We were delighted to have Dr. Cathleen Baker come to UC for 4 days to teach us all about paper, paper making and printing in a collaborative programming and outreach workshop entitled Identification of Western Hand- & Machine-Made Paper, 1750-1900. The workshop included Preservation Lab staff, staff from UC Libraries Archives and Rare Books Library and the Content Services department, and Kathy Lechuga from Signature Conservation.
With Cathy’s teaching and guidance, we soon discovered some of the key characteristics is in handmade paper and how the introduction of machine-made paper just made everything more complicated. Oof, that dandy roller… But it was so exciting to make discoveries in the paper and learn new tips for paper identification. This will be particularly helpful for Preservation Lab staff when we do our examination of items for treatment proposals.
We are all beyond grateful to Cathy for sharing her immense knowledge and expertise with us. We all learned so much about handmade and machine-made paper and printing. Here’s just a taste of the workshop and us examining special collections items from the ARB Library and the Science Library collections:
We also took a field trip to the Cincinnati Type & Print Museum to get a paper understanding of printing. It was a fantastic experience! A big thank you to Gary and his staff for a wonderful time printing and a great tour.
It’s been a busy year in the Lab, and frankly we kind of lost track of our usual Halloween festivities this year. So in lieu of something big, new and grand, I thought I’d share some of the fantastic content we’ve created in years past.
Our Halloween Instagram festivities truly began in 2021 when we hosted five days of Preservation Horrors, complete with a skull rating system and everything!
In 2022 we had another multi-day event called the Haunting of the Preservation Lab where we highlighted tools, equipment and materials that appear in horror movies, but that we also use daily in the Lab. Followed by a fun “actual” haunting of the Lab!
Don’t forget to check out the Haunted Stairwell, a ghost story from our much loved colleague Mike Braunlin at the Classics Library.
Then last year we created Halloween Costumes: Conservation Edition, which included last minute costume ideas featuring things you could find around a conservation lab.
Fun fact, we still have the Vigo painting in out back supply room and occasionally it will scare non-team members or new students and we get a chuckle out of it!
I recently created a cloth covered clamshell enclosure for this small leather volume from the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library. The volume has eight full color miniatures which received surrogate photography. The surrogates were printed to roughly 5×7 inches, making them substantially larger than the text, so an insert was created within the cloth clamshell to house the smaller volume.
Interior tray of the cloth clamshell enclosure with the surrogates placed on top of the small leather volume housed within the custom insert.To build up the enclosure to the size of the surrogates, an insert was created using archival corrugated board covered in Cotlin bookcloth. I lined the portion of the insert where the volume would rest with thin Ethafoam sheeting, so the fragile leather edges wouldn’t be abraded.To aid in lifting the volume from the enclosure I created a partial polyester wrapper of sorts. Part jacket, part sling. A faux jacket-sling hybrid, if you will?A closer look at the polyester creation, with rounded corners.
Overall, I think it’s a quick and easy solution that could be beneficial in future situations where a simple modification of an existing enclosure is needed, but space within the enclosure is at a premium.
This past Friday two of our Conservation Student Assistants received their bachelor’s degrees from UC! Congratulations Linh (Psychology) and Kristopher (Art History)!! We are so proud of both of you!
They both started in the Preservation Lab in January of 2022 and it has been so exciting to see them grow as students, members of our team and people over that time period!
On Friday I was tickled when Linh, who is leaving UC for grad school in Illinois to pursue a future as a therapist, reached out to me asking to come down to the Lab for a picture. I immediately let Kristopher know, suspecting that he might want to join in. Kristopher will be continuing on with us in the Lab, continuing his education at UC’s law school.
Linh and Kristopher then asked if I could snap some photos of them around the Lab…a request I could not turn down.
Moments like these are the true reminders of why being a student supervisor is so rewarding. To see students graduating, on the precipice of something new and big, and looking back at their time in the Lab with such fondness is really special and powerful. Congratulations to two amazing students! We wish you a smooth journey ahead through graduate school!
An alternate title to this blog could be, “That time we X-rayed medieval choir book at the UC Medical Center, and then the pandemic happened I forgot to write a blog post about it”. Oops!
Let’s rewind the story back to mid-2019, when our Associate Conservator, Ashleigh, expressed interest in radiography on a beautiful, oversized choir book from the Classics Library. I, at the time, was the Photographic Documentation Specialist and had never carried out or assisted with any radiography projects, so I was very keen to start reaching out to anyone I could think of on West and East campus who might have access to such equipment. The most logical answer, UC Health, proved to be the winning one when finally the Director of Diagnostic Radiology put me in contact with the Enterprise Director of Imaging, who said yes to my request, and ultimately put me in contact with my main contact for the project, the Radiology Manager at UC Medical Center.
The date was set, October 22, 2019. Ashleigh, Holly and I packed up the heavy, choir book and carefully transported it from West campus to East campus to be imaged. The UC Health staff were beyond friendly, and I think they got a kick out of imaging the oversized leather volume. The technician really worked with us to adjust the intensity of the radiography depending on what we were trying to capture, whether it was the cover, the sewing and the supports, or the illuminated text (which was a little harder to capture with their equipment).
Aligning the bookViewing the first imagesPositioning the coverThe technician position the equipment for the optimal scanAttempting to image the illuminated textRepositioning the volumeImaging the spineRepositioning the volume to image spine
Overall, we discovered…a lot of nails, split thong supports, and on the lower board, four mends to the wooden board that appear to be bracing a split in the wood that is running vertically.
Detail of lower board with cover openDetail of lower board with cover open
The larger red arrows indicate metal braces while the smaller red arrows indicate the crack in the wooden board.
Image of the spine which allows you to see the split thong supports and you can even see the tattle-tape security strip!
Then following the radiography session, they were kind enough to ask if we would also like to place the volume in the CT scanner. Since the scanner could easily and safely accommodate the volume while keeping it wrapped in foam, we jumped at the chance!
We received all the imaging files on two CDs from UC Health, and then I went about making heads and tails of it. The radiography images were fairly straightforward. For the most impactful imaging, namely of the spine, upper and lower boards, I created composite images using the panorama feature in Photoshop to merge the images. For example, each cover consisted of four separate images.
With the CT imaging, the CD came with a reviewer software (Sorna) to view the files. Frankly, the CT scans were a little bit harder to comprehend, but nonetheless interesting. Ultimately the CT scanner allows you to view the various materials within the object. Whereas normally for the equipment that was used that would mean bones, organs and tissues, for the choir book that meant metal material like brass, leather, ink and pigment. Within the viewer function there was also an interactive component to the CT data as well, which allowed you to manipulate various levels to see various intensities, but even after a lot of trail and error and experimentation I found it very confusing, though I did get some interesting, and some less impactful, results. Let’s just say, I do not have a future as a CT technician! I’ll stick to my day job.
This set of Japanese side-sewn, crepe paper bindings, or Chirimen-bon, came to the Preservation Lab housed in their damaged traditional Japanese wraparound case, known as a maru chitsu. The set belongs to the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, which has an extensive Lafcadio Hearn collection. This collection of volumes was printed by Hasegawa Takejirō, a Japanese publisher who specialized in books written in European languages on Japanese subjects. The Japanese Fairy Tale Series was one of the more popular series, beginning with six volumes in 1885; though this later collection only has five volumes of fairy tales. Lacadio Hearn was one of the foreign translators employed by T. Hasegawa.
Original enclosureFive volumes withing the original enclosure (pictured after treatment)
Due to the high profile nature of Lafcadio Hearn for the library and the beauty of the bindings, the collection is often shown during tours and used for display, however, the crepe paper volumes, while in excellent condition, are extremely floppy, and they are also side-sewn, both factors make them difficult to handle and display. The original enclosure is also very fragile and damaged, and susceptible to further damage if used as an enclosure moving forward. For all these reasons, the curators wanted an enclosure that would not only store the collection long-term, but could also be used for display.
This proved to be a challenge, but a fun one. I started by making a couple of sketches and then a couple of models…
Models – two types of collapsible cradles and one model of the display tray/stand
For the models, I had two main focuses: 1) a collapsible cradle that would house and display one of the volumes, and 2) a display component that would act as a tray or level within the enclosure and house the remaining four volumes, in two stacks of two, side by side.
I will always advocate for making a model if you are trying to work through a new enclosure or adjust an existing enclosure or display piece, like a cradle. For example, I knew that a normal collapsible cradle wasn’t going to fit the bill for these volumes. Instead, I was going to need a stiff, squared off spine piece built into the cradle to help support the bindings’ spines.
One of the main areas I had to troubleshoot was the display tray, which would house the four remaining volumes. I knew I wanted to create a stand that would basically replicate one side of a collapsible cradle and have a 1/2 inch Plastazote foam insert, which happened to nestle the thickness of two volumes perfectly, that was covered in Tyvek. But I had concerns about gravity and reliability of PVA to hold the foam insert in place overtime. And I wasn’t happy with my initial ideas of how to remove the volumes (and also the original enclosure and collapsible cradle) from the insert(s), which consisted of a tab underneath the volume. It created friction that would ultimately cause damage to the actual volumes.
Ultimately, I am extremely happy with what I came up with. I think it functions very well, and checks all the boxes it needed to check. Safe, secure storage. Elegant display. User-friendly.
Display stand openDisplay stand closed. A lip was added to support the foam insert overtimeDisplay stand closed with one set of volumes removedPolyester slings were created as a solution for removing items safely and easily from the enclosure
The display stand includes a cloth tape inserted into the boards to keep it from opening too far, a foam insert covered in Tyvek, a lip to support the foam insert overtime, and two polyester film slings to aid in removing the volumes from the foam insert. The polyester slings proved to be an excellent solution for removing all the elements from the enclosure safely and easily.
For those interested in how some of the components were constructed, here are some in-progress images…
Detail of the turn-in for the display stand lip; cut similarly to how we cut our clamshell enclosure tray turn-insDetail of the turn-in for the display stand lip; cut similarly to how we cut our clamshell enclosure tray turn-insFoam insert, vertical panels covered in Tyvek firstTyvek sheet cut in preparation for attaching to foamTyvek sheet cut in preparation for attaching to foamTyvek attached to the front of the foam pieceTyvek turn-ins cut
Because of the way the trays/components of the enclosure are constructed, they are actually interchangeable. So if the “lower tray” with the original enclosure and collapsible cradle ends up on top of the display tray/stand, that’s not an issue at all. And there is a 1/4 inch Volara foam piece adhered to the outer tray of the clamshell enclosure, so whatever items are on top will be cushioned by soft foam in the enclosure.
Get a full tour of the enclosure by watching our reel on Instagram:
With Halloween creeping up, it’s either a chance for you to unleash your spooky side or to totally panic and obsess over costumes until the last second. Ghost? Meh. Mummy? Boring. Werewolf? Too hairy. But if you work in a conservation lab, fear not. We have you covered!
This year, we’ve scoured the lab to create costumes that mix chilling creativity with eccentric conservation tools! Each costume has a difficulty rating, so you’ll know if it takes professional skill or just a wildly spooky imagination.
So, grab some supplies, get haunting, and remember: Conservation may be reversible, but goofy Halloween memories are forever!
Edward Scissorhands Difficulty level – Easy Materials and tools needed:
Scissors, tons of scissors
Black clothing
Strong hands (those old scissors may refuse to work properly)
Note –Not recommended for the long-haired among us…so remember, safety first! Keep a safe distance, and beware of those “accidental” snips, unless your colleagues think that you desperately need “just a little trim off the top”.
Crime Scene Tech Difficulty level – Medium Materials and tools needed:
Masking tape
Caution tape
Gloves
Lab coat
Tweezers
Scalpel
Thread (to mimic hair samples)
Binder’s board to create a body/chalk outline (create a tri-fold for easy travel)
Golden gloss/matte media (or anything that fluoresces) to create “blood” splatters
Polyethylene bags (to collect evidence)
UV lamp
Protective UV goggles
Fluorescent scale (optional)
Camera (optional)
Tripod (optional)
A strong stomach, not for the faint of heart
Note – For the body outline, just kindly convince a colleague to lie on the binder’s board. Nothing says “team building” like creating a fake crime scene!
The following costumes can be done as a group effort or a solo act – dealer’s choice!
Vigo the Carpathian (Painting) Difficulty level – Hard Materials and tools needed:
Print out of Vigo the Carpathian – our Lab recently switched to a 17″ wide Epson printer, so we are unable to print large scale items, so Jessica skillfully created the painting with two printouts pieced together.
Corrugated board
Cloth tapes (to create handles on the back of the painting)
Gold spray paint
Double-sided tape
Black/dark clothing
Strong arms and captivating eyes
Note – For that eerie stare DON’T FORGET to remove the eyes from the print out…the creepier, the better!
Happy haunting to you all! May the ghost tyrant and sorcerer Vigo (also known as Prince Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf, Scourge of Carpathia, Sorrow of Moldavia, Vigo the Carpathian, Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Despised, Vigo the Unholy1) protect you in all your spooky endeavors!
For the past six months, Jessica and Catarina have been working with the DAAP Library on housing their Teaching art collection, including prior acquisition and newly acquired items. This collection consists of different art prints on paper, print plates and manuscript parchment leaves in need of long-term housing. In addition to housing, this collection is used for teaching in a classroom setting and for exhibition.
Most of the collection only requires simple matting systems, but some require more intricate matting systems such as the copper plate along with its print, a project mentioned in a previous blog post entitled How many magnets is too many magnets!?.
As some of the items of this collection were being prepared to go on exhibit, we had the opportunity to create mounts for other items, such as two parchment scrolls that were included in the exhibit. This was a fun project to work on, as it required us to create a support that would secure both scrolls, while providing an elegant solution for display.
To start, Jessica created a very rough small model with mat board, polyethylene strapping, and paper (as we always do with anything new in the lab, we do love model making!!). The model provided us the visual example that we needed to create the mount for the two scrolls.
Small rough model created by JessicaSmall rough model created by Jessica
With the model in mind, we were able to engineer a good system that would provide support for the scrolls and could be used for display. The scrolls were supported with foam rolls on the inside for the rolled ends, and secured with polyethylene strapping that only touched the foam. The sections of the scrolls that were going to be displayed were also secured with polyethylene strapping that wrapped around the mat board support through slits in the board. At the bottom, the mat board extended outwards creating a small shelf to support the end of the scroll.
Scrolls mounted and ready for exhibition.Scrolls mounted and ready for exhibition.
A small “shelf” of mat board supports the bottom of the scrolls.
Catarina adjusting the strapping on the mount.
A small “shelf” of mat board supports the bottom of the scrolls.
A small “shelf” of mat board supports the bottom of the scrolls.
The foam rolls support the inside of the scrolls and are secured with polyethylene strapping.
Jessica securing the foam roll that supports the scroll.
As a result of all the mounting and matting we did for the Teaching Art collection and for the scrolls, each item is currently on display at the DAAP Library entrance case:
Current display at the DAAP Library featuring the Teaching Art Collection.A close-up of the scroll mounted on exhibition.
If you are interested in learning more about our preservation considerations for exhibition of this collection, Catarina and Jessica will be giving a short gallery talk on Tuesday, December 5th at 1pm, at the DAAP Library entrance on the 5th floor.
Every year the Preservation Lab celebrates Halloween with some fun, spooky and scary content, and this year is no different. However, this year we decided to reach out to our UC Libraries colleagues to hear about their encounters with the unknown, with the paranormal, and share with us any of those stories.
We received a few submissions that were downright spooky, creepy, and just unexplainable. So prepare yourself! Go ahead and settle in, grab yourself a hot chocolate, and cozy blanket and enjoy!! Hopefully you can sleep after this..
General spooky remarks from Mike Braunlin (Classics Library)
“Ghosts – Local lore is that the Blegen building [which is presently home to the Classics, CCM and ARB libraries] has some of them. In the Archives and Rare Books Department on the 8th floor, an apparition has been seen over the years. I read once that the Classics Department had its offices in that space years ago, and that the entity might be one of the professors of that time. I can add nothing to this story, but for years I became very uneasy whenever I had to visit our rare books in ARB and I am not usually bothered by such things. In later years, what used to invariably scare me when I retrieved a rare book was the life size photographic image of former UC president Nancy Zimpher that was placed in ARB’s stacks. They never moved it (something I would have done regularly), so I knew exactly where I would walk past it; but every time I did, it terrified me anew. But the image is now gone, and as I am also entering an age where I may soon number ghosts as my companions, I no longer fear those stacks. ”
The Ghost of Blegen Library by Kevin Miller
Published in Folkstream – volume 3, issue 3, December 1980 [courtesy of Mike Braunlin]
Cincinnati is a city steeped in tradition and folklore. Drawing upon a population of Eastern settlers, European immigrants, and Appalachian migrants, the Queen City has a varied heritage of tales and legends. Some of these, murder legends and ghost stories, have been around for the life of the city. But folklore is always being created and at least one ghost story is recent in origin: the ghost of Blegen Library.
Located at the south end of the University of Cincinnati campus, the Blegen Library is a large, rectangular structure built in 1930. Formerly known as the Main Library and then as the Old Library, the building was rededicated last year in honor of Carl Blegen, an early Classics professor at UC In the cavernous foyer, sculptures and bronze panels depict the heritage of learning while the chandeliers exhibit proverbs in bronze silhouettes, proverbs in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Hebrew, Chinese, Latin, and Japanese which extol the virtues of education. Printers marks, the trademarks of famous publishers in the history of the printed word, decorate the high walls and stairwells. Blegen Library has a scholarly demeanor, but is at the same time a stuffy, forbidding place.
I remember my years as a graduate student at UC, trying to negotiate the confusing stairwells, the maze of book stacks and small rooms. Some of the book stacks were located ‘underground and in the summertime, the dankness and humidity would assault me like a warm sponge. I often expected to come upon one of those career graduate students which infest every library, hiding in his carrell, his hair turned white and eyes pink from years of little sunlight, turning to me with a small, tubercular cough.
Image provided by Mike Braunlin
Atop the library is the Rare Book Room, a secluded area set off from offices, classrooms, and reading rooms. It is a dark room kept at a constant cool temperature and even humidity to preserve the volumes. Little drafts of air waft around theological tomes and travel accounts, in between shelves of poetry and stacks of folios. In 1976, while l was a students at UC, a student worker was shelving books in the Rare Book Room, alone in the quiet gloom, Suddenly she felt a chilling presence and turned to see a man in the stacks beside her, a rather innocuous and shadowy man who had instantly appeared.
Terrified and breathless, she rushed downstairs leaving her work unfinished. Soon her tale of a ghost quickly spread across campus and I heard about it for the first time. Since then, the story of what the student saw has circulated around Cincinnati.
An informal ghost investigation was conducted for her by a UC professor but the spectre did not reappear. Some versions have it that the man was wearing a gray suit and glasses, others that he was short and smoked a pipe, Some folks believe it was the ghost of a former Classics professor who suffered an untimely and tragic death. His office had once been in the room where the rare books are now housed, and it happened to be near the spot where the ghost was encountered. Be that as it may, the student forever refused to return alone to the Rare Book Room for as long as she was in the library’s employ.
Since I’ve come back to UC as an archivist in the Special Collections Department, which houses the Rare Book Room, I’m often asked by friends and acquaintances about the ghost and in turn I listen to what they have heard. Folklore is a dynamic process, always being generated and always changing. Legends are created all the time and spread by word of mouth. Whether there truly was a ghost of Blegen Library or not, its story is becoming a part of Cincinnati folklore, an example of the creative process in folklore.
Today, there are no offices or reading rooms in Blegen Library. The building is being renovated and the sounds of welding torches and drills have for a time replaced the echoes of students’ footsteps on marble stairs. The bronze panels and chandeliers and printers marks will survive the renovation. Perhaps the ghost will too, patiently awaiting another visitor.
The Haunted Basement under the Geo-Math-Phys Library by Anonymous
View from the elevator
“There’s an urban legend here at GMP that long ago, a maintenance man accidentally died while trying to fix the service elevator. Now he haunts the GMP library and particularly can be spotted in the basement underneath GMP. One day I was teaching one of my coworkers how to use the service elevator and we decided to explore the basement since neither of us had been down there before. When we reached that floor, it was completely pitch black before we turned the lights on, meaning no one else was likely down there. As we walked in, we turned the corner and saw a very old work-station. At that station was an office swivel chair that was slightly turning all on its own. When it stopped, the seat pointed directly at us (almost as if someone wanted us to sit in it). We were both freaked out and decided to leave before exploring more. I have been down there a few times since then and luckily haven’t seen any more activity.”
View of the work-station around the cornerTHE desk!
The Haunted Stairwell by Mike Braunlin
“Over the years, however, student assistants have told me they are uncomfortable working on the fourth floor of our Classics stacks. No one has ever reported to me anything extraordinary, but some have told me that something there made them fearful. Some students would go to great lengths to avoid working in stacks 4 and several downright refused to go there. It is most curious that the stacks photo with the shadowy figure was taken on the fourth stack level in the area where students have reported eerie sensations.
I only experienced one unusual incident and I offer the bare telling of it; I put forth no conclusions…
Ca. 45 years ago, when I was younger, energetic, and dedicated, an inability to stay asleep often led me to go to the office early – I often came to work in Classics around 5 AM mornings. I also didn’t have to sign in and out, as now on Flex, so I could get away with that kind of thing. One winter morning (some would call it late-middle of the night) I had entered the north stairwell of Blegen from the 4th floor to walk down to level 2, where the Classics Library was in those days. I was about halfway down the stairwell, which was in darkness, but for the moonlight shining in the windows, when the entire stairwell (all levels) erupted with the noise of dozens of people talking and laughing all together.
Image from Mike BraunlinImage from Mike Braunlin
Illustration entitled “The Party on the Stairs” by British painter Adelaide Claxton from 1875
Imagine, if you will, a cocktail party going on in the stairwell, full of people, all talking and laughing at once – all around me. Except there was no one there. I stood there in the darkness, desperately tightening my sphincter muscles and taking in the unreality of this, until I bolted up the stairs, out the front door, and ran to the Majestic Apartments on McMillan, where 2 of our student assistants lived, Claire Sponsler and Susan Stites. I banged on the door and when they, full of sleep and surprise, let me in, I explained what happened, and lay on their couch until 8 AM, then I went back to work. Nearly scared the crap out of me, hence my sphincter reference several lines up, but I am glad for the experience. Also glad, because, 45 years on, Susan and I have been married for 33 years…”
