Skip to content
Skip to main content

inventory fun

Thursday, September 24, 2009 Keeping order in the aftermath of a disaster is not easy to do. When the flood hit Cedar Rapids in 2008 there was very little time to get everything out of the museums and things that weren’t rescued until after they had sustained flood damage were at times so unrecognizable itContinue reading “inventory fun”

JCHS return!!

Thursday, September 17, 2009 Finally sending some ledgers home!! Leigh Ann Randak came to the Conservation Lab today to pick up 42 finished ledgers and the completed collection of re-boxed court dockets!! This means we are nearly half way through the ledger project and that we’re making progress! Many of these projects are so longContinue reading “JCHS return!!”

Blue Boxes

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 One of our volunteers has taken on the project of building custom boxes for objects to be returned to the African American Museum in November. Beth has been teaching Kallie Holt how to make boxes from the sturdy blue corrugated board we use routinely in the conservation lab.  In addition to making themContinue reading “Blue Boxes”

Yet another workflow…

Sunday, July 19, 2009 This weekend I’ve started working with the Johnson County Historical Society book collection. So far they have required some dry cleaning, mending and flattening. I’ve been using the vacuum packer to flatten them which has been very effective and is really fun to watch. The damage is similar to that ofContinue reading “Yet another workflow…”

Adventures with the warp eliminating vacuum…not Star Trek

Thursday, July 16, 2009   We have been experimenting with a fancy new vacuum packer, generally used for food preservation. We are using it to flatten books and other paper items. It would be inefficient for batch work because of all the material that needs to be cut to size but for especially warped booksContinue reading “Adventures with the warp eliminating vacuum…not Star Trek”

Return to Sender: Reattaching Stamps

Monday, July 13, 2009 Many of the files from the African American Museum contain various forms of correspondence. There are many postcards and letters with their original stamps. When these already fragile envelopes were faced with the flood, the stamps detached to end in a pile at the bottom of the file folder. The second project IContinue reading “Return to Sender: Reattaching Stamps”

Volunteer Kallie Making a Difference

Friday, July 10, 2009 We have a new  volunteer! Kallie Holt, a Junior at the University of Iowa has volunteered to work 8 hours a week here in the Conservation Lab. The first project I gave her was the cleaning of a collection of small miscellaneous items from the African American Museum. These objects rangeContinue reading “Volunteer Kallie Making a Difference”

Material Instability and Other Woes

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 We have encountered every problem in the book (no pun intended) while treating these ledgers for the Johnson County Historical Society. These two pictures of the same ledger are good examples. The structure of the book was sound. It needed a little bit of cosmetic repair and hinge repair. The insideContinue reading “Material Instability and Other Woes”

Repairing Ledgers One at a Time

Monday, July 6, 2009 There are several different types of ledgers from the Johnson County Historical Society. This ledger was completely detached from the covers, but the case was intact. The spine and corner pieces were in good shape but the cover cloth was warped and bunched. I began with the text block. I tippedContinue reading “Repairing Ledgers One at a Time”

Peeling The Smells Away

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 This ledger from the Johnson County Historical Society was in bad shape. The boards were warped, the spine piece had come detached, and the covers were almost completely off but for one small area. The covers were so far gone I decided to replace them altogether. I kept the cloth fromContinue reading “Peeling The Smells Away”