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”
Category Archives: Materials, equipment and procedures
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”
Stuck Pages
Thursday, June 18, 2009 This week when Susan Hansen and I reviewed the work for the Art Library, she pointed out a book that had a block of pages stuck together. It felt like a brick. We were convinced that the book was beyond repair. However, before declaring the book a loss, we forwarded theContinue reading “Stuck Pages”
A Pressing Job
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 One of our biggest workstreams at the moment is the rescue of the files from the African American Museum. We have over one hundred boxes of manuscripts which unlike the working files, which can just be photocopied, need to be saved. They are mainly records and correspondence, there are some photographsContinue reading “A Pressing Job”
Record Cleaning
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Caitlin and I discussed the timeline for returning the LPs and 45s to the Czech Museum yesterday, and we decided to start forging ahead with the final wash of the albums. We are using the same method we used right after the flood, when there was still a ton of mudContinue reading “Record Cleaning”
A Typical Day of Flood Recovery Work
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 I checked in with the conservation lab staff this morning. I happened to have my camera with me and thought you might like to have a snapshot of a typical day. This is the activity I captured at 10AM this morning. While the ledger from the Johnson County Historical Society driesContinue reading “A Typical Day of Flood Recovery Work”
Figuring Out Our New Water System
Wednesday, May 21, 2009 One of our big concerns is to make sure that everyone knows how to shut the system down in case there is a leak. A leak is a sure thing when a new system is installed — at least in my opinion it is. It always takes a while to shakeContinue reading “Figuring Out Our New Water System”
Water System Installation Begins
Thursday, May 15, 2009 The installation of the water system is very complex. It includes a water softener, carbon filter, storage and exchange tanks, a UV light to continually disinfect the constantly circulating water, water purification system, de-ionizer and water heater. The actual installation is being coordinated between the university water engineer and our facilitiesContinue reading “Water System Installation Begins”
Suitcase Saga Part 3
Friday, May 15, 2009 For the exposed metal I started with a medium grain steel wool to loosen the more rusted areas. I continued to vacuum the loose particles. The next step will be using a double beveled knife to try to remove some of the more stubborn areas of active corrosion. When the metalContinue reading “Suitcase Saga Part 3”