Early 20th century scrapbook containing photographs, advertisements and announcements for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

The advertisements and announcements that appear in this scrapbook are significant and interesting because they offer a comprehensive view of how the Conservatory of Music promoted its faculty, programs and offerings from term to term, and year to year. Compiled during the period that Bertha Baur served as director of the conservatory, the scrapbook may have been collected as a working repository of the conservatory’s advertising materials. 

Condition and treatment: This is an early 20th century green cloth covered scrapbook containing photographs, advertisements and announcements for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. The scrapbook cover is unique – it is composed of a notched wooden spine that serves as the binding to hold sections of album pages between slits of wood. In the front of the binding, there are numerous embrittled photographs showing early signs of silver mirroring. Throughout the rest of the scrapbook, advertisements are pasted directly to the album pages. Some advertisements are made of poor quality paper and are heavily discolored from beige to dark brown. Overall, the album pages are dirty and are difficult to handle because the lower cover is fully detached and no longer serves as a support. The upper cover is also beginning to detach. Conservation staff will surface clean the pages to remove accumulated dirt, add interleaving to protect discolored pages, and repair the binding to reattach covers. Photographs will be treated separately and matted in photographic safe mat board.