of Iowa Libraries preservation team will assist conservation of historical libraries of Arequipa, Peru. Arequipa is in the southern region of Peru near the border with Chile. With a population of one million it is the second largest city. The city is 40 miles from the coast and surrounded by volcanoes and expansiveContinue reading “Gary Frost to direct library conservation project in Peru”
Freezer preservation: Donated appliance helps UI save water-damaged goods [The Gazette]
Freezer preservation Donated appliance helps UI save water-damaged goods By Suzanne Barnes The Gazette IOWA CITY — When you reach into your grocer’s freezer for a bag of broccoli, you’re performing the same action UI Libraries Conservator Gary Frost does at the University of Iowa Libraries. The only difference is you are taking out andContinue reading “Freezer preservation: Donated appliance helps UI save water-damaged goods [The Gazette]”
UI Libraries Brings Historic Dental College Photos To Life
In 1883, with its first class, the College of Dentistry at the University of Iowa began a tradition of mounting individual portraits of graduates on photo boards. Over time, these boards made their home in the basement of the college’s modern building, where they were silently deteriorating until last year. Today, these images — partContinue reading “UI Libraries Brings Historic Dental College Photos To Life”
Mascagni Prints Project completed at Hardin Library
August 18, 2006 What is probably the most spectacular book in The University of Iowa Libraries is the exceedingly rare elephant-sized folio of hand-colored anatomical plates known as the Anatomia universa of Paolo Mascagni, an eighteenth-century Italian physician and teacher. So rare is this work that it is little known even to specialists, though itContinue reading “Mascagni Prints Project completed at Hardin Library”
Preservation Department Receives Book Freeze Dryer
On May 26 the department received a book freeze dryer from the University of Texas at Austin Library School Conservation/Preservation Program for just the price of shipping. Purchased new it would cost at least $30,000. It is expected to be a valuable addition to the department.