Tuesday, August 24, 2010 One of the projects that we’ve just begun to address has been waiting two years. The Czech Slovak library has roughly 7500 books that were frozen post flood. They estimate that 20 % of the books are damaged beyond repair and will need to be replaced. Nancy and I went upContinue reading “Czech book project”
Author Archives: Caitlin A. Moore
Colfax flood
Thursday, August 19, 2010 A team from the University of Iowa and the State Historical Society of Iowa spent two days early this week assisting Colfax Historical Society members with evacuating collections from their flood-damaged museum. The museum was in the middle of a new building project next door to the current museum when theContinue reading “Colfax flood”
Banner Repaired
Thursday, April 15, 2010 This banner from the African American Museum was signed by Jesse Jackson. The signature and surrounding illustration were sprayed with some sort of fixative which didn’t end up being very sound. The large part of the banner was fine but the areas with the fixative were detached and curling up away fromContinue reading “Banner Repaired”
Czech Pipe
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 This carved wooden pipe from the Czech Slovak Museum was covered in mud and dust. Since it has so many small crevices it was very hard to clean. I used dampened swabs to remove the dirt. It is in three pieces and combined it took 6 hours to clean. Below isContinue reading “Czech Pipe”
Suitcase Saga Part 4: Conclusion
Thursday, December 12, 2009 After lots of fussing and fiddling the suitcase is finally done. I removed all the rust from the exterior and cleaned up the metal. The interior was trickier. I removed the paper lining and lined it with a heavy japanese paper and wheat starch paste. Underneath the paper the metal ofContinue reading “Suitcase Saga Part 4: Conclusion”
New Volunteer Elizabeth
Friday, November 20, 2009 Elizabeth Boyne has joined us in the lab as our newest volunteer. We have no shortage of projects. She started with cleaning and flattening newspapers from the Czech Slovak Museum but will most likely clean a collection of busts from the African American Museum and assist with cleaning and flattening manuscriptContinue reading “New Volunteer Elizabeth”
Where We Are Now
Monday, November 16, 2009 On October 23 we sent another round of artifacts back to the African American Museum. We also sent back the first of the manuscript boxes to be cleaned. We hope to be out of Oakdale Hall by the end of the year and it is heartening to see it empty outContinue reading “Where We Are Now”
Steve Stenstrom Workshop on Shellac Finishes
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Steve Stenstrom returned to the UI to teach us about Shellac. We learned about the properties of Shellac and the different ways to use it. Steve brought us pieces of wood to work with and we all got some experience “french polishing” which consists of a cotton pad soaked in ShellacContinue reading “Steve Stenstrom Workshop on Shellac Finishes”
Presenting to the Iowa Special Libraries Association
Monday, November 9, 2009 On Nov. 6 Beth and I gave a presentation to the Iowa Special Libraries Association in Lindquist Hall. It was one of our first experiences presenting the flood project. It was a good feeling to see how interested people are in what we have been doing. The talk was scheduled toContinue reading “Presenting to the Iowa Special Libraries Association”
Storage is as important as treatment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 The objects we have received since the flood span a wide range of materials. Since we couldn’t work on everything immediately, one of the first things we had to address was proper storage. The wooden objects were set out to dry as were the baskets and miscellaneous plastic, ceramic, glass items. The metalsContinue reading “Storage is as important as treatment”