The following post outlines the work I have done while interning at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, Texas. Originally divided into 8 blog posts for each week of my internship, I have since decided to combine these posts into one longer blog post discussing the internship.
The blog includes the following:
An introduction
The conservation work plan for July
Muster roll conservation treatment
Book treatments for July
Book treatments for August
Additional Work
Scrapbook survey project
My eight-week internship at the Texas State Library and Archive officially started on July 1st!
Located in the Lorenzo De Zevala building on the capital campus, the TSLA has one book and paper conservator, Sarah Norris, who works on all materials that have been flagged for conservation treatment.
Conservation Work Plan
The TSLAC conservation workflow is determined on a monthly bases with new objects being pulled and scheduled for conservation for each month. My first week in, a plan was created by looking at items which were pulled for conservation treatment in the month of July and assigned some to me for treatment. There were five book treatments which we reviewed and after going over them, I decided I was comfortable taking on three of them for treatment. In the month of August, the finished projects were returned to storage and new treatment
In addition to the book treatments, there is an on going workflow of 1700s military muster rolls which Sarah and I will start treatment on next week. The muster rolls are paper and written on with iron gal ink and so will require a calcium phytate treatment. There are 10 muster rolls to work on in the next few weeks and we've already began the treatment reports and treatment plans. Because this is an ongoing project which involves batch treatments, a system of deciding treatment plans had already been devised based on the materials and condition of the musters.
Muster Rolls Conservation Treatment
The materials on the muster rolls were tested for iron II content (to determine if iron gal ink was used) and tested for water solubility. All but one roster tested positive for Iron II when we used the iron gal test papers. Other inks on the papers were tested for water solubility and it was found that the decorative yellow ink was water soluble while the red ink was only partially water soluble.
In the second week, Sarah and I had gone through the muster rolls for July and identified a treatment plan for each depending on the condition and presence of previous mends. This week, we removed the previous mends of filmoplast and then treated the rolls through a series of solution baths.
The treatment was as followed:
Remove all previous silking and filmoplast mends using MC
50:50 DI water:ethanol solution bath
Calcium Phytate mixed with ethanol (chelation solution to assist with the iron gal ink)
Calcium Bicarbonate mixed with ethanol (for deacidification)
Gelatin bath (for resizing)
After drying on the drying rack and then between blotters, the muster rolls were ready to be returned to the collection. This was repeated in the month of August for the next selection of muster rolls.
July Book Treatments
Book 1 -
The first book I start on is a pamphlet with fold-out charts which had torn and detached. I was able to finish this treatment rather quickly within 2 days. We decided to briefly attempt tape removal but after realizing it would take up too much of the treatment time, we decided to move on and complete the reattachments.
Book 2 - Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress. Sen. Ex. Doc. 174, Serial 461
The second book ended up taking up more treatment time than was first expected. The federal publication had a very large map inclusion which had been torn out and improperly folded into the book, causing the book to bulge. The map was larger than we anticipated. We humidified the map and started mending tears and cracks in the paper with strips of Japanese paper. In the third week of work the mends for the map were completed and the map was refolded so that it would fit into the book. Afterwards it was put under the book press to make sure it fit within the text block.
Book 3- Docket No 8131 In the Matter of Rates on and Classification of Lumber and Lumber Products
My third book treatment for this month required reattaching the front and back covers of a paper-back federal report. I had fun reattaching this one and got very close to completing it within the 3rd week of my internship but ended up needing to finish up the fills on the front cover and create a phase box for it in week 5.
August Book Treatments
Book 4- Sketchbook of America
I began and completed one of my book treatments, Sketchbook of America, rather quickly as it only required some hinging within the book. The end sheets of this book were very colorful and the hinges had been very noticeable so I ended up going back in with colored pencil to make the hinges look less stark within the book.
Book 5- Vital Records of Uxbridge
The treatment of the book Vital Records of Uxbridge required hinging and re-casing. I began by adhering the cover page to the text block as it had become loose. A tube was created using western paper and adhered to the spine with a mix of PVA:MC. The case was attached via the tube on the spine and wrapped in bandages to dry. The joints were hinged on the inside using Japanese paper and starch paste.
Book 6 - US Register of 1903
This was one of the more damaged books that came in to the conservation lab this month. While my mentor worked on the edition from 1899, I was given the 1903 edition to repair. There was a lot to work to do and some of it was new to me treatment-wise. This treatment required that I remove the textblock from its case and remove the old mends that has been placed on the book previously. The old mends had to be replaced with new ones made from Japanese tissue. The original title page and fly leaf had to be removed from where they have been connected to a more recently applied paste down. These more resent papers were removed and the new endsheets were attached to to the bookblock from the spine. The new fills on the covers were created with Miroki paper and attached with starch paste, and will be toned to match the covers next week.
Additional Work
Letters
Some additional paper treatments arrived in the form of letters from the 1800s. Many of them just need to be dry cleaned and placed in mylar sleeves but a few showed past damaged from mold, insects, and rodents which have caused them to become very fragile. One letter I started on was very delicate and was a folded letter, with the two pages having become soft and stuck together from the previous mold growth. It took most of a Thursday afternoon but I was able to successfully detach them so that the writing is now accessible. Later, I revisited the letter and used heat-set tissue to help stabilize the letter. L-sleeves were created for the letters using the studio's welding machine.
GLO and Jander | Wednesday, August 14th
Both the General Land Office and the Texas States Library and Archive had items in their collections which had been previously treated by a 'conservator' by the name of Jander in the 1950s. These maps and documents had been coated with some sort of mixture and then backed with a nylon mesh. The composition of the the coatings are a mystery though a list of materials from Jander was found by our colleagues from the General Land Office. We came together as a group to create a trial of the recipe and test them on some papers to see if we could get a similar result. The materials listed in the recipe, however, were all items that could easily evaporate and so did not give a result similar to the treated objects. It seems there is an ingredient missing from the recipe if the makeup of the coating is to be identified. Recipe reconstructions are alway fun and it was interesting to see how this trial turned out. More research on this matter will have to be undertaken before we know more. (Update: literature on these treatments and the materials Jander used was published by Sarah Norris and Kathryn Boodle in 2020, see end of post for reference to this publication and others).
Scrapbook Survey
Part of my internship at TSLAC involved a survey of the scrapbooks within the collection in order to determine materials and condition of the objects. I was given training and instruction on navigating the stacks and pulling materials within my first week. A list of scrapbooks with their call numbers was given to me and the number I'll be surveying was originally estimated to be in the 50-60 range which means I'll be able to survey and view all the books instead of taking a statistical representative selection. As the project advanced it became increasingly apparent that the number of scrapbooks in the collection was much larger than 60 books, with my end survey consisting of 130 scrapbooks.
Things I noted in the survey focused on the overhead subjects of their condition, binding type, housing, materials, and future suggestions for their care. Most were stab-bound and almost all of them had clippings from newspapers within them. Some rare or interesting materials included organic items like flowers or hair clippings. Some of the scrapbooks I found personally interesting were the ones (I think there was only one or two) which consisted mostly of english news clippings but then would switch to some German news clippings.
Additional Literature:
Norris, Sarah and Kathryn Boodle. "Shiny, Lined and Brown: Building Conservation Context for Harry Jander's Document Restorations." The Book and Paper Group Annual 39 (2020), 69-86. https://cool.culturalheritage.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v39/bpga39-07.pdf
Norris, Sarah. "Unraveling the Myth: Harry Jander’s Tall-Tale Textiles." University of Texas. https://sites.utexas.edu/sarahnorris/2020/11/10/unraveling-the-myth-harry-janders-tall-tale-textiles/
Medium.com. " Janderized: The stodry of the markings and maimings of an Austin mister in the GLO Archives." https://medium.com/save-texas-history/janderized-the-story-of-the-markings-and-maimings-of-an-austin-mister-in-the-glo-archives-baa833e5db98
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