Conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera
The conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera is an activity dedicated to extending the life of items of historical and personal value made primarily from paper, parchment, and leather. When applied to cultural heritage, conservation activities are generally undertaken by a conservator. The primary goal of conservation is to extend the lifespan of the object as well as maintaining its integrity by keeping all additions reversible. Conservation of books and paper involves techniques of bookbinding, restoration, paper chemistry, and other material technologies including preservation and archival techniques.
Book and paper conservation seeks to prevent and, in some cases, reverse damage due to handling, inherent vice, and the environment. Conservators determine proper methods of storage for books and documents, including boxes and shelving to prevent further damage and promote long term storage. Carefully chosen methods and techniques of active conservation can both reverse damage and prevent further damage in batches or single-item treatments based on the value of the book or document.
Historically, book restoration techniques were less formalized and carried out by various roles and training backgrounds. Nowadays, the conservation of paper documents and books is often performed by a professional conservator. Many paper or book conservators are members of a professional body, such as the American Institute for Conservation or the Guild of Bookworkers, the Archives and Records Association, or the Institute of Conservation .
Definition
Conservation, restoration, and preservation, while similar, are each distinct. Conservation of books and paper involves protecting and stabilizing the material in its current state while retaining as much of the original materials as possible. Restoration involves returning a book or manuscript to as close to new condition as possible with the use of more invasive techniques and less retaining of original materials. Preservation is an umbrella term which encompasses conservation and restoration; however, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably when referring to library and archive conservation. Because conservation is one example of effort to preserve materials, it can be considered a subcategory of preservation. Conservation often accompanies preservation strategies such as proper storage and display, environmental monitoring, handling training, reformatting and security. The main goal of modern conservation is to maintain the integrity of the original parts of the object and that any additions due to restoration must be reversible. There are two approaches of conservation: active or interventive conservation and passive or preventive conservation. Active conservation involves evaluating the condition of an object and treating to prevent further decay by cleaning, repairing, and restoring when necessary. In preventative conservation, the science of storage and display are employed in order to control and stabilize the environmental conditions affecting the object in order to prolong its life span. Conservation incorporates the fields of bookbinding, restoration, paper chemistry, and other material technologies, as well as preservation of archival resources.There are many nuances to conservation and conservators must make decisions about how they will treat the object based on how it will be used or displayed. For example, library conservation requires that the books be legible and usable, but not necessarily aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, a book or document to be displayed in an exhibit may need to be presented in a more visually appealing condition. Paper-based items, such as books, scrapbooks, manuscripts, letters, journals and diaries, certificates, maps, deeds, newspapers, drawings, miniatures, and postcards present distinctive concerns when it comes to care and conservation. Unlike works of art on paper, these items are often handled directly and repeatedly to access information. Even paper ephemera like newspapers and letters may be significant historical records or family mementos.
History
The history of early conservation has not yet been written, and early conservators recorded little of their work. Consequently, modern conservators are responsible for recording the previous conservation work they find when evaluating objects. As early as 750 BC, Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah advised on the importance of the preservation of documents for future use. In 1627, Gabriel Naudé published Advis pour dresser une bibliothèqe, which contained a chapter discussing book preservation. The first substantial work on the subject of book restoration was Alfred Bonnardot's Essai sur l'art de Restaurer les Estampes et les Livres, first published in Paris in 1846. Until the late-nineteenth century, the preferred practice was to restore objects to newer or better condition with little regard to original style or composition. However, modern conservation seeks to treat books and paper as little as possible.Peter Waters, considered the father of modern book conservation, was the conservation coordinator at the National Central Library after the 1966 flood of the Arno in Florence, Italy, and was accompanied by hundreds of conservators from around the world. Before the flood, library conservation was not yet an established field. The water affected one-third of the library collections including periodicals, newspapers, fine prints, maps, posters, and the Magliabechi and Palatine rare-book collections. The flood broke the tradition of maintaining proprietary trade secrets and conservation treatments as the disaster necessitated the collaboration of the world's most experienced book and paper conservators. One book and paper conservation technique that resulted from this collaboration was the development of the "heat-set tissue" paper mending. Another development from the Florence floods was the study of limp vellum binding and its usefulness in conservation due to its resistance to water damage. Experienced in large scale archival disasters, Waters defined seven essential requirements for successful recovery after the flood. The first publication of a standard of practice for conservators was published in August 1964 in Studies in Conservation by the International Institute for Conservation American Group, now the American Institute for Conservation. An updated version was released in 1994.
Christopher Clarkson originally coined the term "book conservation" in Florence in 1967 in order to differentiate the early European conservation techniques which sought to preserve only the text of a book. Clarkson argued that "foreign marks" and "foreign matter" are important to understand the book's physical history and the social history in which the book resided and that this evidence of use should be preserved. In 1968, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property organized an international seminar on the subject of conservation of library materials in Rome. In 1969, the first university-level conservation conference occurred at the University of Chicago where they published Deterioration and Preservation of Library Materials.
In the United States, the branch bindery for the Library of Congress was created in 1900 for the Government Printing Office, under Chief Clerk Arthur Kimball. This allowed for the first preservation activities to be carried out at the Library of Congress.
The Book and Paper Group is the largest specialty group within the AIC. Through meetings and publications, the BPG exchanges information about the conservation of books and paper. The BPG releases a journal The Book and Paper Group Annual, on the subject of book and paper conservation.
Unique approaches have been made to drum up success in funding book conservation. For Duke University, members of the public can "adopt" a book in need of conservation repair through their Adopt-A-Book program, and helps current and future researchers have access to these materials.