News and more from ZSR’s Special Collections & Archives
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar First Quarto Edition (1684) Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays were published in quarto editions – individual plays printed in small format – prior to the 1623 first collected edition (first folio) of Shakespeare’s works. Julius Caesar was not published in quarto until much later: the first edition, of which ZSR’s Special Collections holds... Continue reading “Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, First Quarto Edition” ›
Historical records are more accessible than ever. How can you incorporate unique primary resources into your scholarly work? Continue reading “Discovering Archival Resources” ›
It’s the end of the semester and exams are upon us. During this time of the academic year, students begin to return the books they’ve held onto. Many of these books are damaged: waterlogged, dog-chewed, ripped, with broken joints and ripped spines they are generally hurting. Much of the focus for Preservation must now be... Continue reading “End of Semester Repairs Really Stack Up!” ›
Before After Cleaning Continue reading “Before and After Mold Cleaning” ›
A small group of books were recently found in Rare Books with mold on them. We surveyed the area and found everything that looked even remotely moldy. I cleaned them with alcohol and let them air dry. My theory is these books grew mold because they were in a glass covered book case with no... Continue reading “Moldy Books” ›
Give Hugh his due. Once again, artisan/craftsman Hugh Brown has done work that demonstrates thinking outside the box. Special Collections is removing everything from the Rare workroom. This move meant demolishing a perfectly good shelving unit because it was too large to get out of the space. Hugh Brown to the rescue. He executed a... Continue reading “Shelving Unit Transported to Preservation” ›
Recently, I was asked to repair and recover a small box used for transporting communion materials. I assume this would be used for taking communion to an ill person who couldn’t travel. I removed all the hardware, and recovered the box with book cloth. I then, replaced the handles and latch. It seems to be... Continue reading “Is this Preservation?” ›
I recently received a map which was sewn into a 1537 book entitled: Novus Orbis Regio. This map was torn into two pieces after a small accident in Rare Books. Looking at this map, I decided to remove it from the book to perform the repair. First, I flattened the map, smoothing out dog ears... Continue reading “Map Repairs” ›
A group of nine books appeared in my office this week. Across the top of these books is a sloppy puddle of dried Cookies and Cream ice cream. You can see the outline of an upturned container in the dried ice cream. So this seems to be either an intentional thing or negligence on the... Continue reading “Ice Cream Incident” ›
On Thursday, October 30th, several members of the ZSR Disaster Committee gathered in Preservation for training. This is important since many times a disaster happens when key personnel are absent or unavailable. In that kind of situation, the more eyes and hands that know what to do, the better. We began by walking through the... Continue reading “Wet Book Recovery Training” ›