Preservation and Conservation

Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí

September 15, 2014 by rness | Comments Off on Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí

Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí by Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela

Colonel George Earl Church (1835-1910) was commander of a Rhode Island regiment during the Civil War, an engineer, and well known for his explorations into South America. In 1912, the John Hay Library was left his personal library of over 3,500 volumes of economic, historic, geographic, and descriptive studies of South America. One of these volumes, an 18th century manuscript purchased by Church from a Parisian book dealer in 1905, is perhaps the most important item in the collection.

Representation of astronomical phenomena from the mine of Asiento de Porco, Bolivia. January 13, 1553.

The Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí chronicles life in the Bolivian “Imperial City” of Potosí, once the largest city in the New World and home to its most lucrative silver mine.[1. Special Collections of the Brown University Library : A History and Guide.] The manuscript is the “primera parte” of the complete work and records the dramatic social and political unrest of the city, the incomparable riches of its famous hill, greatness of its magnanimous people, its civil wars and memorable cases. Potosí has been vividly described as a “riotous and gaudy civilization” [2. Lewis, Statement concerning the contents of the « Historia de la Villa Imperial de Potosí. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 1936; pp. 401-404.], “proud and opulent, pious and cruel, torn asunder by dissension.”[3. Phelan, The History of Potosi of Bartolome Arzans y Vela. The Hispanic American Historical Review, Duke University Press, 1967.] Illustrations included in the manuscript portray the metallurgy work of the city, its topographical features, and historic events.

In 1965, in celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of the University, the 1,200 page manuscript was published for the first time in its entirety and in the original Spanish. Now, as the University marks its 250th year, we are pleased to announce that the rare Libro Primero of the Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí has undergone treatment at the New England Document Conservation Center, and a digital version is now available in Brown’s Digital Repository, as part of the Latin American Travelogues collection.

Prior to treatment, the leather binding was degraded and the boards were detached. The pages of the manuscript were dirty and many pages were torn, especially along the edges. The paper was heavily stained and marks in ink and pencil appeared throughout the text. Once the volume was collated and disbound, the pages were washed in a solution of ethanol and filtered water, and sized with gelatin. The fly leaves were deacidified, tears were mended with Japanese kozo paper and wheat starch paste. After digitization, the volume was sewn on linen cords with linen thread, bound in goat leather, and housed in a drop-spine box.

110049B

110048B

Treatment photos courtesy of NEDCC

How do you solve a problem like a foldout?

December 13, 2013 by lelgin | 5 Comments

When assessing how to photograph a book, we must first make several determinations. The key to photographing books well – by which I mean providing well-lit images, in good focus, without damaging the book or its pages – is to provide as much support as possible to both the book itself (especially the spine) as well as to each individual page. Evaluating the needs of a book requires that we look at the following criteria:

Size of book
Condition of book and its pages
Characteristics of leaves (plates, text, foldouts or tipped-in pages)

Smaller books in good condition are photographed on a glass cradle that allows us to hold the book open for optimal photography, but supports the spine and keeps the book in good condition. Larger or more fragile books are shot on a wooden cradle, which supports the book and its spine without putting any pressure on the pages. This requires additional work to get each page flat; some curvature is acceptable, but too much creates focus problems so we often add foam supports under parts of a page to keep it even.

This is a page with a small, minor foldout. Set in the wooden cradle, you can see the book as it’s shot, the nook that the book and page fit into with full support beneath them, and finally, the wood and foam supports that made it all possible.

Then we have books that hit the challenging-to-shoot trifecta: they are oversize, have some element of fragility to them, and the plates involve spreads or foldouts that require even more supports and careful handling (and a sharp eye on even lighting and focus). I spent the past couple of weeks photographing just such a book: an oversize book of engravings that is in generally good condition, but whose spine required a bit of extra support. Luckily, each individual page was thick and in good condition, and the sharp, meticulous engravings made it easy to confirm focus. The majority of the book involved one-page plates, some two-pages spreads, and a handful of foldouts.

One of the foldouts was very large: 20″ x 46″ in total. In order to have decent lighting and any sort of viable resolution, the foldout had to be shot in sections, to be stitched together afterwards. Each section needed to be centered on the platform, at the same distance away from the camera and with no changes to the lighting or focus. The real challenge was to meet these requirements while supporting the book and each section of the foldout. After meeting with our Materials Conservator (the first step in any kind of endeavor like this), she gave me a great plan to make this happen: after the first shot (the part closest to the spine), I set up the book cradle on a book truck, slowly moved it backward to allow the foldout to unfold, and photographed each flat section. As the page opened up and was no longer supported by the pages beneath it, I used Foamcore to keep a level, stable support for the foldout. I also leaned the unfolded parts of the pages against a foam support and kept it in place with a lead rope, to ensure the paper remained intact. Below are the step by step shots (save the final one, which required me to hold some of the foldout closed while taking the photograph with the foot pedal).

Foldout, Section II & III

Foldout, Section I

Foldout, Section IV (including book truck and foam core supports)

And then we have the final, fully stitched foldout. I did keep a reference shot with the color target, just to be safe.

No tannins at all, and very little fruit (part I)

September 6, 2013 by lelgin | Comments Off on No tannins at all, and very little fruit (part I)

Perelman Papers, Box 11

Such was the assessment of a leaking bottle of wine from the manuscripts collection (by a library staff member who dared to take a sip). There’s more to this story, and I was lucky enough to be able to both participate in and document the first few chapters.

As preparations began for the 14-month closure of the John Hay Library (Brown’s Special Collections Library), workers readying items for transport to offsite storage noticed that a box in the S.J. Perelman Papers (part of the Archives) was leaking. Inside was a bottle of wine, which had been safely housed in the Hay’s vault for decades; at some point, however, the cork had become unstable and had begun to leak wine. It was clear that the bottle would have to be emptied and sent to our materials conservator. Before (fully) breaking the seal and removing the wine, the bottle was brought to me so that I could document it in its unaltered state. While the most crucial part of this process was to capture and preserve the hand-drawn label, we also wanted to have a record of the object in its original state.

Wine bottle at the ready, I set up our reprographic camera stand to use as a shooting table. Because our strobes have narrow softboxes on them (perfect for documents and books, not so perfect for three-dimensional objects), I used our portable hotlights with umbrellas. Photographing glass is tricky; it’s best to light it from behind, using bounced light to give the object its shape and prevent distracting reflections. However, in this case I needed to show the glass, the liquid inside, as well as the label on the front. I used one light to illuminate the scene, with particular attention paid to the label. I used the other light as a handheld light; I held it by the light stand, and used a variety of angles and distances from the bottle to get the lighting I wanted.

In the interest of thoroughness, I photographed the bottle from the front, back, and sides. The most difficult shot was the back of the bottle, as the label prevented me from lighting through the bottle, and made the surface of the glass highly reflective. I could get myself out of the frame, but both the camera I was using and the one mounted to the top of the repro stand were visible in the glass. I taped white paper over the top camera, which solved the problem easily. The camera directly in front of the bottle needed a bit more work. Using the lens cap, I traced a circle onto a piece of paper. I then cut that circle out, and mounted the paper on the camera (using the lens cap gives you a good approximation of the lens size). The resulting image has the expected specular highlights and reflections, but has minimized the obvious camera/room reflections.

Making the camera cover to reduce reflections.

The final images give a good sense of the bottle, the wine inside, and the label. To afford users a full view of the label, I combined three different shots of the bottle into one.

Front, back, and label views.

Next time, we’ll look at how we approached uncorking the bottle – and what its contents had in store for us.

Edgar Allan Poe & Sarah Helen Whitman

January 17, 2013 by rness | 10 Comments

1848 daguerreotype by William Hartshorn

1856(?) daguerreotype attributed to J. White

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, two hundred and four years ago. This anniversary has coincided with my work this week which has involved preparing digitized images of daguerreotypes of Poe and Providence poet Sarah Helen Whitman for publication to the Brown Digital Repository. The daguerreotypes had been found to be suffering some deterioration and were sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Center for treatment. Poe sat for this daguerreotype, known as the Whitman or Hartshorn Daguerreotype, on November 13, 1848 at the Westminster Street studio of Masury and Hartshorn in Providence, Rhode Island, after a tumultuous week which included an overdose of laudanum and a bout of heavy drinking. The daguerreotype was a gift from Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman, given to her after she finally consented to marry him. The engagement did not last long, but Whitman kept the daguerreotype until 1874. In a letter she noted Poe’s “sweet and serene expression” in the image. The daguerreotype was gifted to the Brown University Library in 1905.

Before treatment

Some of the condition problems with the daguerreotype and its case are apparent in before and after treatment images. The leather spine on the case was broken and cracked along the bottom. The case was scuffed and scratched, and the cover glass was beginning to deteriorate. After disassembling the daguerreotype package, preservationists at NEDCC replaced the cover glass with a more stable borosilicate glass, and used a variety of techniques to repair the case, broken edge, and spine. Of the many materials relating to Poe in the Harris Collection holdings, the daguerreotype is perhaps the best known and most frequently requested. The recent preservation treatment along with its housing in a clamshell presentation box will ensure its longevity for future library patrons.

After treatment

Sarah Helen Whitman

The daguerreotype of Sarah Helen Whitman is attributed to Joseph White, another Providence daguerreotypist, and dates from 1856. The daguerreotype plate and brass mat were enclosed in a paper-covered wooden case. The cloth spine on the case had been broken and previously “repaired” usuing black electrical tape. The tape and residual adhesive were mechanically removed, and the spine was repaired using cloth toned with acrylic color. The glass was replaced with borosilicate, and the package reassembled and sealed with Filmoplast P90 and a sheet of Melinex.

After treatment

Before treatment

Sarah Helen Whitman was a poet and essayist and interested in transcendentalism, mesmerism, and spiritualism. She hosted well-known writers at her salon in Providence, and served as vice president of the Rhode Island suffrage association. Poe first set eyes on Whitman as she stood in the rose garden behind her Benefit Street home. The house and garden are much the same as they were nearly two centuries ago.

Rose garden behind Whitman’s house at 88 Benefit Street.
Photo courtesy Will Hart

Digital Production Services in-house photographers recently digitized two photographs of Sarah Helen Whitman, which the author herself inserted into an autographed presentation copy of Whitman’s Hours of Life, and Other Poems. Consult the finding aid for more information on the significant holdings of Sarah Helen Whitman within the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays. Brown University also owns a portrait of Whitman painted by John Nelson Arnold in 1869.

Albumen photograph of Sarah Helen Whitman c.1853-78

Albumen photograph of Sarah Helen Whitman as a medium c.1853-78

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Imaging rare, unusual, and intriguing objects at the Brown University Library

Category Archives: Preservation and Conservation

Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí

How do you solve a problem like a foldout?

No tannins at all, and very little fruit (part I)

Edgar Allan Poe & Sarah Helen Whitman