It’s spring in Cincinnati, which means two things – the epic weather battle between winter and summer (snow yesterday, 71 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow) and the annual Preservation Week Lab Open House! This year marks the lab’s 7th year of participation in this national event, an American Libraries Association initiative aimed at raising “awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing ongoing preservation education and information.” Our event is open to the public – come one, come all!
The Open House will include a behind the scenes tour of the lab, a peek at amazing collection items being preserved for our parent institutions – the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and the University of Cincinnati Libraries, and of course a new bookmark.
A walk down memory lane – bookmarks 2012-2017.
This year our theme highlights the versatility and artistry of the book, from a complex composite object such as a scrapbook to a simple one-page zine. We’ll also touch on the evolution of the book form, from cuneiform to artist’s book. As is our tradition, we’ll set up “stations” were visitors can roam, explore, and learn at their own pace.
We are looking forward to see you all on, Thursday, April 26th, 1:30-3:00 pm, 300 Langsam Library. And yes, there will be cookies! Holly Prochaska (UCL) —- Preservation Librarian
Our Colleague Nick Wantsala created this lovely video commemorating Preservation Week 2017. It will get prepare you for the highly anticipated 2018 celebration on April 26th!
Pick (click) a cookie above to see the video! Mmm good.
I came across these pretty Arts and Crafts period endpapers in a German multi-volume set of books about Clara Schumann belonging to UC’s Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library, and wanted to share: Veronica Sorcher (PLCH) – Conservation Technician
Check out this new article about the work of the Preservation Lab by our collaborator Melissa Norris, with assistance from Ashleigh Schieszer, Jessica Ebert, and Kevin Grace at https://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/source/preserving-taft/.
Isn’t Preservation just so cool!
Ashleigh Schieszer works on Taft’s maquette. (Photo credit Jessica Ebert)
And for our loyal followers a bonus image of the housing of the William Howard Taft letters…
Encapsulated binding by Chris Voynovich, design by Ashleigh Schieszer (photo credit Jessica Ebert)
Yesterday we did some General Collections evaluation. This is when the Conservation Technicians get together to inspect the General Collections books that have been sent to us, and determine the best way to treat them. Since these materials circulate some of them are heavily used, and sometimes we find little surprises in them. This batch had a couple of especially fun ones. I found out that someone likes their vitamin gummies:
Then Jessica came across this unusual bookmark:
And then she was looking through this book about Nikola Tesla:
Complete with this invitation (number redacted for privacy):
I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds way better than, “for a good time call…”! Veronica Sorcher (PLCH) – Conservation Technician
At the end of last year the lab purchased a modified UV-Vis-IR Nikon through MaxMax so that we can start to play around with infrared photography. Infrared photography (IR) is commonly used in fine art conservation as an examination tool. Reflected IR can be helpful when trying to identify pigments, inks, coatings, etc. and transmitted IR can helpful for viewing watermarks, underdrawings, and linings. We’ve only just started dabbling with IR photography, but I wanted to share some photos from my most recent session with reflected IR.
This is a full leather photo album from the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County’s collection. This early 1900s photo album contains hand-colored silver gelatin photographs taken by A. Nielen. The photographs appear to depict his travels through the US and Canada, and various landmarks and neighborhoods of Cincinnati are represented.
Before treatment
After treatment
This seemed like a good object for reflected IR because of the hand-coloring on the photographs and the white ink inscription below each photograph. I began by taking a representative visible light image (first image below) using our modified UV-Vis-IR camera, incandescent lighting, and the X-Nite CC1 filter on our 50mm lens. Then, being careful not to move the position of the camera or the object, I switched to the X-Nite 830 filter (830nm) and converted that image to grayscale in Photoshop (second image below). Then I took my visible light image and my reflected IR image into Photoshop to create the false-color image (third image below). The digital false-color image is a combined representation of the visible and infrared images, and it’s actually quite simple to make. You basically copy and paste the various channels for the VIS and IR image as follows, green to blue, red to green, and IR to red. The false-color image allows you to better differentiate and characterize the various materials (pigments, inks, etc.) and potentially even identify them if you have sufficient known samples to use as references.
Normal illumination
Near infrared with wavelength at roughly 830nm
False color
Like I said, we’ve only just started using IR and we’ve got a long way to go, but I’m looking forward to experimenting and learning more about it as time goes on.
As I’m sure anyone in a book & paper lab will attest, good wheat starch paste is key to most, if not all conservation treatments. And achieving that perfectly smooth and lump-free paste is often easier said than done. So when the Preservation Lab crew returned from UC’s winter seasonal days off, the first thing on the docket for our resident paste maker, Veronica Sorcher, was to make a brand new batch of wheat starch paste to start the new year off right! My purpose in documenting her through this process was two fold: first, it’s been ages since I’ve made paste myself (because Veronica almost always does it – she loves it and we love her for always making it!) and I could use a refresher, and secondly, I thought it would be interesting to show the making of (or behind-the-scenes, BTS, if you will) of something so core to the day-to-day conservation in the lab. To give those who might not understand how much attention is put into the quality of every aspect of what we do here in the lab. Plus, I thought it might be fun! I hope you enjoy…
A huge thank you to Veronica for being the paste making master she is and allowing me to film her and to Catarina for allowing me to film her while she strained and used the lovely paste that had just been made. Jessica Ebert (UCL) – Conservation Technician
As the end of the year is drawing to a close (this is our last day before UC’s winter seasonal break when the university is closed until the New Year!!) I find myself looking back at the past year in the lab and thinking of all the things we’ve accomplished, individually and as a team. I know all of us in the lab consider ourselves very fortunate, our work is fulfilling and interesting and we are continuously surrounded by a great group of dynamic and talented people. And as the student supervisor for the lab, I have to say, our students have made this year even more stellar. They’re just the best! Ask any staff member in the lab and I’m sure they’ll say the same exact thing, we are so lucky to have the group of passionate, energetic, and skilled students that we have working with us.
Each year, instead of the usual departmental pizza party for students, the lab sets aside some time to thank our students and volunteers for everything they do for us by having two days of fun activities for our students and volunteers. These “fun days” are generally around finals, when the students are reaching the end of the semester and their holiday break, and usually involve activities that tie back into bookbinding/book arts/conservation/etc. somehow. This year we enjoyed papermaking, pulp painting, explosion books/ornaments and origami boxes. Our annual “fun days” are just that…fun, not only because we get to watch the students relax and unwind and thank them for all they do, but we always get to learn more about them and connect with them even more. One of my favorite parts is seeing which students get really into which activities; sometimes it’s fascinating and unexpected, and sometimes it just makes total sense. But that moment when a student gets to relax and enjoy, after a semester of rigorous schoolwork and general collections repairs, well that’s just the cherry on top!
This year has been extra fulfilling not only because our students are amazing and it is because of them that the bulk of our general collections repairs happen, but also because those warm fuzzy feelings all our staff feel for the students…well, apparently they’re mutual. For four years now the UC Libraries has been offering an annual UCL Student Worker Scholarship, thanks to generous donations from the faculty and staff at UCL. This year, we are happy to say, a Preservation Lab student was awarded the scholarship for the second time in four years! Two years ago it was our student, DJ Davis (who recently graduated earning his MBA….go DJ!), who received the scholarship, and this year it was our student, Stefan Apostoluk! Stefan is a senior Computer Engineering major who is also working his MBA through the ACCEND program. I am beyond proud of Stefan!
We actually had two students apply for the scholarship this year, Stefan and our DAAP fine arts student, Alex Phillips. This isn’t surprising, because in my eyes, all of our students are award worthy. In fact, our binding student and business major, Drew Eaton, was awarded the Student Quality Service Award in April of this year! So, our students have been killing it this year; again, that’s no surprise to the staff down here. They crush it on a daily basis in the lab, but it’s great that they are getting some public attention for it. What has been immensely fulfilling in writing the scholarship recommendation letters for Alex and Stefan was getting to read their essays on how working in the libraries has inspired them. They’ve both given me permission to share their sweet words about the lab and our team…
Alex wrote:
“Working for the University’s Preservation Lab has been a dream-come-true. Ever since I learned that such a job existed, I wanted to be involved…There is a sense of satisfaction with each book that passes through my hands in need of care, and my work feels purposeful. Not only do I enjoy my work, but my co-workers and mentors have been a great model of what a productive and positive work environment can be. It is a relief to work in a space where there aren’t constant negative and harmful conversations such as gossip. The Lab has proven that a positive work environment is not a myth, and I am so grateful.”
Stefan wrote:
“Working at UC Libraries has inspired me to find a job where I fit in and matter. I have the great pleasure of working in the Preservation Lab at Langsam, a place that I’ve come to love dearly in my four years there as a student worker. While the lab is small and has a full-time staff of less than 10, my coworkers are all heartfelt, funny, and interesting people. They are truly what makes my job so special and enjoyable. A few hours at the lab can be enough to turn a miserable day into a good one. Even though doing spine repairs on books and making enclosures is a far cry from software development and project management, I’ve learned some very important things working at UC Libraries. The lab has taught me about the importance of work culture, of loving where you work, and of loving who you work with. Wherever I end up working in the next year after I graduate from UC, I know it’ll need to be some place I love.”
It doesn’t get much better than that, right? If that doesn’t make you feel like you are doing something right and are one of the lucky ones, I don’t know what would. And darn it, if it doesn’t make me appreciate those students, volunteers, and staff that I get to call team members even more! A big thank you to our entire team, for all the amazing work you have done this year and for your enthusiasm, personality, and dedication! OUR TEAM: Students –
Here are some more pictures from the papermaking portion of our student/volunteer appreciation days…
You can also watch a brief video on the beating process of papermaking on our UCL MediaSpace channel, here.
Happy Holidays from the Preservation Lab! Jessica Ebert (UCL) – Conservation Technician [and the very fortunate student supervisor]
Anthro is a prefix meaning human, podermic is a suffix referring to skin, and bibliopegy is the art of binding books. The practice of binding books in human skin began in the 18th century for reasons foreign to our American culture, contemporary to today.
Before the digital age, family members found unique ways to honor and remember their loved ones. Beyond painted portraits, women commonly saved lockets of hair and integrated braided strands into unique and personalized jewelry. In the early days of photography, family portraits were an expensive and rare endeavor for most families. As a result, post mortem photography became common practice during the Victorian era. It’s possible that a post mortem photograph may be the only image a family would ever own of that person!
Likewise, not all anthropodermic books stem from a gory past such as tales told of procuring human corpses for the sake of science. Surprisingly, there are a handful of libraries around the country that claim to have a book or two within their collections with a direct connection to a historic figure, that are bound in honor of that person.
In 2016, the lab was asked to sample the leather of not one, but two bindings for a national survey confirming the existence of these anthropodermic curiosities.
As part of the Anthropodermic Book Project, two Cincinnati books were sampled, one owned by the University of Cincinnati and another owned by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Both were identified as bound in human skin.
Interestingly, both bindings contain 18th century works by Phillis Wheatley – one of the earliest African American writers, titled Poems on various subjects, religious and moral.
Frontispiece and title page of the ARB binding is identical to the CHPL copy.
Both books appear to be bound by the same binder showing similar gold tooling along the spine, but with one major difference. The UC binding is a half leather binding, covered in parchment boards while the PLCH boards are covered in full leather. The source of the human skin – we do not know.
Public library copy on the left is covered in full human leather. The UC copy on the right is covered in half human leather with sheep parchment covered boards. Both contain the title tooled in gold on the spine.
Provenance of Cincinnati Bindings
Documentation of the CHPL copy shows the Phillis Wheatley poems were presented to the Director of the Public Library in 1958, Ernest Miller, by the General Manager of Acres of Books, Bert Smith. Smith refers to, “two copies” of this title which he was able to obtain (the other copy owned by UCL). These were once owned by the Charles F. Heartman Collection as evidenced by the CHPL bookplate. At the bottom of the correspondence to the public library Director, Smith notes that the particular copy is “referred to in paragraph three, page seventy eight, of Walter Hart Blumenthal’s Bookman’s Bedlam…”, where he infers these books may have been bound by Zaehnsdorf bindery in London.
Documentation stored with the CHPL binding
Scientific Test Results
In 2016, samples taken from the books by the lab conservator were sent to scientists to confirm the source of the covering materials. Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF) analysis concluded that there were three species involved with the bindings: human, cattle, and sheep. All leather showed positive results for human, the parchment for sheep, and traces of cattle were most likely present as an adhesive.
Closing Thoughts
Books such as these remind us that in the 18th and 19th century, the human experience of death was much different than we experience today. While today we tend to think of death from a more sterile and distant vantage point, the experience was much more personal in the past. Books bound in human skin would not necessarily have had held the same macabre connotations as they do today.
I especially like how Chris Harter from the Archives and Rare Books department frames the subject, “As uncomfortable as they make us feel, we can’t undo what has been done to create such books, but our main goal should be to be good stewards of the books and their histories.”
Check out the book titled,Dark Archives, by Megan Rosenbloom who writes about the histories of many sampled books and thoroughly writes about Cincinnati bindings in the chapter titled, The Long Shadow of the Night Doctors.
William Howard Taft’s family has strong historical connections to both the city of Cincinnati, and the University. Taft served Cincinnati both as a federal circuit judge and as Dean of the Cincinnati College (the forerunner of The University of Cincinnati). In honor of Taft’s contributions merging the UC law department with Cincinnati College in 1896, a statue was erected in front of the Law building in 1992.
And now, for Halloween, William has made it across campus to the Preservation Lab. And this surprise has taken a gruesome turn. A maquette of Will’s head from the Archives and Rare Books Library collection is aging poorly and in need of treatment and preservation storage. In preparation for bronze casting, Will’s head was sculpted by an artist out of a moldable putty and mounted to a metal rod. It is where the two materials meet that the preservation horrors arise!
A reddish-orange, oily slime is oozing from the interior of the putty down to where the rod stand is secured into a wooden base.
Preliminary research indicates the head is sculpted from a material commonly referred to as plastiline, Apoxie or Milliput. Recipes of putties such as these are vast, but generally contain a filler, a wax, and an oily component such as castor oil or petroleum jelly. Fillers might include clay, starch, talcum or even sulfur depending on the proprietary or homemade concoction. By the 1990’s the negative effects of using sulfur would have been known, so it’s possible that the putty is sulfur-free; however, the possibility should not be discounted. According to plastiline research by Gerhard Eggert, located on the Museum of Fine Arts CAMEO website, putties containing sulfur were preferred by artists for their superior sculpting properties. Another likely alternative is that the putty is suffering from its own inherent vice. In other words, the weeping could be due to the putty’s unstable chemical composition that is leading to its own demise… not to mention off-gassing that might be corroding the metal below!
While the specific type of metal that the head is mounted on is currently a mystery, we do know it is ferrous. Using a magnet, I discovered the metal rod contains a magnetic pull, indicating it is at least partially comprised of iron.
Despite this research, there is one pressing questions left to answer: Is the weeping due to an inherent vice of the putty alone… or is oozing liquid created by a unique chemical reaction resulting from contact between the putty and the metal rod?
The answer to this question will help us to determine whether a barrier between the two materials might help prevent weeping in the future.
In order create a more informed treatment proposal, more research and analytical testing will need to be conducted in order to better understand what is leading to this mysterious preservation horror. Since this project ranges out of scope for the Preservation Lab, the expertise of an Objects Conservator will be sought!
Happy Halloween!
This year marks the lab’s 7th year of participation in this national event, an American Libraries Association initiative aimed at raising “awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing ongoing preservation education and information.” Our event is open to the public – come one, come all!
