Conservation
Posts related to the Conservation Department
August 14, 2018
by Layla Huff I attend Morgan State University, where I am a rising sophomore, a member of the Honors College, and a history major. I...
July 17, 2018
I recently had a visit from one of my favorite photograph conservators—Rachel Wetzel of the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. Rachel’s been working...
June 19, 2018
Readers are often surprised to learn that the horizontal bumps on an old book’s spine have a purpose. Those bumps, known as raised bands, are...
February 2, 2018
For my inaugural blog post as the conservation lab intern, I’m going to explain how we teach paper to swim. You heard me right. Paper,...
December 19, 2017
After thoroughly documenting Ben Franklin’s 1760 Book of Common Prayer (see posts one and two of this series), I was ready to begin conservation treatment....
December 5, 2017
In April 2016, Benjamin Franklin descendant Mai Duane Harper and her husband, James A. Harper, presented the APS Library with a lectern-sized edition of the...
November 21, 2017
As a young man, Benjamin Franklin famously wrote his own epitaph: The Body of B. Franklin, Printer, Like the Cover of an old Book, Its...
October 4, 2017
Fig. 1: Mending letter. Photo by Anne Downey. Last time we spoke, I was introducing you to a 19th-century letter in need of treatment. Due...