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Current Trends in Preservation Research and Development 192 American Archivist / Vol. 53 / Spring 1990 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/192/2747968/aarc_53_2_d68711rn7r2xu6kx.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 Current Trends in Preservation Research and Development GEORGE MARTIN CUNHA Abstract: In the 1980s, librarians and archivists accepted responsibility for conservation management as a vitally important aspect of their work. Their increased role in this area influenced research and development trends towards a concentration on mass techniques. These included environmental control with emphasis on preservation rather than creature comfort, fire prevention, and disaster recovery, but developments in mass deacidification have eclipsed all else. And now there are indications that developments in the mass strengthening of paper could make mass deacidification by itself obsolete. Archivists need to become familiar with these developments so as to evaluate their use and/or modify them to suit particular archival needs. About the author: In the 1960s, George Cunha, conservator at the Boston Athenaeum, realized that the then accepted methods for the care of books and paper records were inadequate. He pushed for the creation of regional cooperative centers, and in 1973 the North East Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) was established with Cunha as the first director. It was there and elsewhere that the concept of records conservation began to change from treatment of records as single objects to today's emphasis on the treatment of collections in their entirety. This emphasis has remained central to his work as a writer, teacher, and consultant. Cunha currently serves as adjunct professor of conservation at the College of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky. Preservation Research and Development 193 THE MAJOR CHANGES DURING the last two treatment of their materials. In 1963, the decades in the methods for the preservation Englishman Bernard Middleton published of books and paper records did not come a landmark study, A History of English Craft easily. The transition began when archi- Book Binding Techniques, in which struc- vists, librarians, and curators, who had long ture and conservation considerations were relied on the expertise of bookbinders and emphasized.3 A little later in the decade, Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/192/2747968/aarc_53_2_d68711rn7r2xu6kx.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 paper conservators for the preservation of Paul Banks of the Newberry Library stressed their materials, began to realize that those the need for a systematic collection-level 4 highly skilled craftsmen, with their mu- approach. Y. P. Kathpalia's 1968 Con- seum-oriented practices based on the treat- servation and Restoration of Archive Ma- ment of books and records as single objects, terials, though now outdated, represented could not possibly begin to take care of the the first attempt to broaden the discussion vast amount of material that needed their to include conservation and collection-level 5 attention. Librarians and archivists also be- care of archives. came painfully aware of the major prob- The importance of good housekeeping, lems facing them in finding money to pay building maintenance, security, and fire for the work—even if far greater numbers protection was obvious to many at that time of craftsmen could somehow be found to (curators and administrators as well as book do it. Changes had to be made. Ways had and paper people) who were working in to be found to physically care for great libraries and archives. Also beginning to quantities of materials with fewer people emerge was an awareness of the impor- and on a low cost-per-unit basis. tance of air conditioning for stabilizing the climate, and an appreciation of the dam- Collections Conservation aging effects of sunlight and fluorescent lighting on paper. Vacuum fumigation and Although conservation management as sterilization were the methods of choice for we understand it now did not exist three dealing with insect infestations and mold. decades ago, some of the book and paper However, most curators and administra- people then working with libraries and ar- tors, even those who were beginning to ap- chives made substantial contributions to the preciate the importance of those things for development of the field. In addition to the book care, equivocated on the establish- ongoing work on deacidification by Bar- ment of routine preservation practices de- row, Smith, and others, Caroline Horton in pending on how pressed they were for funds New York was stressing the importance of and how much time the other aspects of the methodical treatment of entire collec- management demanded of them. Early on tions over the salvage of individual "basket 1 the book and paper repair people began to cases." Harold Tribolet at the Lakeside affiliate with the American Group, Inter- Press in Chicago was emphasizing the need national Institute for Conservation (now the for quality control of materials and for high 2 American Institute for Conservation) to standards of workmanship. Horton's and benefit by association with museum con- Tribolet's exhortations were most impor- tant because collections managers were be- ginning to become involved in the in-house 3Bernard Middleton, A History of English Craft Book Binding Techniques (New York and London: Hafner, 1963). 'Caroline Horton, Cleaning and Preserving Bind- 4Paul N. Banks, "Some Problems in Book Con- ings and Related Materials (Chicago: American Li- servation," Library Resources & Technical Services brary Association, 1969). 12 (1968): 330-38. 2Harold Tribolet, "Trends in Preservation," Li- 5Y. P. Kathpalia, Conservation and Restoration of brary Trends 13:2 (1964): 208-14. Archive Materials (Paris: UNESCO, 1973). 194 American Archivist / Spring 1990 servators and to have an outlet in which ciety of American Archivists and the they could be heard because most librarians American Library Association, there began and archivists were not listening. to be significant progress. It is difficult to By the early 1970s, there was an emerg- pinpoint when and why curators and ad- ing appreciation of the importance of con- ministrators began to get continuously and servation in some of the major libraries. In actively involved. Unquestionably one of Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/53/2/192/2747968/aarc_53_2_d68711rn7r2xu6kx.pdf by guest on 23 September 2021 1965 the director of the Boston Athen- the reasons was the vision and foresight of aeum, Walter Whitehill, told this author to people like Howard Lowell, Robert Patter- look deeply into the matter and submit a son, Paul Banks, Pamela Darling, Susan proposal for his consideration. The New- Swartzburg, Sally Buchanan, Carolyn berry Library had an active program from Morrow, and other dedicated librarians and 1967. In 1968 Fraser Poole, assistant di- archivists. Their names and the names of rector for preservation at the Library of others who were librarians and archivists, Congress, hired Peter Waters to develop rather than book and paper restorers, began and implement a preservation plan for the to appear under the titles of articles on pres- collections. The North East Document ervation in the professional and technical Conservation Center was established in 1973 literature. They spearheaded the increased as the nation's first regional center for the interest in preservation within SAA and ALA care of library and archival materials. This as well as in state and local professional was the direct outcome of WhitehilPs 1965 groups, partly by scheduling and organiz- directive to Captain Cunha. The center's ing frequent seminars and workshops for staff soon began to receive frequent invi- their colleagues. Their influence was re- tations to address meetings of local, state, flected in the literature, which began to in- and regional associations of librarians and clude discussions on preservation from the archivists. In 1971 the library school at the collection manager's point of view. The University of Rhode Island offered the first object was to provide practical guidance for course in library conservation available in the care of books and paper records rather the United States as an elective for students than erudite technical essays on causes and seeking a degree in library science. Colum- effects of damage (the latter usually devoid bia University's School of Library Service of any acknowledgement that preservation soon followed suit, introducing a full course was only one of the many equally impor- in 1976, and the first full-fledged program tant problems encountered regularly by li- for library conservators and preservation brarians and archivists). At the same time, administrators in 1981.6 However, in June librarians and archivists began to cooperate of this year (1990), Columbia announced with conservators and conservation tech- that it intends to discontinue the School of nicians, chemists, and physicists in re- Library Service. Other institutions are con- search laboratories and in business and sidering picking up the conservation train- industry on the identification of conserva- ing programs but there is no firm information tion problems and solutions for them.7 on that matter at this writing. An example of the cooperation was the Later in the 1970s, when librarians and increasing acceptance by managers of the archivists began to get more interested in importance of preventive maintenance and conservation, first as individuals, then with the encouragement and support of the So- 7See in particular, Paul N. Banks, "The Scientist, the Scholar, and the Book Conservator: Some Thoughts on Book Conservation as a Profession," Atti Delia 6Paul N. Banks to Anne R. Kenncy, 22 May 1990 XUXRiunione Delia S.I.P.S., Siena, 23-27 Septem- (E-mail). ber 1976. Preservation Research and Development 195 the need for the development and use of cover them all in an essay such as this but improved methods for climate control, the some must be mentioned if only briefly. control of light, housekeeping, security from Climate control.
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