MASTER'S THESE ' M-670
MARWICK, Claires. AN HBTORICAL STUDY OF PAPER DOCUMENT RESTORATION METHODS,
The American University, M. A., 1964 Library Science
University Microfilms Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. AN HISTORICAL STUDY OF PAPER DOCUMENT RESTORATION METHODS
by
Claire S. Warwick
A Thesis
Submitted to the
Faculty of the School of Government and Public Administration
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree
of
Master of Arts
Signatures :
Date:
May 1964 AMERICAN JNivtRSlT' The American University LIBRARY Washington, D. C. SEP I S 1964 WASHINGTON. D. C
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE
How to extend indefinitely the usefulness of records
and preserve them for future generations is a problem of par
ticular concern to the archivist of modern times whose materi
als are of a far more perishable nature than those known to
the scribes of the clay-tablet period. Assuming significance
with the advent of paper, and growing acute with the increas
ing displacement of rags in papermaking, the problem became
urgent with the arrival of woodpulp in response to popular
demand for less expensive and more readily available writing
and printing media. ’.Yhen we consider, in addition, the other
factors to which paper is subjected, such as physical deteri
oration by" light, heat, and moisture; impairment by the acid
elements associated with mechanical papermaking; corrosion
by acid inks; as well as attack by fungi, bacteria, insects,
and rodents, it is remarkable that so many records have sur
vived at all. That they have survived is attributable largely
to three major methods of paper document restoration. This
study was undertaken for the purpose of tracing their histor
ical development.
Preliminary to an investigation of restorative prac
tices, some review of the background of paper itself is
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desirable. The first of three introductory chapters, there
fore, deals with its historical aspects: the origin of paper
in the Orient and its spread to and within the Occident. The
second chapter is devoted to the technical evolution of paper-
making which has contributed substantially to paper's deteri
oration. Attention has been focused upon the operation's
developmental practices, the raw materials it employed, and
t!he changing conditions under which it functioned. Our third
chapter considers additional problems, including those asso
ciated with environmental factors.
After examining the sources of the custodian's diffi
culties in preserving his records, an attempt was made to
trace his past efforts to render his paper documents suitable
for current and future use. The fourth chapter discusses
transparent tissue as a means of reinforcement. Regrettably,
this subject yielded least to an intensive search for source
data, and the problem of filling the lacunae in its historical
trail remains unresolved. Although some little known facts
came to light, other significant fragments failed to emerge.
In the fifth chapter, which is intended to be the most com
prehensive, is detailed the history of silking: its origins
and its diffusion. The sixth chapter treats briefly with a
variety of miscellaneous methods——some traditional, some
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transient. Cellulose acetate foil lamination is discussed
in the seventh. The eighth reports the findings of a survey
of libraries, archival agencies, and historical societies,
in North America and in Europe, conducted to determine what
methods have been and are now in use and the degree of success
or failure experienced. The ninth and final chapter attempts
to summarize and evaluate for present and future archival
requirements the processes explored herein.
Ample and excellent secondary source material was avail
able for most aspects of this investigation. But tissue and
silk, the areas which initially suggested the study, were
poorly documented. Although their technical coverage was
adequate, their history proved somewhat elusive. Their back
grounds were ultimately derived from rare brochures and ac
counts, letterbooks, original records, and personal conversa
tions, as well as published reports. Most rewarding was an
extensive private correspondence with distinguished and knowl
edgeable archivists and restorers in this country and abroad.
To the many who demonstrated their expressed willingness to
assist by generous and informative replies, I am indeed grate
ful. The attitudes encountered reflected significantly the
degree of archival concern for the welfare of records. That
a number of correspondents have requested copies of, access
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to, or have urged publication of this study further indicates
a lively interest in the subject of paper document restora
tion, not only for its practical applications but for its
historical approach as well.
For their assistance and counsel, I am indebted to my
thesis committee. Dr. Oliver W. Holmes, Dr. Lowell H. Battery,
and Mr. James L. Gear, and to Dr. Ernst Posner.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF PAPER ...... 1
II. TECHNICAL EVOLUTION IN PAPERMAKING ...... 7
Early Pulp and Sheet Processing...... 8
The Introduction of Woodpulp...... 9
Decay of All Kinds of Paper...... 12
The Hazards of Mechanical Pulp Preparation . . 15
The Effects of.Additives ...... 15
III. DETERIORATIVE INFLUENCES UPON PAPER IN ITS
FINISHED FORM...... 22
A c i d ...... 23
Testing Criteria ...... 28
Light, Heat, and Moisture...... 32
Fungi...... 34
I n k s ...... 36
IV. THE HISTORY OF TRANSPARENT PAPER IN DOCUMENT RES
TORATION 42
Early References...... 42
Paper in Japanese Trade...... 44
The unique position of the D u t c h ...... 46
The Netherlands...... 48
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CHAPTER PAGE
The United S t a t e s ...... 49
Italy ...... 50
E n g l a n d ...... 51
Varieties of Transparent Paper...... 52
The Beginning of Systematic Document Repair . . 56
New England ...... 56
The Library of Congress...... 58
Dr. Priedenwald's contact with Father Ehrle . 61
. An Evaluation of T i s s u e ...... 64
V. THE HISTORY OF SILKING...... 67
Francis V. R. Emery ...... 69
Father Franz Ehrle and Carlo Marre...... S3
William Berwick ...... 90
VI. MISCELLANEOUS REPAIR METHODS...... 104
Bleaching, Stain Removal, and Ink Revival . . . 105
Framing, Resizing, and Splitting...... 107
Goldbeater's S k i n ...... 109
Mounting, Patching, and Beveling...... 110
Coatings...... 112
VII. CELLULOSE ACETATE FOIL LAMINATION...... 120
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CHAPTER PAGE
VIII. MANUSCRIPT REPAIR SURVEY...... 140
Methods U s e d ...... 141
Dates of Adoption...... 142
Influences ...... 144
Records...... 145
Staff or Commercial Treatment...... 145
Condition of Restored Records...... 146
Re-Restoration ...... 148
IX. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS...... 149
BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 153
APPENDIX...... 167
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF PAPER
It is difficult to conceive of twentieth-century civi
lization without paper. So momentous was its arrival and so
significant its impact that, even at the retrospective dis
tance of eighteen centuries, it is impossible to assess ade
quately its influence.
To Ts’ai Lun is generally ascribed the invention in
105 A.D. in China of "true" paper made from the bark of trees— 1 principally mulberry— and fish nets, hemp, and rags. In
essence, true paper, quite unlike its laminated predecessor
Dard Hunter, Papermaking, the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943), p. 24; Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk (Chicago: Uni versity of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 133, 136-137; and Thomas Francis Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward (second revised edition by L. Carrington Good rich; New York: Ronald Press Company, 1955), pp. 3-4. All three consider the date arbitrarily chosen, since a period of experimentation must be assumed. Hunter, however, singles it out as the year in which the invention was announced to Em peror Ho Ti as a fait accompli. The year 95 A.D. was given in Joel Munsell's Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and Paper-Making (fifth edition with additions; AlBany: J.Munseil, 1876), p. i6. He cites as his source Jean Baptiste Du Halde, A General History of China, trans. R. Brookes (third edition, corrected; London: J. Watts, 1741), p. 417. Tsien, op. cit., p. 140, labels Du Halde's dating erroneous.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. papyrus, from which it derives its name, is a collection of 2 matted fibers held together by molecular- adhesion. The pro
cess, incorporating substantial improvements devised by
Ts'ai Lun's apprentice Tso Tzu-yi, spread throughout the
Empire, reaching Korea in the fourth century. From Korea 3 Buddhist monks introduced the art to Japan about 610.
As part of heavy Chinese cargoes traversing the well-
worn caravan routes into Central Asia and Persia, paper found
its way to Samarkand by 650; manufacture there is believed to
have begun about 751, more than a century later. It was in
that year that the Arabs discovered among their Chinese pris
oners, captured in battle along the Tharaz River in Turkestan,
experienced papermakers who, by divulging the well-guarded
secrets of the procedure, ended a 600-year monopoly in paper-
making.^ By 793, Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphs.
^Andre Blum, On the Origin of Paper, trans. Harry Miller Lydenberg (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1934), p. 16. According to Hunter, op. cit., p. 18, " . . . true paper must necessar ily be made from disintegrated fibre." 3 Ibid., p. 27; and Carter, op. cit., p. 245. Tsien, op. cit., p. 139, observes that paper was known in Japan over a century earlier. 4 Hunter, op. cit., p. 315. The date and the circum stances of battlF"are identically reported in both Arabic and Chinese annals. Carter, op. git., p. 134.
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was engaging in paper fabrication, again not by native talent
but by skilled Chinese workers imported for the purpose by
Harûn al-Rashid. Following Samarkand, Baghdad, and a third
location on the southeast coast of Arabia, Damascus in Syria
blossomed forth as the next paper-producing center under Arab
aegis.® From Samarkand or Baghdad paper was introduced into
Egypt about 800, but not before another century had elapsed 7 was local manufacture initiated. A still longer interval
elapsed in Spain where paper was first used in 950; not until
two full centuries later, however, did the industry under the
Moors, and with the active participation of the Jews, develop g in the cities of Xativa, Valencia, and Toledo.
As the Chinese had lost their unique position in paper-
making to the Arabs, so, after 500 years,the Arabs in the
®Ibid. 6 Although the exact date is given by none of the author ities consulted, production appears to have begun during the eighth or ninth century. Ibid., p. 135; and Hunter, op. cit., p. ■34•
?Ibid., p. 317. O Ibid., pp. 317-319. For further discussion of Span ish papermaking, see "Paper,' Encyclopedia Britannica (1962 éd.), XVII, p. 229; Munsell, o£. cit., p. 2; and Blum, op. cit., pp. 23-29.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. twelfth century were to cede their leadership to their Chris
tian conquerors in Spain.^ Along with the fall of Moorish
power declined the quality of paper; the Christians proved
less skilled in its manufacture than were their predecessors.
As Spanish quality deteriorated, Italian mills, beginning at
Fabriano in 1276, 120 years after the new writing material
crossed the Italian borders, assumed the mantle of excellence,
rose to prominence, and largely took over the supplying of
Europe's import needs.
According to Hunter's chronology, paper arrived in
Germany in 1228; the first paper mill, he states, was estab
lished at Nuremberg in 1390.^^ Julius Grant, however, asso
ciates the earliest paper made in Germany with Cologne in
9 Numerous improvements were made in the papermaking process before it was surrendered to the Arabs in the eighth century. It is Carter's belief, op. cit., p. 7, that "so far as an invention can ever be said to be completed, it was a complete invention that was handed over to the Arabs at Samarkand." For further data on the transition, see Hunter, op. cit., p. 319; and Carter, o£. cit., pp. 249-50.
^®For conflicting Italian and Spanish claims to the earliest manufacture of paper in the West, see Blum, op. cit., pp. 22-30. W. H. Langwell observes in The Conservation of Books and Documents (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1957), p. 2, that "Fabriano . . . has an unbroken record of papermaking dating from the thirteenth century."
^^Hunter, op. cit., pp. 319, 321.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 2 the year 1320. Disagreement has existed also in respect 13 to the early dating of French paper manufacture. Edwin
Sutermeister appears to have resolved the confusion, however,
with his comment that:
France apparently did not engage in papermaking until the fourteenth century, and the mill which is often said to have been in opération in 1189 in the Department of Hérault has now been found to have been nonexistent. This error was apparently due to an incorrect^transla tion and a mistaken date. . . .
The year 1495 is generally accepted for the establishment of
England's first paper mill at Hertfordshire, 1575 for Mexico,
and 1690 for colonial America.^®
Considering the distances traversed, the topographical
hazards involved, the primitive means of travel and communi-
1 9 Julius Grant, Books and Documents ; Dating, Permanence and Preservation (London: Grafton and Company, 1937), p. 4. Edwin Sutermeister, in The Story of Papermaking (Boston: S. D. Warren Company, 1954), p. 11, notes both locations as the Yearliest German mills," but in this sequence: Cologne in 1320, and Stromer's mill at Nuremberg in 1390.
Blum, op. cit., p. 31; Hunter, op. cit., p. 320; and Carter, op. cit., p. 136.
^'^Sutermeister, loc. cit. 15 Hunter, op. cit., pp. 323, 325, and 329. The indus try’s spread throughout the Colonies was gradual, as Suter meister, op. cit., p. 13, has pointed out. Not only did the scarcity of rags impede papermaking progress in the New World, but Britain's strong mercantilist philosophy also obstructed its advance.
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cation available, and, to some extent, even an early reluc
tance to disclose methods of fabrication, it is not surprising
that 1,000 years elapsed before papermaking spread from the
Orient to the Occident. Perhaps less immediately comprehen
sible is its slow advance in Europe. One must bear in mind,
however, that European parchment of good quality and ade
quate supply satisfied whatever need then existed. Since
the literate were few, there was little demand, until the
advent of printing, for cheaper writing material. Nor was
early paper the low-cost item it later became. Not only was
it indeed more expensive than parchment at the time, but
more fragile as well, a dual circumstance little likely to
recommend it to the less adventurous. That Arabs and Jews
were so intimately associated with the introduction of paper
inspired vigorous distrust, buttressed by an antipathy charac
teristically reserved for anything new. The arrival of print
ing turned the tide of resistance, and "while it was the com
ing of paper that made the invention of printing possible, it
was the invention of printing that made the use of paper gen
eral. . . ."1®
l®Carter, op. cit., p. 137.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER II
TECHNICAL EVOLUTION IN PAPERMAKING
For centuries paper was, in the most literal sense,
handmade. Initially, fiber maceration was accomplished by
the slow and laborious mortar-and-pestle method. An early
innovation of setting the mortars into the ground, raising
the pestles or hammers by hand, and allowing them to drop,
provided some relief. The next step forward was marked by
treading upon levers or tilt-bars as a means of lifting the
hammers. With the invention in Spain in 1151 of a stamp mill,
operated by water power, came the first major breakthrough.^
But of even greater significance was the development in 1680,
by an unidentified Dutchman, of a beater, known since its in- 2 ception as a "Hollander."
Dard Hunter, Papermaking, the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943), p. 109; Joel Munsell, Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and Paper-Making (fifth edition with additions; Albany: J. Munsell, 1876), p. 20; and Edwin Sutermeister, The Story of Papermaking (Boston: S. D. Warren Company, 1954), p. 128. 2 Ibid., p. 130. Having proved their efficiency and effectiveness during almost three centuries, the beater’s essential features are retained even today.
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I. EARLY PULP AND SHEET PROCESSING
All paper up to 1803 was manufactured, sheet by sheet,
by a long and painstaking process. Macerated and mixed with
water, the first pulped fibers were poured upon a mould de
signed to allow the water to drain off. Subsequently, the
same mould, instead of merely receiving the pulp, was dipped
into a vat to collect stock, manipulated for even distribu
tion, and set aside to drain. In either case, only a single
sheet resulted. The modern era in papermaking technology was
ushered in by Nicolas-Louis Robert’s invention in France in
1799 of a machine designed to produce paper in an endless 3 web.
From Ts'ai Lun's early operations until papermaking
reached Samarkand in the eighth century, bark and other vege
table fibers were, it is believed, the most widely used ingre
dients in fabrication.^ The flax and hemp which grew in great
abundance along the Mediterranean were said to be the princi-
O Ibid., p. 149. The continuous-web machine (a length of fifty feet was determined as a practical limit), built and operated successfully for the first time in 1803, came to be known as the "Fourdrinier" after Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, brothers who acquired all rights and financed its manufacture.
^Kiyofusa Narita, Japanese Paper-Making (Tokyo: Hoku- seido Press, 1954), p. 5.
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pal raw fibers of Arabian manufacture. However, an accumula
tion of evidence has since persuaded scholars in the field to
consider as the mainstay of Arabian paper not the raw fiber of
plants, but the already processed fiber of rags, the material 5 used almost exclusively for the succeeding 1,100 years.
II. THE INTRODUCTION OF WOODPULP
It was inevitable that the demand for paper should
soar exponentially once the printing press could be exploited
in conjunction with the Fourdrinier. Faced with a critical
shortage of raw materials to supply the machine's capacity,
papermakers cast about for a solution to the imminent famine.
As early as 1719 the subject of making paper from
wood was broached by the French naturalist and physicist Rene y ' Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur. Deeply impressed by his obser
vation of a wasp engaged in building its next, he brought the
phenomenon to the 'attention of the French Royal Academy. He
recognized the possibility of and foresaw the necessity for
Thomas Francis Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward (second edition revised by L, Carrington Goodrich; New York: Ronald Press Company, 1955), pp. 6-7; and Robert Henderson Clapperton, Paper : An Historical Account of its Making by Hand from the Earliest Times down to the Present Day (Oxford: The Shakespeare Head Press, 1934), p. V.
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6 man's emulation of the.insect's papermaking activities.
The search for rag substitutes continued throughout 7 the 1700's, .but it was Matthias Koops of Westminster whose
pioneering efforts at the turn of the nineteenth century rev
olutionized the paper industry. His singular accomplishment g consisted in producing paper from either straw or wood alone.
A” new era of plenty had dawned upon Europe. But little did
archivists then realize the disastrous results entailed by
this very plenty.
Modern papermaking from wood is divided into two cate
gories; mechanical and chemical. The mechanical is repre
sented by the groundwood process introduced by Reaumur's g wasp; the chemical, by three distinct processes for reduc-
®Hunter, op. cit., pp. 233-234. ^Ibid., p. 236.
^Ibid., p. 252. On February 17, 1801, his labors were rewarded by Patent No. 2481 "... for a method of manufac turing paper from straw, hay, thistles, waste, and refuse of hemp and flax, and different kinds of wood and bark. ..."
^Sutermeister, op. cit., pp. 49-50, describes the pro duction of groundwood pulp and the development of woodpulp grinding machines. See also Frank P. Hill, "Deterioration of Newspaper Paper," American Library Association, Papers and Proceedings, 1910, pp. 676-677.
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ing wood to pulp— soda, sulfite, and sulfate.
In a surprisingly short time devastating remarks ap
peared in print. In 1889, for example, a report concerning
public records in Massachusetts noted that:
This wood paper has been known to commerce for less than a score of years— much too short a period to enable us to determine satisfactorily how long it may be expected to last. . . . Some experts maintain that the whole liter ature of this generation will have utterly disappeared before the end of the next century, just as if it had never been, by the decay of the paper on which it is printed.
So consistently did the woodpulp products show marked decay,
and so calamitous were the results, that they elicited such
terse comments as this: "The ancients wrote their messages
on the eternal rocks. We write ours on the transient trees, 12 pulped and rolled into perishable paper. ..."
Sutermeister, op. cit., pp. 52 ff., and Hunter, op. cit., pp. 363 ff. All three processes were developed between 1851 and 1884.
llMassachusetts Records Commission, Report on the Custody and Condition of the Public Records of Parishes, Towns and Counties (Boston : Wright and Potter Printing Com pany, 1889), p. xlv.
l^Samuel Hopkins Adams, "Fade-outs of History," Collier's, the National Weekly, May 12, 1923, p. 14.
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III. DECAY OF ALL KINDS OF PAPER
It should be borne in mind that wood does not a priori
imply rapid deterioration. A distinction must be made between
groundwood papers and chemically purified fibers, which are
considered of vastly greater durability. Ultimate disinte
gration of the former, if allowed to remain untreated, appears
to be a foregone conclusion. In chemically pure fibers, how- 13 ever, "the change should only come through inadvertence."
Well-known restorer W. J. Barrow has expressed confidence
that chemical wood paper of excellent quality and marked
durability can be made by the use of proper fibers and the 14 elimination of acidic ingredients. ..."
Censure, it will be noted, was not reserved for the
woodpulp varieties exclusively. As early as October 10, 1530,
Dutch officials were compelled to issue a regulation direct
ing that under pain of confiscation, the fine of a real of
gold, and the withdrawal of permits ever to sell paper in
l^Arthur D. Little, "The Durability of Paper," The Printing Art, I (June, 1903), 118.
l^The Manufacture and Testing of Durable Book Papers, based on the investigations of W. J. Barrow, ed. Randolph W. Church (Richmond; The Virginia State Library, 1960), p. 1.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13 15 Holland," only good quality paper was to be imported or sold.
Despite these precautions the Dutch Archives complained in
1670 that papers "cracked when folded and after a few days
could be rubbed to fragments between the hands. . .
Further indication of dissatisfaction with contemporary
writing material and possible reasons therefor appeared also
in other European quarters. In 1739 an order promulgated by
the French Council required that:
Paper should , , , be wholly made from rags, in the prep aration of which no lime or caustic chemical had been employed, and that the paper should in every case be sized,
Less than a century later we find the situation repeated in
England, notwithstanding the fact that surely paper made in
the 1820’s was also pure rag. Its stage of deterioration was
so pronounced that John Murray felt it necessary, in 1829, to
alert the British public to its dangers:
I trust that the importance of the present inquiry will appear obvious to every one, as there are very few indi viduals but are fully persuaded that there is something wrong in the texture of our modern printing and writing papers, for they perceive that their books are crumbling to pieces among their hands, whereas their seniors evince no such tendency: this convinces us that it was not al ways so with books, and that the principles of decay have
l®Sutermeister, op, cit., p. 130.
l^Little, op^. cit. , p. 117.
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been infused at a period comparatively recent, and must be connected with modern manufacture. The question has too long slumbered, and the paper manufacturer continues to supply the market with paper so miserably bad in qual ity, that it is really a misnomer to call it paper. . . ,
Not all 100 per cent rag papers display uniformly long-
lasting properties. Some dating back five centuries and more
are in excellent condition, while others, hundreds of years
younger, typify the foregoing description. Some are in a poor
state of preservation; others have vanished. Perhaps one of
the more striking examples of recent vintage is the fine all
rag paper specifically ordered for, and used in, the publica
tion of the Virginia Company records in 1906 by the Library
of Congress, Twenty-two short years later two of the four 19 volumes were disintegrating.
While this does not mitigate the condemnation deserv
edly directed at haphazardly produced woodpulp papers, it does
become clear upon investigation that indeed countless rag papers
^®John Murray, Practical Remarks on Modern Paper (London; T. Cadell, 1829), p. 108.
19w, J, Barrow and Reavis C. Sproull, "Permanence in Book Papers," Sciefi’ce, CXXIX (April, 1959), 1076-77, Rag papers of earlier periods have also been cited for their poor quality by Clapperton, op, cit., p. 100, Included are examples of Chinese, Arab, Spanish, and French manufacture.
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have proven equally unfit. Although many varieties have
survived for centuries, others have "long since ceased to 20 reproach their maker."
IV. THE HAZARDS OF MECHANICAL PULP PREPARATION
Perhaps one of the most advantageous features of hand
made paper is that it was indeed hand-made. Whether rag or
wood is used, mechanical preparation of the pulp is fraught
with danger. Overcooking, overstirring, and overheating
produce a pulp from which it is impossible to fabricate
stable and long-lasting paper. An even more damaging aspect
is the flaking into the pulp of particles of iron from the
machinery itself. Iron catalyzes sulfur dioxide in the air,
thus forming sulfuric acid, which we shall find to be ex
tremely corrosive to paper. But the early oblivion of vital
records is traceable to still other causes ; prominent among
them are substances known as "additives."
V. THE EFFECTS OF ADDITIVES
The history of additives takes us back once again to
the site of paper's origin. The thin and absorbent bark
2®Little, op. cit., p. 115.
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paper of the Far East was admirably suited to the orush
strokes of Oriental calligraphy, but this "net of fibers
with no sizing" was hardly appropriate for the European 21 mode of writing with pen and ink. Opinions vary concern
ing the initial applications of sizing designed to improve
the surface of paper. Carter states that "the papers found
in Turkestan"— those found by archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein
at Niya, and dated by him at c^. 250-300— "show a certain
amount of progress, especially in the art of loading and
22 ' sizing to make writing more easy." Clapperton points out
that paper was "loaded and sized and made fit for writing
and for printing upon long before it became known outside 23 of China. Specifically, he cites the oldest dated paper
in the Stein collection— January 10, 406--whose "surface and 24 sizing are good." Since gypsum is said to be the first
sizing agent used, we hypothesize its introduction in the 25 third century.
2lCarter, 0 £. cit., p. 7. ^^Ibid.
23ciapperton, op. cit., p. 5. ^^Ibid., p. 23.
25curiously, Hunter's chronology contains no mention whatever of sizing prior to 700, at which time "a few papers began to be sized: first with gypsum . . ." 0£. cit., p. 315.
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A glue derived from lichen appears as the next sizing 26 27 agent, followed by starch which Hunter assigns to A.D. 768,
Animal gelatine size originated in Europe about the turn of 28 the fourteenth century, and resin in Germany about 1800,
To judge by the absence of criticism in the literature
on the subject, neither starch, nor lichen gelatine, nor gyp
sum has shown deleterious effects. Animal gelatine per se
has adverse manifestations only when it is of poor quality
or is badly made. In such cases it is unable to withstand
what are considered normal variations of humidity and, as a
result, paper so sized loses "strength, colour, finish, and 29 ink resistance."
^^According to Julius Grant, Books and Documents; Dating, Permanence and Preservation (London: Grafton and Company, 1937), p, 4, glue sizing was "born in Fabriano," No date could be found. 27 Dard Hunter, Papermaking through Eighteen Centuries (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1930% p, 13, Carter, op. cit,, p, 8, includes it among the innovations introduced before papermaking was passed on to the Arabs in the eighth century, Clapperton, op. cit,, p, 63, links it with tenth- century Arab methods.
^®Grant, op. cit., p. 18; and Clapperton, o£. cit., p. 66. ^^Merle B, Shaw, George Bicking, and Martin J. O ’Leary, "A Study of the Relation of Some Properties of Cotton Rags to the Strength and Stability of Experimental Papers Made from Them," United States Bureau of Standards Journal of Research, XIV (January-June 1935), 664, See also Clapperton, op. cit,, pp. 462-63,
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Little value is now attached to alum as a sizing mate- 30 rial when used alone. That it was held in some regard in
former years may be deduced from references to its use. It
was mentioned for the first time in the year 1678 when John
Evelyn, recording in his diary the process of papermaking as
he had observed it, referred to the dipping of a sheet "in 31 alum-water," Writing in 1741, historian Du Halde described 32 and justified its use by the Chinese, To Barrow and his
associate. Reavis C, Sproull, alum, or potassium aluminum sul
fate in technical terminology, was "only the first of a number
of additives which threatened eventually to shorten the life of 33 paper." Used to precipitate resin onto pulp fibers, alum con
tributes substantially to paper’s acidity, a condition which is
subject to intensification by numerous other factors.
30 Waldemar Kaempffert, Discovering New Facts about Paper (Holyoke, Mass.: American Writing Paper Company, 1920), p. 8.
^^William Bray (ed.), The Diary of John Evelyn (in Everyman's Library. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1907), p. 125. An English author, Evelyn lived from 1620 to 1706. 32 Jean Baptiste Du Halde, The General History of China, trans. R. Brookes (third edition corrected; London; J, Watts, 1741), p. 416.
^^Barrow and Sproull, op. cit., p. 1076.
S^ibid.
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Moritz Friedrich Illig’s invention of 1800, resin, was
adopted immediately by German papermakers as an excellent 35 surfacing agent. In 1830, it supplanted in France the gela- 36 tine size which had come into common usage. Itself a "pro
moter of deterioration," resin posed a still greater threat
to paper’s stability by the presence of its counterpart alum, 37 to whose detrimental effects we have alluded. By 1882,
resin-sized papers were already reported as displaying acid 38 reactions.
The desire to whiten and beautify writing and printing
papers is not an aspiration belonging only to the last two
or three centuries, but on the contrary has long been associ
ated with a deep and responsive esthetic sense. Prior to the
eighteenth century, however, it was implemented only by sun-
bleaching, loading with starch, or careful rag selection.
The year 1774 brought to light what papermakers were soon to
S^Little, op. c i t ., p. 118. 36 Hunter, Papermaking, the History, op. cit., p. 346. 37 Carl J. Wessel, "Paper," Glenn A, Greathouse and Carl J. Wessel (eds.). Deterioration of Materials (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1954), p. 400. 38 B. L. Browning and R. W, K. Ulm, "The Nature and Measurement of Paper Acidity," Paper Trade Journal, CII (February 20, 1936), 69.
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consider one of their greatest boons: Karl Wilhelm Scheele's 39 discovery of chlorine gas. Unfortunately, it became a two-
edged sword. It did indeed bleach, to such an extent that
even cheap wrapping paper and other inferior grades took on
a respectable appearance. Its rewards and its products, how
ever, proved ephemeral, since the necessity for properly con
trolled usage was little known. Residues remaining in inade
quately washed stock contributed substantially to that acidity
which has been identified as paper*s~~worst enemy.
It was nearly 150 years ago that England's perspica
cious John Murray first brought to public attention the alarm
ing condition of paper to which had been entrusted the deci
sions of the past and the deliberations of the present, but
for whose survival little hope could be entertained. That he
should define so early, yet so incisively, the "various sources
of decomposition and decay in modern paper" with which his col
leagues in chemistry of this century were later to concur, is 40 little short of amazing.
The changes which have occurred in paper's fabrication,
namely, new material, processes, and additives, reveal
^®Hunter, Papermaking, the History, op. cit., p. 237, footnote.
40Murray, op. cit., p. 69.
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only partially the origins of the custodian's woes. Beyond
these of an intrinsic nature, he encounters problems, environ
mental and otherwise, which also require examination.
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DETERIORATIVE INFLUENCES UPON PAPER IN ITS FINISHED FORM
Since the 1880's, when Europe's ablest chemists repaired
to their laboratories to analyze the phenomenally rapid decay
of paper, report after report has adduced the same causative
factors; those associated with its manufacture, and those
subsequent thereto. The internal elements have already been
discussed. This chapter will concern itself with the external
aspects. To be considered are the effects of acid, light,
heat, and moisture connected with environmental conditions;
damage accompanying fungal activity; and the problems arising
from certain inks.
For years the stability of rag paper was almost univer
sally assumed. In 1895 Professor W, Herzberg of the Univer
sity of Berlin cautioned against overconfidence. "The question
of durability," he said, "can only be definitely decided by a
series of systematic experiments extending over a long period."^
W. Herzberg, "Die Ausdauerfahigkeit unserer Papiere," Die chemische Industrie, Leipzig, 1895, Jahrg. 18, pp. 476-479, abstracted in Robert P. Walton (comp.); Causes and Prevention of Deterioration in Book Materials (New York: The New York Public Library, 1929), p. 6,
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Almost fourscore years were to elapse before judgment was sim
ilarly reserved with regard to wood-derived paper. Whether
made of bark, wood, or rag, all papers have in common one
ingredient; cellulose. Isolated in 1839 by Anselme Payen,
cellulose has evolved as the common component of all vegetable 2 fibers. The cellulose molecule is believed to be composed of
"a lengthy chain of links which" under certain external influ- 3 ences "breaks into shorter and weaker chains. ..."
I. ACID
The eighty years of systematic probing for the prin
ciples influencing paper's durability have been marked by the
striking ubiquity of one word which has become the chief meas
ure of paper's likelihood of survival: ‘ acidity. Through
hydrolysis the sulfur dioxide emanating from fabricating pro
cedures, from atmospheric conditions, and from acid inks
converts to sulfuric acid. By decomposing paper's chief
^William Haynes, Cellulose (Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1953), p. 18.
^Harry Miller Lydenberg, and John Archer, The Care and Repair of Books (rev. by John Alden; New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1960), p. 19.
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ingredient, cellulose, and by attacking in addition the non-
cellulosic components of inferior papers, acidity becomes the
active agent of chemical deterioration.
As early as 1842, sulfur-oriented corrosion was sus- 4 pected in the deterioration of leather bookbindings. The
theory of Faraday and his contemporaries, who associated sul
fur products with illuminating gas and poor ventilation, re
ceived support in 1880 from William Blades who likewise attrib
uted the disintegration of bindings to " . . . the sulphur in 5 the gas fumes. ..." In 1887 Professor Julius Wiesner of
Vienna applied the theory, somewhat enlarged, to paper.^ Eleven
years later the Committee of the Royal Society of Arts on the
Deterioration of Paper issued a statement that anticipated all
the essential elements of today's findings:
*^F. P. Veitch, R. W. Frey, and L. R. Leinbach, "Pol luted Atmosphere a Factor in the Deterioration of Bookbinding Leather," The Journal of American Leather Chemists Association, XXI (March, 1926), 156.
^William Blades, The Enemies of Books (second edition; London: Truber and Company, Ludgate Hill, 1880), p. 28. 6 J. Wiesner, "The Influence of Gas Lighting on the Rapid Discoloration of Wood-made Papers," Dingier's Polytech nic Journal, CCLXVI (1887), 181-184, abstracted in The Journal of the Society of Chemical Industries, VII (January 31, 1888), 44.
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Actual disintegration has been found to occur in all grades of paper; it is the result of chemical change of the fibres themselves, and in some cases could be traced to the effect of illuminating gas upon the atmosphere of the rooms in which the books had been stored. In the case of the rag papers examined, the effects appeared to be due to acid bodies, which may have been present in the original paper as made, may have resulted from reactions going on in the paper itself after making, or may have been due to products of gas consumption. . . .
For the next twenty-five years, Europeans and, to a limited
extent, Americans were engaged in seeking and testing the
cause and effect relationships of deterioration. By 1924
the Government Testing Institute in Stockholm was working
out new methods for determining separately the degree of both
external" and "internal" acidity.^ Numerous tests and sur
veys have since been conducted, including those initiated by
the National Bureau of Standards beginning in 1928, confirm
ing the fact that sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed
by paper where, as sulfuric acid, it creates or aggravates a g seriously damaging state. Most authorities agree that
^Carl J. Wessel, "Paper," Glenn A. Greathouse and Carl J. Wessel (eds.). Deterioration of Materials (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1954), p. 397. g Gcfsta Hall, "Permanence of Paper," Paper Trade Journal, LXXXII (April 18, 1926), 54. g Wessel, loc. cit.
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evidence of the contaminated condition, depending upon its
gravity, consists of loss of strength in the paper, severe
embrittlement, and discoloration.
We have observed the "internal" sources of acidity:
sulfur dioxide introduced into the pulp by the bits of iron
flaked off the machinery, by chlorine residues, and by alum.
The principal "external" source is to be found in the air.
Where the atmosphere is relatively clean, as in institutions
located in rural surroundings, deterioration from sulfur hy
drolysis is far less pronounced. In uroan areas, highly pol
luted by industrial fumes, degradation is markedly higher.
Even the best grades of paper are susceptible to sul
fur attack. Whether or not the initial quality of paper is
a factor in sulfur dioxide's absorption is still a matter of
discussion. Greater resistance to the gas by non-rag papers
was noted by Jarrell, Hankins, and Veitch,while Shaw and
l^Arthur E. Kimberly and Adelaide L. Emley, A Study of the Removal of Sulphur Dioxide from Library Air, National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Miscellaneous Publication No. 142 (Washington: Goverriment Printing Office, 1933), pp. 102.
^\t. D. Jarrell, J. M. Hankin, and F. P. Veitch, Deterioration of Book and Record Papers, United States De partment of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin No. 541 (Washin- ton: Government Printing Office, 1936), p. 18.
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O'Leary found that "... rag fibers seemed to withstand 12 acidity better than any of the other fibers used. ; . ." 13 Richter detected little if any difference. Regardless of
the origin of the pulp from which the paper was made, the
marginal areas of books were found to harbor concentrations
of acid, indicating greater absorption by the most exposed 14 portions.
What may be of profound significance in the problem of
atmospheric influence are the findings of a recent American
survey of Soviet libraries, summed up as follows:
The delegation . . . was impressed by the excellent con dition in Soviet libraries of many materials that are rapidly disintegrating in American libraries. For example, a poorly bound 1936 volume of Pravda was found in the University Library at Samarkand in almost perfect condi- tion; the pages appeared to be freshly off the press. . . .
^Merle B. Shaw and Martin J. O'Leary, "Effects of Fill ing and Sizing Materials on Stability of Book Papers," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, Vol. XXI (Washington: Government Print ing Office, 1938), p. 694.
^^George A. Richter, "Durability of Purified Wood Fibers, Part III. Accelerated Aging Test of Various Types of Paper- making Fibers," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, XXIII (April, 1931), 380.
^^The concentrations move inward by a process which Barrow refers to as the "migration of impurities."
^%elville J. Ruggles and Raynard C. Swank, Soviet Libraries and Librarianship (Chicago: American Library Asso ciation, 1962), p. 54.
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The volume, upon examination, was found to be an ordinary
production-line edition, printed on groundwood paper. The
report continues :
In all parts of the Soviet Union visited by the delega tion, book paper (and card catalog stock, as well) ap peared to be lasting^^onger than the same paper in the United States. . . .
II. TESTING CRITERIA
To achieve meaningful test results, indices were estab
lished against which to measure data and to formulate theories.
For the determination of paper's quality by evaluating the
purity of cellulose, the alpha-cellulose content was devised;
for the degree of acidity present, the pH factor; and for the
extent of deterioration, the copper number.
Kimberly and Scribner identify the alpha-cellulose con
tent of paper as ;
that part of the cellulose material which is insoluble in a sodium hydroxide solution of mercerizing strength (17.5 per NaOH) under certain specified conditions and is regarded as a measure of the amount of unmodified cellulose which the material contains.
IGibid. 17 A. E. Kimberly and B. W. Scribner, Summary Report of Bureau of Standards Research on Preservation of Records, National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Miscellaneous Publication No. 144 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1934), p. 8,
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It would normally be expected that fibers from new
rags would contain much more alpha-cellulose than those
from old rags. That purified wood fiber exceeds the alpha-
cellulose content found in other forms of wood might also be
anticipated, but that some have exhibited more than found in
the purer grades of rag fiber is a curious development. ^Yhile
not contesting the clinical observations, Torrey and Suter-
raeister challenged the validity of the alpha-cellulose test
on other grounds. To begin with, the alpha-cellulose crite
rion tests only the fibrous portion, whereas paper's durabil
ity is determined by its chemical characteristics as a whole,
not its fibrous portion alone. Furthermore, they contend,
when one considers the mechanical and chemical changes accom
panying the transition from "handmade to machine-made paper
and from the starch-sized old papers to rosin-sized modern
products, . . the alpha-cellulose content may well pale
into insignificance. They cite as examples papers from 200
to 900 years old, most of them well preserved, yet none
possessing relatively high alpha-cellulose content.
V. Torrey and E. Sutermeister, "A Brief Study of Some Old Papers," Paper Trade Journal, XCVI (May, 1933), 45.
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Lydenberg called the pH "a means of expressing the
degree of acidity of basicity of a solution."^® A pH below
6,0 indicates decay; a pH as high as 9,0 is, according to
Barrow, "possible to achieve, apparently without undesirable
results if obtained from the use of calcium carbonate as a
filler."2°
Defined as "a measure of the amount of modified or 21 deteriorated cellulose present," the copper number has
become a valuable tool for assessing the effects on paper 22 of both internal and external forces. A high copper num- 23 her indicates poor condition of the sample tested.
Near the turn of the twentieth century the theory was
conceived of aging paper by artificial means in order to
^^Lydenberg and Archer, op. cit., p. 8. 20 The Manufacture and Testing of Durable Book Papers, based on the investigations of W. J. Barrow, ed, Randolph W. Church (Richmond: The Virginia State Library, 1960), p. 14. 21 Kimberly and Scribner, op. cit., p. 8.
^^The National Bureau of Standards devoted considerable research to copper number testing in the 1930's. 23 The Manufacture and Testing, op. cit., p. 13, Mr, Barrow reported that in his most recent experiments he did not use "such chemical tests as copper number, water extrac- tables, alkali solubles, and viscosity," because they pro duced inconsistent results in his first testing project.
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simulate conditions which would obtain normally if a period 24 of years were allowed to elapse. By 1911 Sweden was sub
jecting samples to direct sunlight for short periods of time
at temperatures up to 100° The current standard practice,
refined through extensive experimentation on both sides of
the Atlantic, is exposure to 100° C., plus or minus 2°, for 26 seventy-two hours. This procedure of artificial aging is
generally accepted as equivalent to twenty-five years of 27 natural aging.
Of the various means devised to test the strength of
paper, the folding endurance test is considered the most
B^Ibid., p. 15.
^^Hall, 0 £. cit., p. 52. O c The National Bureau of Standards began its tests in the accelerated aging of paper in 1928. For the 1931 report of its research, see Royal H. Basch, "Accelerated Aging Test for Paper," National Bureau of Standards, United States Depart ment of Commerce, Journal of Research, Vol. VII (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931), pp. 465-475. In a later review of its work, the Bureau confirmed that exposing paper to 100° C. for seventy-two hours gives a fair correlation between natural and artificial aging. For a report on the more recent study, see William K. Wilson et at., "Accelerated Aging of Record Papers Compared with Normal Aging," Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper industry, XXXVIII (September, 1955), 543-547. 97 Barrow, loc. cit. In his 1960 testing, Barrow extended the exposure time to forty-eighc days, or the equiva lent of four hundred years.
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conditions of deterioration, paper's folding endurance is
appreciably reduced.
III. LIGHT, HEAT, AND MOISTURE
Numerous studies dating back to 1902 indicate that
light, heat, and moisture accelerate deterioration by increas
ing the action of the sulfuric acid already present in the pQ paper. Specifically, the ultraviolet rays in sunshine are 30 believed to bombard paper's molecular structure. Eighty
years ago Professor Wiesner observed that lignin oxidizes
^®George A. Richter, "Relative Permanence of Paper Exposed to Sunlight," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, XXVII (January-June, 1935), 177.
^^Arthur E, Kimberly and J. F. G, Hicks, "Light Sensi tivity of Rosin Paper-Sizing Materials," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commence, Journal of Research, Vol. VI (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931), p. 820. 30 Lydenberg and Archer, op. cit., p. 22. The effects of the sun have long been known. According to R. H. van Gulik, Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur (Rome: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1958), p. 3, thirteenth-century Sung scholar Chao Hsi-Ku recommended that decorative scrolls be removed from walls every three or four days. "In such a way," he said, "you will . . . see all your scrolls and they will never suffer damage by draughts or sun- rays. ..."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33 31 in the presence of light, and then turns yellow. Heat and
moisture contribute similarly to sulfuric acid's weakening
of paper, as manifested by the characteristic yellowing,
embrittlement, and loss of folding endurance. It has been
noted that:
In a ten-day exposure, sulfur dioxide decreased the fold ing endurance considerably at 85° F. and a relative humid ity of 65%. At 104° F., the rate of loss of folding endurance is doubled, and a similar, or greater, effect occurs when the relative humidity is raised to 8 0 %.32
In further support of the heat-damaging theory, Dr. Carl J.
Wessel points out that the accelerated aging tests used to 33 measure paper's stability are actually "heat tests." Even
moderate heat has damaging capabilities, although longer peri
ods of time are required to demonstrate its effect,As far
back as 1875 it was discovered, in connection with cotton in
fabric, that as deterioration advances, so the degree of acid
ity increases. It has since been observed that as acidity
intensifies, deterioration is accelerated, attended by a
31 Referred to in T. D. Beckwith, W, H. Swanson, and T. M. liams. Deterioration of Paper, the Cause and Effect of Foxing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940), p. 299. 32 "Paper Destruction Hastened by High Temperature and Humidity," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol. XXVI, p. 219. 33 34 Wessel, op. cit., p. 393. Ibid.
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decided decline in the copper number and the pH value. 35
IV. FUNGI
In perusing old tomes it is not an uncommon experience
to come upon rusty red discolorations now known as "foxing."
Assumed to be an indication of chemical and physical deteriora
tion, "foxing," so-called presumably because the offending
blemishes are so reminiscent of a fox's coloring, is attri
buted to microorganisms. Perhaps paper can deteriorate with
out discoloration, or discolor without deterioration, but when
there appears color recognizable as foxing, decay of fungal
origins is almost certainly in progress.
In the manufacturing process, "contamination with cellu-
lolytic organisms" may arise from "(1) use of infected size or
glue, (2) washing bleached pulps with polluted water, or
(3) drying sized or moistened papers by intense aeration with- 36 out disinfecting the air." Materials containing cellulose 37 are known to encourage fungal growth.Since we know
^^Beckwith, op. cit., pp. 320-321.
36a . Sartory e^ aJ., "Some Paper-Destroying Fungi," Papier, XXXVIII (June, 1935), 529-542, abstracted in Morris S. Kantrowitz, Ernest W. Spender, and Robert H. Simmons, Perma nence and Durability of Paper (Washington: Government Print ing Office, 1940), p. 18.
3?Wessel, loc. cit.
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cellulose to be paper’s chief ingredient, the attraction of
fungi to the finished product is not surprising. Beckwith and
his associates stated that foxing may also suggest the presence
of iron, an element connected with all wood-pulp paper and 38 suspected in all machine-made varieties. Fungi, whose pro
liferation is accelerated by iron, find among paper’s compo
nents palatable elements in addition to cellulose. Gelatine
and starch contribute to their sustenance, as do dextrin and 39 casein when they are present. And certainly volumes whose
pages have been contaminated by exposure to " . . . microbi
ological nutrients such as oils, dust, food particles, ..."
etc., invite attack.
The damage inflicted by fungi— discoloration, debilita
tion, or perforation, not to speak of other bacterial assaults,
as well as insect and rodent mutilation— has been extensive
all over the world. On whether fungicides can be so compounded
that their effects can be successfully limited to their tar
gets, opinion is divided. Beckwith believes that:
Attempts to find a fungicide which will kill the organisms without alteration of the paper itself have been unavail ing. The invading fungi can be killed, but the paper is injured also.:
SSseckwith, op. cit., p. 302. ^^Wessel, op. cit., p. 367.
40lbid., p. 366. ^^Beckwith, op. cit., p. 333
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Beljakova indicates thàt Russia adds an anti-fungal ingredient
to paste, but emphasizes that caution is necessary to protect 42 users. Wessel recommends calcium propionate as "quite effec
tive and . . . usable in fairly large concentrations because 43 it is harmless to man. . . ." One of the most successful
fumigants is ethylene oxide whose insecticidal properties were
noted in 1928 by American and German scientists. A versatile
disinfectant, it is used with equal satisfaction for archival, 44 hospital, or agricultural purposes.
Fumigation, air-conditioning, and fungicides can be
expected to continue their advances in combatting the fungal
problem. Unfortunately, records already damaged have not yet
ceased to plague the custodian.
V. INKS
Still another factor influencing paper’s durability
is the effect of writing fluids with which records are inscribed.
L. A. Beljakova and 0. V. Kozulina, "Book Preserva tion in USSR Libraries," UNESCO Library Bulletin, XV (July- August, 1961), 200.
43wessel, op. cit., p. 370.
^^F. Flieder and J. Boissonant, "Study of the Fungicidal Properties of Ethylene Oxide," Bulletin d*Information sur la Pathologie des Documents et leur Protection aux Archives de France, No. 1, (1961), pp. 61-64.
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These fluids have harbored hazards of no small proportions.
Generally divided into two classes, inks are known either as 45 carbon or as iron-gall, depending upon their composition. 46 Those of the carbon family, used almost exclusively from at 47 least the third century B.C. until the early part of the 48 eleventh century, were not injurious to paper. Experience
with ancient and medieval Indian manuscripts indicates, how
ever, that the carbon ink with which they were written dis- 49 plays poor resistance to dispersion by water.
45 W. J. Barrow, Manuscripts and Documents, Their Deteri oration and Restoration (Charlottesville: University of Vir ginia, 1955), p. 6, explains that "the carbon ink was known to the Romans as altramentum scriptorum, and sometimes was called simply altramentum. It is the earliest known writing fluid. The iron ink was known as encaustum during the Middle Ages, later as iron gall ink, and today as gallotannate of iron. . . .’
‘^^Ibid. Mr. Barrow describes carbon inks as those "com posed generally of either soot, lampblack, or some type of char coal to which were added gum arable and a solvent such as water, wine, or vinegar. ..."
4?Grant, op. cit., p. 34.
^^Ibid. Carbon inks were not injurious unless ferrous sulfate was added, which was done at times to overcome the ink’s shortcomings of susceptibility to smudge in damp weather, and to being readily washed from the document. 4Q 0. P. Goel, "Repair of Documents with Cellulose Ace tate Foils on a Small Scale," Indian Archives, VII (July- December, 1953), 162-165.
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The iron-gall type^^ whose use began in 1020,^^ and 52 continued almost uninterruptedly until about 1860, has
drawn a barrage of criticism for its extensive damage to 53 paper documents. Predisposed to acidity by the interaction
of their components, inks of the Middle Ages have not only
eaten through paper, but in some cases, only the unwritten
margins of the pages remain, for all the rest . . . has fallen 54 to pieces, , , . " A tendency to become even more highly
acid by absorption of sulfur dioxide from the atmosphere and
by the assimilation of acid from the residual bleaching and
sizing agents associated with paper's manufacture has been
Barrow, op. cit., p. 7, relates that the basic ingredients of encaustum, or iron-gall inks, are copperas, galls, gum arable, and a solvent such as water, wine, or vinegar. ..."
^^Grant, op. cit., p. 41. 52 W. H. Langwell, The Conservation of Books and Docu ments (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1957), p. 46. 53 * Among the most penetrating indictments of ink is that of Cardinal Franz Ehrle who refers to its effects from time to time in "Sur la conservation et la restauration des anciens manuscrits," Revue des Bibliothèques, VIII (1898), 152-172.
J. Barrow and Reavis C. Sproull, "Permanence in Book Papers," Science, CXXIX (April, 1959), 1076. See also C. W. Waters, Inks, National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Circular C 413 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1936), p. 20.
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observed. Sir Hilary Jenkinson concludes that "true inks"
of the iron-gall type are, in fact, stains that penetrate
the fibers of writing materials.
Chemists agree that a lack of balance in the ink’s
chemical formulation and composition, resulting in an excess
of sulfuric acid, accounts for the devastation. It is unfor
tunate that :
Not until 1748, when William Lewis began to experiment, was any attempt made to produce a 'balanced' ink, with nearly correct proportions of iron and nutgalls; and even in his timg^there were no analytical methods to help him. . . .
Aside from burning, excessive acid will migrate to and damage
by discoloration, embrittling, and impaired legibility both 57 the areas surrounding the writing, and the sheets adjacent.
Properly compounded iron-gall inks can be credited
with numerous early but still extant and legible manuscripts.
CO Not all those inscribed with iron-gall inks have deteriorated.
^^Hilary Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922), p. 71. 56 57 Waters, op. cit., p. 3. Barrow, op. cit., p. 15.
S^Ibid., p. 18. In this reference Mr. Barrow suggests that "many early papers contain alkaline salts which some times existed in sufficient quantities to neutralize a portion or most of the acidity in moderately acid inks."
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Nevertheless, so many have already crumbled beyond redemption,
and numerous others are fast reaching that stage, that attempts
at immediate and effective restoration became urgent.
In the fugitive nature of the "aniline and cheapened
inks" appeared another disquieting element, for almost a cen- 59 tury, for all those charged with the care of records. Fad
ing and water-solubility were destined to rob several genera
tions of their valuable records, either toto, or in essence
when frantic and careless recopying substituted for an orig
inal something less than a faithful and accurate record.
The establishment and acceptance of prescribed standards have
made great strides in assuring the permanency of today’s
records.
59 J. C. Fitzpatrick, Notes on the Care, Cataloguing, Calendaring and Arranging of Manuscripts (Washington: Govern ment Printing Office, 1913), p. 38. W. H. Langwell, op. cit., p. 46, associates the invention of aniline dyes with "about 1860." William Berwick of the Library of Congress found sus pect any document after 1800. See p. 126, footnote 18 infra.
^^Massachusetts Records Commission, Report on the Cus tody and Condition of the ^bllc Records of Parishes, Towns, and Counties (Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1896), p. 12. The Commissioner complained that copyists were guilty not only of careless copying but of deliberate editing.
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Faced with varied and far-reaching problems, the
modern archivist has been hard put to discharge with satis
faction his cardinal obligation of preserving for the future
the precious yet perishable records of the past and the
present. Be it said to his credit, he made whatever at
tempts seemed feasible at the time to combat destruction.
The nature of those attempts is our next consideration.
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THE HISTORY OF TRANSPARENT PAPER IN DOCUMENT RESTORATION
The use of a transparent material to reinforce a paper
document without obscuring its message originated at least
1500 years ago in China, the birthplace of paper itself.
I. EARLY REFERENCES
Among the earliest allusions to paper in repair work
is Ku-Szu-hsieh's fifth-century exposition on the patching of
damaged scrolls:
If . . , one uses for the patches paper thin like scal lion leaves, these will merge with the paper of the scroll itself, so that they can hardly be distinguished: if one does not scrutinize the scroll against the light one cannot see that it has been patched up. . . .
Traversing dusty and arduous trails, the "ship of the
desert" brought Oriental wonders to an eager Occident long
before seagoing vessels expanded limited trading into lively
R. H. van Gulik, Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur (Rome: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1958), pp. 136 and 142, citing a treatise on agriculture and handicrafts: "Ch'i-min-yao-shu," or "Impor tant Skills of the Common People, written by Chia Ssu-hsieh. See also Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 153 and 197.
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commerce. Paper, we know, was among the items it carried.
According to Hunter:
Chinese and Japanese paper has always been thin, soft, pliable, and absorbent, owing to the Asiatic vegetable fibres and their preparation, as well as to the process of forming the sheets of paper upon flexible moulds made of bamboo. . . . 3 He adds that the sheets had a "thin, transparent quality."
It may be safe to assume, then, that at least some transparent
papers were included in early overland cargoes.
How to achieve transparency was recorded over a thou
sand years after Ku-Szu-hsieh by Ming scholar Li Jih-hua
(1565-1635), who directed that a sheet of paper be heated
over a hot flat iron, then treated with an evenly applied
coat of yellow wax. Of the resulting paper called "ying-
huang," he said, "If one lays a sheet of this paper over some
thing, even the smallest details of such an object will be
perfectly discernible."*
Although Van Gulik refers to ying-huang as a desirable
medium for tracing old scrolls, no specific reference As its
^IMtrd Hunter, Papermaking; the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (Hew York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943), pp. 34-35.
^Ibid.
*Van Gulik, op. cit., p. 137, footnote 2, paragraph 3, quoted from Li Jih-hua*s treatise "Tz'u-t'ao-sien-tsa-cho."
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repair potentiality has so far come to light.^ From time im
memorial, however, it has been customary for one generation
to hand down to the next the skills it received from its pre
decessor or acquired through its own initiative. Fifth-
century adaptation of transparent paper to document repair,
was, therefore, in all likelihood known in the sixteenth cen
tury.
Assuming that the coat of wax wotld have been incom
patible with the adhesion necessary for a patching operation,
the very existence of any transparent material was sufficient
to suggest the possibility of another variety without wax.
We have observed that earlier generations had accomplished
transparency as a result of the nature of the fibers and the
maceration methods used. With all sorts of knowledge tradi
tionally communicated from father to son, particularly tech
niques associated with the crafts, it is highly unlikely that
the ability to make wax-free paper "thin like scallion leaves"
was a lost art by Li Jih-hua*s time.
II. PAPER IN JAPANESE TRADE
Japan's seaborne trade began in 1543 when a China-
bound Portuguese vessel, buffeted by high winds, took refuge
Sibid., p. 136.
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off the southern tip of Kyushu. During the next half-century
trading ships became a familiar sight in Kyushu waters. With
them came members of the Jesuit Order who, "under Portuguese g patronage and Italian management," enjoyed success, not only
in their proselyting efforts, but in the commercial ventures
which they undertook to support their farflung activities.
Included in the trade appear to have been considerable quan
tities of paper, manufactured in and exported by Japan. Kiyo-
fusa Narlta points out that: 7 In the Ibiromanchi period [1336 to 1573] . . . many paper- makers arose in Kal, Shinano, and other provinces, and consequently a great amount of paper was produced .... What is noteworthy in this period is that, when opening trade overseas, paper was presented to the country as a representative product, besides a great déal of paper was exported from this country.
In the light of our information that Japan's period
of brisk trading began in the late sixteenth century, it may
®"Japan," Encyclopaedia Britannica (1963 éd.), XII, 917.
^"Japanese Painting and Prints," Encyclopaedia Britan nica (1963 éd.), XII, 965.
*Kiyofusa Karita, Japanese Paper-Making (Tokyo: Hoku- seido Press, 1954), p. 13. Details have been presented in order to establish historically the circumstances and the route whereby Oriental tissue of modern vintage could haVe reached the shores of It&ly, one of the early Western users of transparent paper for archival purposes.
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be no mere coincidence that Europe began to manufacture its
own Sextra-thin" papers about 1570.®
The Unique Position of the Dutch
Another link to the outside world was forged by the
arrival in Japan in 1600 of a Dutch trading vessel. In the
course of years, as the desire for commercial success waned
before the growing fear of Christian subversion and the
smoldering resentment of what appeared to be mounting clerical
avarice and disdain, foreign traders, one by one, were ban
ished or discouraged.^® In 1623 the British East India Com
pany, whose commercial relations with Japan had begun ten 11 short years before, withdrew. In the following year the
9 Hunter, Papermaking; the History, op. cit., p. 325.
lOEngelbertus Kaempfer, The History of Japan, trans. J. G. Scheuchzer (London: Printed for the publisher and sold to T. Woodward & C. Davis, 1728), pp. 314-315. 11 Bunsho Jugaku, in his Paper-Making by Hand in Japan (Tokyo: Meiji-Shobo, Publishers, Ltd., 1959T7 P* 20, refers to an entry which Jo^n Evelyn (supra, p. 31, footnote 46) made in his diary on June 26, 1664: "'Thomson, a Jesuit, showed me such a collection of rarities, sent from the Jesuits of Japan and China to their Order at Paris . . . but brought to London by the East India ships for them, as in my life I had not seen,' and in that collection . . . we find 'paper like that which Lord Verulam describes in his Nova Atlantis. . . .'" The disparity of forty years between the departure of the East India Company from Japan and the date of this entry is puzzling, but we think it does not negate the recognition of paper's early arrival on the Continent's northwest coast.
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Spanish, but two decades after they had been invited to par
ticipate in the development of Japan's mineral resources,
were expelled. When, at last, the Portuguese joined the exo
dus, the only foreigners to remain in Japan until almost the
end of the Tokugawa period (1603-1871) , were the Dutch.
Great heights in papermaking were attained during this period.
Jugaku tells us that:
In many fiefs, paper was now among the moSt important commodities ; being encouraged by feudal lords, Japanese paper-making reached the zenith of its prosperity in the Tokugawa Shogunate. . . .
Japanese paper had become an accustomed article in the holds 14 of Dutch ships and a familiar item on their manifests.
Only thus could it have reached the West at all during the 15 more than two centuries of Japan's self-imposed isolation.
Japan," Encyclopaedia Britannica, (11th ed.), XV, 236.
Jugaku, 0 £. cit., p. 17.
^*LeWts W. Bush, Japaaalia (fifth edition; New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959), p. 186. See also Kaempfer, op. cit., p. 20, who points out that "Holland . . . played an important role in introducing Japanese papers into Europe.
Japan was reopened in the late 1850's through the efforts of Commodore Perry and United States consul-general Townsend Harris.
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III. THE NETHERLANDS
We have searched in vain for references to establish
how long before 1858 transparent paper or tissue was known X6 to archival circles in the Netherlands. That the material
was wall known by that date is clearly attested by the fol
lowing letter written on December 20, 1858, by State Archivist
Dr. R. C. Bakhuizen van den Brink to the Director of the 17 Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, A. A. van de Kasteele:
Your Honour kindly gave the clerk-chartermaster Mr. de Zwaan some sheets of Japanese paper for his use. After having been put to the test, this kind of paper proved to be extremely suitable for the pasting of partly damaged charters, a large number of which are in the pos session of the State Archives. Mr. de Zwaan added, that Your Honour had kindly declared your willingness to place at the disposal of the State Archives a still larger quan tity of the paper in your custody, if only I addressed to you an official request to that purpose. I hereby take the liberty to do this, assuring you, that whatever quan tity you are willing to part with, will be gratefully accepted, while I shall always be ready to reciprocate, when occasion arises.^
^®E. J. Labarre, A Dictionary of Paper and Paper-making Terms (Amsterdam: N. V. Swets and Zeitlinger, 1937), p. 299, quoting the "Dictionary of Pulp and Paper Mill Terms** pub lished in Paper and Pulp Magazine of Canada, 1922, states that the name "tissue** is "due not to its texture but comes from its use in separating the folds of fine silk tissue."
institution is now known as Mauritshuis Museum.
^^Translation supplied in letter from H. Hardenberg, Director General of the State Archives, The Hague, August 7, 1963.
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The present Director General of the State Archives, The Hague,
confirmed tissue's long service in Holland when he declared
that "Japanese tissue is very common here and before lamina- 19 tion was introduced the only general way of archival repair."
IV. THE UNITED STATES
A still extant letterpress copy of a Benjamin Franklin
communication, dated in 1791, traces the existence of trans
parent tissue in the United States at least to the late eight
eenth century.®® By its very nature the letterpress process
requires the transparent characteristic in paper. The tis
sue's provenience, whether of foreign or domestic origin, is
not known. Dutch, as well as other European, vessels plied
American waters, providing ample conveyance for either Jap
anese or Continental paper. Although we do not know whether
they produced tissue, domestic mills, too, were in active oper
ation.
Regardless of its source, tissue was adapted for archival
purposes here by 1837. An excerpt from an article concerning
l*Ibid.
BOinterview with James L. Gear, Chief of Document Res toration Branch, National Archives, May 1, 1964.
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the treatment of "ancient" documents in New Hampshire explains:
As to the manner of putting ancient manuscripts together in volumes, I will . . . refer to the communication from Mr. CJoseph B.J Felt. When they are torn or decayed, they may be patched and supported by means of silk paper and strong gum arable water, or even common paste. The silk paper may be pasted over the writing without concealing it.21
The spread of tissue in recent centuries as an archival
repair material defies precise dating and location. Mr. Bar
row has informed us that "it will be quite difficult to state
exactly when tissue . . . was first used...... " He claims
to "have seen some going back 200 or more years." 22 The dates
already supplied, namely, 1837 for this country and 1858 for
Holland, are the earliest confirmed in literature.
V. ITALY
It is said that tissue became known in Italy about 23 1874. In view of Mr. Barrow's comment and reflecting upon
BlRichard Bartlett, "Remarks and Documents Relating to the Preservation and Keeping of the Public Archives," Collec tions of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Vol. V, No. 1 (Concord: [ n.n.J , 1837), pp. 13-14. On p. 29 Mr. Bartlett describes "Rev. Joseph B. Felt" as "a well-informed antiquary and historian, who has been some time engaged in arranging and classifying the papers in the office of the secretary of the state of Massachusetts."
22|f, J. Barrow, personal letter. May 22, 1962.
23gugenio Casanova, Archivistica (Siena; Stab. Arti Grafiche Lazzeri, 1928), p. 91.
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early Japanese-Portuguese-Itallan trade relations, one may be
forgiven the speculation that transparent tissue was not alien
to Italian archival circles, at least by reputation, in 1874.
Even in the absence of specific supporting data, it may still
be more correct to say that the material reappeared in, rather
than was introduced to, Italian repair laboratories in the
1870»s.
VI. ENGLAND
When tissue was first placed on English repair tables
also eludes exact dating. The remarks of Bodley's Librarian,
Mr. Edward W. B. Nicholson, in December 1898, indicate no later
than 1883 :
We of course have many MSS. or leaves of MSS., both on vellum and on paper, which have been overlaid with trans parent paper. I have had the bindeir's books looked over for a period of 16 years back in order to pick these out, and Mr. Gibson has got out some scores of them for me to examine.24
24%. w. B. Nicholson, "Report by Bodley's Librarian to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, on the Conference held at St. Gallen, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 1898, upon the pres ervation and repair of old MSS.," December 22, 1898, p. 19. The report includes a translation of part of an article pub lished by "the Rev. Father Franz Xhrle, Prefect of the Vatican Library," in the Centralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen, January- February 1898 issue, under title of "fiber die Erhaltung und Ausbesserung alter Handschriften," and translated in the Revue des Bibliothèques for Mkrch-Mhy 1898, as "Sur la Conservation et la Restauration des Anciens Manuscrits," infra Chapter Y. To the translation Mr. Nicholson appended his own observations and a summary of the conference.
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In referring, however, to a document whose tissue covering
held up poorly, Mr. Nicholson goes on to say that:
Whether that was overlaid 20 or SO years ago I cannot say; and I am told by Mr. Maltby, our present binder, that the transparent paper used in the time of an old Oxford binder either was or has turned very yellow. . . .
The earlier date, falling around the mid-century mark, sug
gests new possibilities which might well approximate, or
even precede, early Dutch usage.
VII. VARIETIES OF TRANSPARENT PAPER
Nomenclature, as the remainder of this chapter will
bear out, is of paramount importance to the subject. Hereto
fore, we have used "transparent paper" as a purely generic
term to identify any paper through which one can distinguish
detail. Father Franz Ehrle, Prefect of the Vatican Library
from 1895 to 1914 was perhaps the first to differentiate one 25 species from another. When others spoke of "Japanese tis
sue," they referred, generally, to any transparent tissue,
labeling the type by the country understood to be its source.
Genuine Japanese tissue— a strong, thin, and chemically
25lbid.
2^A German-born scholar and follower in the great tradi tion of Italian bibliophiles. Father Ehrle (1845-1934) was ele vated to the-position of Cardinal in the Catholic hierarchy in 1922.
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pure paper--is believed to have been imported extensively from
Japan from the latter 1800's until 1941. Germany developed a
corresponding variety from "strongly beaten cellulose pulp
containing no added oil or chemical agents; the transparency 27 was entirely due to the high degree of beating." Heavier
in weight but still transparent was an approximation manufac
tured in Italy; this may well be the type which aroused Car
dinal Ehrle to alert all potential users to its injurious fea
tures. Repair papers were as vulnerable to the debilitating
influences of additives, apparently, as were record papers:
"Before all, I believe that we must rigorously guard ourselves against employing with too much confidence transparent paper. As far as I am able to see, we must distinguish two principal species of this paper. The one of which the use is the more generally extended, and which has many varieties, is formed by those sorts of fine papers which acquire their special transparence only by a mixture of terebinthine"— i.e., turpentine— "or of other chemical substances, generally oleaginous.
"For the second species, we can cite the pretty Jap anese silk-paper, very fine and at the same time very solid, which owes its transparence not to the mixture of
®^Joh. Papritz, "New Methods, New Materials, and New Results in the Restoration and Conservation of Archives and in Documentary Phototechnique since 1950," Current Problems in the World of Archives, Papers from the IVth International Congress of Archives, Stockholm, August 17 to 20, 1960 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1960), p. 4.
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a strange substance, but only to the fineness of its original material and of its contexture. After the sad experiences arrived at in our Library, I cannot too energetically place people on their guard against the employment of all the different varieties of the first species.
"About 20 years ago, they set themselves, in our workroom, to cover with transparent paper the numerous «g paper MSS. which had been eaten by Italian vitriol-ink. The result so obtained was fully satisfactory in the first years. The writing was still easy to read under this covering, and on the other hand the covering seemed to give the eaten paper the necessary solidity. It was only 8 or 10 years afterwards that they remarked that the col our, clear at the commencement, of the leaves so covered became first yellow, then always deeper yellow, so that the reading of the writing became soon very painful; but what was still worse was that all the mass formed by the written leaf and leaves of transparent paper pasted on the two sides became always harder, stiffer, and more brittle, so that it could no longer be bent without «g running the risk of seeing it crack like glass. ..."
After deploring the lack of success experienced in their
attempts to remove the facing from "lightly sized papers,"
the Prefect stated bluntly:
"One will prepare many injuries for deteriorated paper. MSS. by covering them straight away with transparent paper."
OQ See p. 50 supra for the New Hampshire reference to tissue. There, too, it was called "silk paper." OQ According to Casanova, loc. cit., transparent paper was in use at about the same time in Florence also.
^®Nicholson, op. cit., pp. 11-13.
3llbid., p. 13.
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There were, nevertheless, transparent papers which pro
duced no 111 effects when applied to documents. In comment
ing upon Father Ehrle*s remarks. Hr. Nicholson stated that at
the Bodleian:
I have never observed an instance in which a leaf covered by transparent paper has cracked. And, unless it be a small piece pasted in 1887 at the back of MS. Siam. d. I, I have seen no instance in which during the last 16 years there has apparently been a progressive yellowing. . . . In 1891 I selected for future use a quality which was more transparent than any previously employed for us, and the inspection of the MSS. which have been overlaid with it has been eminently satis factory.*®
Speaking of an exhibit which he had prepared for the St. Gal
len Conference, Mr. Nicholson called attention to several
samples which he had overlaid with various transparent mater- 33 ials, including "the beat European transparent paper," and
"Japanese silk-paper," all of which, presumably, had won his
confidence.®*
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, American archival
needs were supplied with Japanese tissue imported direct from
Japan. When trade relations were ruptured after Bearl Harbor,
®®Ibid.. p. 19.
2®Italics not in the original.
®*Ibid.. p. 20.
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American manufacturers were able to fill the void by produc- 35 ing a satisfactory substitute.
By now we have observed a number of transparent papers.
It is especially important in view of their multiplicity and
sometimes great differences in their composition, therefore,
that precise distinctions be drawn among them, and that more
specific labels be attached where it is possible to do so.
VIII. THE BEGINNING OF SYSTEMATIC DOCUMENT REPAIR
Organized document repair in this country may properly
be discussed at two levels— state and national— both of which
began in the early 1890's.
New England
New Hampshire's repair of its archives in 1837 is a
strong reflection of New England's early concern for its records.
About the same time began Joseph B. Felt's classification and 36 arrangement of Massachusetts' records. It was in Massachu
setts, too, that serious restoration work began roughly a half-
century later, and hope was held out for seemingly irreparable
®^Interview with Mr. Gear, May 21, 1962.
2^8ee p. 50 supra. See also James L. Gear, "The Repair of Documents— American Beginnings," The American Archivist, XXVI (October, 1963), p. 4?2.
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documents. In 1891 the Massachusetts Records Commission re
ported that:
The skillful work done on apparently worthless papers in the office of the supreme official court, and on bound volumes of old records in the registry of deeds in Boston shows that there are none of these records which cannot be saved ttom further destruction and renovated by the use of transparent adhesive paper. . . ,
According to the surveys of the Public Archives Commission of
the American Historical Society, many records were badly neg
lected. Repair proceeded on a very small scale at first,
limited by the fact perhaps that, as the Massachusetts agency
pointed out, "it is expert work and the persons competent to 38 do it are few." Only one such person appears by name in the
literature on the subject until the turn of the twentieth cen
tury: Francis Walcott Reed Emery, "manufacturer of blankbooks
and a general bookbinder," of Taunton, Massachusetts, but for
whose expertAess and selfless devotion many priceless New 39 England records would no longer be extant.
^^Massachusetts Records Commission, Report on the Cus tody and Condition of the Public Records of Parishes, Towns, and Counties (Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1891), p. 100. 38lbid.
®®Saauel Hopkins Emery, The History of Taunton, Massa chusetts (New York: D. Mason and Company, 1893), p. 675. For discussion of Mr. Emery's work, see Chapter V infra.
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The Library of Congress
The need for restoration was not confined to state and
local records. In the custody of the Bureau of Rolls and
Library of the State Department, documents dealing with our
early history were administered their first treatment by a 40 commercial firm in 1888. The following year began the
handling of repair work by Government employees:
The Department has added to the $14,000 [originally appro priated for restoration , thus providing the sum, drawn from its allotment for Printing and Binding, sufficient for the employment of an expert force of four persons from the Government Printing Office, and the work of pre servation has progressed continuously since the avail- .. ability of the first special appropriation in July 1889.
In 1903 the State Department archives and presidential papers 42 were largely transferred to the Library of Congress.
By 1897, even before the transfer Was effected, the
Library was already in possession, through gift and purchase.
40 ^American Historical Association, Annual Report, I (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1916), 146. 41 Memorandum entitled "On the accession and preserva tion of the historical archives in the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State," December 11, 1894, p. 8 (in the Report of Bureau Officers, Department of State, 1882. 1894, presently at the National Archives.) 42 The transfer was authorized by Congressional action of February 25, 1903, for the purpose of consolidating his torical collections scattered among Government departments.
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of numerous fragile documents urgently requiring attention. 43
With his communication of December 6th of that year to F. W.
Palmer the Public Printer, Librarian of Congress John Russell
Young initiated an arrangement, apparently similar to that
which the State Department had with the Government Printing
Office, which was to continue profitably for many years.
Within a week a Printing Office technician was detailed to
the Library on 'a temporary assignment" to assiAt in "mending 44 and repairing maps and charts." The critical condition of
manuscript holdings was reflected in this appraisal by Dr.
Herbert Friedenwald, Superintendent of the Manuscript Depart-
ment: 45
. . . The majority of the manuscripts . . . are in such a torn and mutilated condition that it is exceed- inCgjly unwise to permit them to be handled by the public.
The Peter Force collection was acquired in 1867, Dolly Madison and other papers from the Smithsonian in 1866, and the collection of Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner, from 1882 to 1896. In December 1898 the Library's holdings were esti mated at 25,000 manuscripts. American Historical Association Annual Report, op. cit., 1898, p. 37.
^^Library of Congress, Librarian's file. Incoming let ters, Box 29, 1897-1899, Palmer to Young, December 9, 1897.
*®Dr. Friedenwald was in charge of the Library's Manuscript Department from September 1897 to September 1900.
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. . . It has on several occasions been necessary to deny access to certain of the manuscripts because of the injury that would have come to them from handling, the public thus being deprived of access to an integral part of the Library collections. It is necessary therefore that the work of restoration should be begun at as early a date as possible.**
It was with obvious pleasure and relief that Dr. Friedenwald
wrote to the Librarian:
. . . I am glad to say that I am soon to have the assistance of some people from the Government Printing Office who will take up, beginning next Monday, the very necessary work of restoring and mounting the manu scripts. The foreman of the Bindery paid me a visit the other day in order to see what was to be done and he remarked that there was ample work to keep two people busy for some time to come. . . .
What methods were to be used in "restoring and mount
ing" are not recorded. However, inter alia, overlaying seems
implicit in Dr. Friedenwald*s ordering of tracing paper which
he requested on October 5, 1898. Referring to the Apollo
tracing paper "which I had practically decided op," wrote
Dr. Friedenwald, it "has a slight yellow tint." He suggested 48 that white be procured instead if the cost were not prohibitive.
4^Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Letter Book I, April 26, 1898 to May 7, 1900, Friedenwald to Young, July 30, 1898.
*^Ibid., Friedenwald to Young, July 28, 1898.
*®Ibid., Friedenwald to H. 0. Espey, Foreman of the Bindery, Government Printing Office, October 5, 1898.
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Subsequent correspondence confirms the Library's use of trans
parent tissue to reinforce documents by overlaying.*®
Dr. Friedenwald*s contact with Father Ehrle. In con
nection with the concept and process of tissue facing, the
following extract from a letter written by the Department
Chief to "Prefetto P. Franz Ehrle, S. J." on November 1,
1898, is particularly revealing. Father Ehrle, it will be
recalled, had described the experience of the Vatican Library
with transparent paper.
I have read with very great interest and equal profit your valuable article on the "Conservation et Restaura tion des Anciens Manuscrits" published in the "Revue des Bibliothèques. From its interesting pages I have been enabled to derive many important suggestions respecting the restoration of manuscripts and I feel sure that I am but one of many persons in this country who is indebted to you for having printed the invaluable results of your many years experience.
Some of the manuscripts in the Library of Congress are in extremely bad condition and must therefore be covered with sheets of transparent paper. For this pur pose I have selected a paper, a sample of which I enclose, and I should be much indebted if you will be so good as to inform me if you consider that any evil effects are likely to result from its use.
4®Ibid., Friedenwald to Ehrle, November 1, 1898; Friedenwald to Nicholson (Bodleian), March 23, 1899; and Friedenwald to Espey, July 28, 1899.
®®See page 51, footnote 24 supra. The article extended from page 152 to page 172 in the Revue.
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In view of the disastrous results arising from the use of transparent paper which you describe I have been weryc:particular to select a paper that was pure and that would not have any ill effects on the ink, and I think the sample which I enclose and which has been chemically tested will answer that purpose.
Regrettably, Father Ehrle*s reply of November 29, 1898, ap
praising the Library's sample, is no longer in existence.
Dr. Friedenwald's next communication to the Prefect,
dated December 20, 1898, contains one sentence of particular
significance to the matter of transparent tissue's various
designations. Obviously referring to the material which he
had previously termed "transparent paper," and which we have
inferred from previous and subsequent correspondence was, in
fact, Apollo tracing paper. Dr. Friedenwald volunteered:
"The Japanese (italics mine) paper we have . . . been using 52 with considerable satisfaction." This tends to support our
earlier assertion that while there is a distinct difference
between genuine Japanese tissue and all others, many have used
the term indiscriminately, treating it as a generic expression
to denote any tissue with transparent properties.
S^Ibid., Friedenwald to Ehrle, November 1, 1898.
^®Ibid., Friedenwald to Ehrle, December 20, 1898. 53papritz, op. cit., pp. 3-5, does differentiate among varieties of transparent papers.
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Dr. Friedenwald's high regard for Father Ehrle's expo
sition on the treatment of paper documents has been amply
attested. His interest in the Bodleian's more successful
experience with tissue was exhibited in a letter to Bodley's
Librarian asking for samples of the transparent paper used.
Along with his request, hezvwemled some of his own activity:
In repairing some of the manuscripts in this Library I have used a fine quality of artist's tracing paper of French manufacture, attaching it with rice flour paste made fresh each day. So far the results are entirely satisfactory, though only time can tell whether any injury will be wrought or not. However, the manuscripts were in such desperate condition that they would have crumbled to pieces in a few years had not some heroic measures been adopted.
From this communication we can now add to our meager store
of data that the Apollo tracing paper was of French origin,
thus joining France to what was then a small band of manufac
turers of transparent tissue: Japan, Italy, and Germany.
Mr. Nicholson's reply, like most of the incoming cor
respondence in the records of the Library's Manuscript Divi
sion, was not preserved. We can be sure that he did indeed
comply with the request for a sample, for when Dr. Frieden
wald wrote to "Mr. Wirt Tassin, U. S. National Museum,
®*IÆ Manuscript Division Letter Book I, 1898-1900, op. cit., Friedenwald to Nicholson, March 23, 1899.
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Washington, D. C." on July 28, 1899, he enclosed a piece
of paper "of the sort used for repair of manuscripts in the
Bodleian Library." He asked that it be examined for dele
terious elements which might "injure a manuscript in course
of time, in case the whole were covered with it."®®
Be it said to his credit. Dr. Friedenwald*s caution
bore the hallmark of the true records custodian who fervently
wishes to preserve his documents without exposing them to
danger.
IX. AN EVALUATION OF TISSUE
No one will gainsay the role that transparent tissue
has played in archival repair. The demands of objectivity
require, nevertheless, some recognition of its shortcomings.
Tissue does indeed provide some reinforcement to deteriorated
paper. It offers, however, no resistance to moisture or to
atmospheric elements. Moreover, the duration of its restora
tive qualities is exceedingly limited. A document so treated
is in some cases rendered opaque, brown, and brittle after
only five years. An exceedingly tedious task in its applica
tion, tissue adds both to the weight and to the bulk of the
®®Ibid., Friedenwald to Tassin, July 28, 1899.
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65
repaired item. The little more than mediocre legibility
achieved at the outset declines appreciably with age.
Two of its attributes worth noting are its low cost
and its receptivity to inscription, should missing bits of
writing have to be supplied. Its numerous weaknesses include
susceptibility to migration of impurities from the original
document and attraction of micro-organisms and insects to
its adhesive. It has been found, in addition, that in order
to impart strength, thicker tissue is required, thus greatly
obscuring the writing. Thicker paste is necessary to pro
mote adhesion of the thicker tissue, thus further reducing
flexibility. When re-restoration is desired or necessary,
the removal phase presents countless difficulties. The
document must be immersed in water for twelve hours, then
the tissue carefully peeled off bit by bit with the sharp
blade of a knife, an operation requiring almost surgical 56 skill to avoid injury to the document. In records bear
ing ink of a transitory nature, the hazards implicit in 57 immersion are grave indeed. The adhesive itself is
5^8. Chakravorti, "Preserving the Past," Modern Librarian, II (April-June, 1941), 16. ^^This assumes, of course, that an adhesive was found with which a facing could be attached in the first place with out damaging the ink.
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as predisposed to fungal, bacterial, and insect attack as the
paper it covers.
While tissue is not often used today for total encase
ment of archival documents, it is still utilized for minor 57 paper repairs, for limited newspaper preservation, and in 58 conjunction with lamination. In its heyday, however, it
was a widely used and often highly praised restorative mate
rial both in this country and abroad. Many a document escaped
disintegration because tissue gave it a temporary extension
of life, at least until some superior method might appear to
assure its existence indefinitely.
Almost simultaneous with tissue's efflorescence appeared
what was to become a still more highly regarded facing: silk
gauze. Its beginnings and its diffusion are discussed in the
following chapter.
Harry Miller Lydenberg and John Archer, The Care and Repair of Books (rev. by John Alden; New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1960), p. 40. 58 For a discussion of tissue's incorporation in the lamination process, see infra Chapter VII.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER V
THE HISTORY OF SILKING
Characterized by a growing concern over paper deteri
oration, the score of years between 1890 and 1910 witnessed
a counterbalance of substantial progress in meeting the prob
lem. During the first decade, wherever repair facilities
existed, transparent paper was recognized as a valuable res
torative medium. There emerged during the same ten-year
period a new process for extending the life of records: a
process known as "silking.”^ Curiously, not only did its
innovators, working on opposite sides of the Atlantic, devise
their methods independently, but each appears to have been
totally unaware of the existence of the other. To both, how
ever, there was a common factor: the procedure of attaching
with an adhesive to each side of a document a thin layer of
The chronological development of silking, as discussed in this chapter, including the principals credited, may be destined for drastic alteration. See Appendix, p. 171, for extracts from December 7, 1963 communication from the Archives Nationales which states that "L'emploi du tissu de soie est en usage depuis cent ans. ..." This information could estab lish c. 1863 as the date of silking's institution in France, long before the names of Emery, Marre, or Ehrle became associ ated with it. It is possible that both American and Italian silking began as offshoots of French practice. Further re search is indicated.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68 2 transparent silk fabric.
In the minds of many, the silking process has long been
associated exclusively with Italy and Father Franz Ehrle of 3 the Vatican Library; ironically, the unsung American inventor,
Francis W. R. Emery, antedated the distinguished European
curator by at least several years.^ Today, those who are
familiar with the Ehrle process are usually not conversant
with the Emery process, and vice versa. At the turn of this
century both procedures were known to scholarly circles in
the United States, and to at least one eminent custodian
abroad: Dr. A. B. Meyer of the Konigliches Zoologisches und
^In 1921 when C. Graham Botha, Chief Archivist of the Union of South Africa, toured archival institutions in various parts of the world, he noted different grades of silk and varying identities, for example, crepeline, chiffon, crêpe-de-chine, mousseline-de-soie, and lisse. C. Graham Botha, Report of a Visit to Various Archives Centres in Europe, United States of America, and Canada (Pretoria: Government Printing and Stationery Office, 1921), pp. 14 and 43. Mr. L. Herman Smith, in his 1935 tour of the Continent, found one more: the white malines used by the British Museum. L. Herman Smith, "Manuscript Repair in European Archives, Part I. Great Britain," American Archivist, I (January, 1938), 14-15.
^See p. 51, footnote 24; and p. 52, footnote 26 supra.
^See p. 57 supra.
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Anthropologisch-Sthnographisches Museum, Dresden, Germany. 5
I. FBANCIS W. R. EMBRY
Exactly when Mr. Emery began his experimentation with
silk gauze is not recorded. A reference in the 1891 Report
of the Massachusetts Records Commission to "skillful work
done" on certain Boston records, "by the use of transparent
adhesive paper," may well be the first indication of book- g binder Bmery's dexterity in using silk's forerunner. The
assertion derives considerable support from the statement 7 of Records Commissioner Robert T. Swan, following the death
of Mr. Emery in 1900, that it was the latter "under whose
direction all of the work upon the public records has been a done. . . ."
^r. Friedenwald appears to have received a letter from Dr. Meyer, dated December 17, 1899, inquiring as to whether the Manuscripts Department Superintendent was aware of the Emery process. On January 10, 1900, Dr. Friedenwald replied in the affirmative. g Massachusetts Records Commission, Report on the Cus tody and Condition of the Public Records of Parishes, Towns, and Counties (Boston: Bright and Potter Printing Company, 1891), p. 100. This was the third annual report of the Com mission which was appointed in 1888. Henceforth, these reports will be identified as MRC Annual Report. 7 Swan was Commissioner from 1890 until his death in July 1907.
^MRC Annual Report, 1900, p. 12.
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On September 14, 1894 Mr. Emery's application was filed
with the United States Patent Office for a patent to protect
his process of "lining the sheets of records on both sides or 9 one side completely with silk or tissue-paper." Denied for
"want of novelty,the initial petition was revised, re
submitted the following year, and approved on June 2, 1896
by the award of Letters Patent Mo. 561,503. The specification
reads, in part;
My invention . . . relates to a process by which old and decayed records or documents can be preserved and safely handled after their treatment, however decayed they may be, and they may be used like new paper with out fear of injury, thus preserving to future genera tions invaluable original records or papers. . . .
My improved process consists in lining the sheets of records on both sides or one side completely with silk or tissue-paper by means of a preservative paste, which may be made from rye-flour or wheat-flour mixed with a small proportion of glycerin to keep the same soft and pliable. After lining and drying the sheets I moisten and thoroughly press them between sheets of paraffin-paper and pulp-board to insure adhesion and
Mr. Emery referred here to the two materials, silk and tissue, almost interchangeably. Since he appears to have used tissue at least by 1891, he may also have begun experimentation with silk at that time.
^^Rejection dated November 16, 1894, National Archives Record Group 241. The Examiner stated that for a long time it had been common practice "to repair papers and documents by pasting thereto paper and tracing linen." He continued, "This has been very generally practiced in the Department of State. ..." He did not understand, apparently, the distinc tion between Mr. Emery's method of covering an entire page and the State Department's use of tissue for patching. Infra p.111.
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smoothness of parts. The sheets are then treated to a coat of paraffin in two ways: first, when the writing is faint and not liable to spread in treatment I cut paraffin in benzene in a water or steam bath at low heat and apply it to the sheets with sponge or brush, which perfectly seals the writing, so as to overcome any fear of fading, arrest further decay of paper, render the same transparent, and keep all insects and rats or mice from same, as no animal or insect will eat paraffin; second by rubbing the document after lining with a block of paraffin cold, until the silk or paper is filled with paraffin, thus sealing, covering, or lining only and keeping document from air.*l
How widely known it was that deterioration of paper
could be arrested, and that an expert was available in the
New England region to accomplish it, is not recorded. Cer
tainly the Commissioner knew and attempted to apprise others
by pointing out that "the most mutilated records . . . can be 12 repaired." The following year, 1896, Mr. Swan continued
to deplore both the preponderantly poor condition of records
and the loss of authenticity resulting from the arbitrary
alteration of re’cords by copyists. Preservation of the
original was the only alternative to copying and, as the
Commissioner saw it, far preferable.
^Letters Patent No. 561,503, dated June 2, 1896, United States Patent Office.
^^MRC Seventh Annual Report, 1895, p. 19.
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In his 1896 report, where along with his plea for
more action Mr. Swan cited encouraging progress, Mr. Emery
is mentioned by name for the first time:
Expert work upon volumes, some of which binders had refused to attempt to bind, has been done by Mr. F. W. R. Emery of Taunton by a process of his own. Specimens of his work can be seen in the offices of the secretary of the Commonwealth, the clerk of the courts at Cambridge, the register of deeds at Taun ton, the city register of Boston, the city clerk of Medford, and of the town clerks of Mansfield, Natick, Newbury, Norton, Watertown, and Westport. The records of Newport, R. I,, which were sunk in Hell Gate, are being renovated by him, a part having been completed.
Town officers who have been unable to find persons willing to undertake the renovating of their records or with.whom they dare trust them, will do well to consult him.
The volume of Mr. Emery's work seemed to be approaching almost
prodigious proportions. The degree of difficulty which he
often encountered and the dexterity with which he handled
each problem were reflected in a volume belonging to the
registry of deeds in Springfield which Mr. Swan describes
as having "recently been rebound by the Emery process." Its
condition was so poor that "pieces from the centre of the
leaves had broken out and fallen between them, making their
arrangement before binding like matching the pieces of a puzzle."
^^MRC Eighth Annual Report, 1896, p. 40.
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Nevertheless, enough of every page was salvaged to produce an
intelligible text in a form "more durable than ever." To reas
sure reluctant and apprehensive custodians, Mr. Swan reproduced
the statement of a Professor Stephen P. Sharpies who, after
careful examination of the process, expressed conviction that
"the materials employed have no deleterious action on the ink, 14 but preserve it from further alteration." As a further in
ducement, the Commissioner volunteered:
It not infrequently happened that, as the vellum covers of ancient volumes became worn and limber, leaves of the records were pasted to them to strengthen them. This re sulted in some cases in obliterating the first few years of a record. By the process these leaves can be, and have been, restored.
In sharp contrast to those dismal reports of only a few years
earlier was the Commissioner's optimistic tone of 1899:
Fortunately, a new process has come into use by which any paper*, however decayed, can be preserved in its pres ent condition between sheets of transparent silk.^^
After listing by name all the offices which had had records
repaired and bound— an imposing number— he inserted two photo
graphs showing "before and after" treatment of tattered scraps
^^MRC Ninth Annual Report, 1897, p. 35. ISlbid. ^®MRC Eleventh Annual Report, 1899, pp. 12-14.
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of leaves which had been considered past "deciphering," to
prove his assertion that "any paper can be preserved and
bound. . .
With satisfaction, Mr. Swan noted in his Twelfth Report
that :
The excellence of the silk or tissue process for bind ing records which were apparently beyond repair is so well acknowledged that each year sees more of the ancient records treated.
His brief but eloquent tribute was rendered particularly
poignant by the necessity for his announcing simultaneously
the death of the man to whom he had paid homage:
After this report was in the hanqs of the printer the sad news was received of the death of Mr. F. V. R. Emery, the inventor of the above process, under whose direction all of the work upon the public records has been done, and I feel that his conscientious service to the Common wealth should be recognized.
The degree of Mr. Emery's diligence and responsibility was
probably little known until the Commissioner's recollection
that:
Realizing as few do the value of the ancient records, and knowing what it was possible to do with those which seemed beyond reclamation, he took an especial interest in them, and eared for such as were committed to him as
ITlbid., p. 13.
1®MRC Twitfth Annual Report, 1900, p. 12.
l*Ibid.
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if they were his most precious property. It was part of the agreement, proposed by himself, that such public rec ords as he took to Taunton for binding should be kept in fireproof quarters when not being worked upon, and so con scientiously did he carry out this agreement that upon several occasions when he arrived in Taunton too late to gain access to such quarters he watched with them through the night. His death was due to overexertion and exposure in caring for the records which he was bringing from Har risburg, Pa.
Had it not already become apparent that Mr. Emery was more the
historian, custodian, and antiquarian than the businessman, it
would certainly have been deduced from Mr. Swan's following
disclosure :
The cost of the particular silk, and the expert labor used upon the records, necessarily makes the work expen sive, and to my knowledge in some cases where the cost seemed excessive for a poor town, Mr. Emery did it at cost or a little less, rather than that it should not be done.21
The Commissioner concluded his eulogy with these words:
This work upon the records must continue, but I doubt if any one can be found who will carry it on with the love for it which with Mr. Emery was genuine. His death is a loss to all who value the public records.
Fortunately, the work was continued, although it is hardly , likely that any successor, however devoted, would have been
ready and willing to lavish upon it the affection and applica
tion displayed by its indefatigable and inspired inventor.
20ibid. 2ljbid. 22ibid,
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For at least twenty-eight years longer the annual reports
of the Massachusetts Records Commission continued to show res
torations done by "the Emery process" or by "The Emery Record 23 Preserving Company," as the firm became known after 1900.
Through the Commission the process and the name of its creator
were introduced to the annals of the American Historical Asso
ciation which, in its 1901 report, devoted considerable space
2®The records of the Department of Corporations and Taxation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts do not indicate who assumed the helm of Emery's enterprise at his demise. In an address before the American Historical Association in 1926, which was later printed as The History, Progress, and Work of the Emery Record Preserving Co., Taunton, Mass., ^ Connection with the Public Records of Our Land (Hartford: 1926), Allen P. Hoard, who identified himself as the company's manager, said, on page 3; "In the spring of 1900 the Emery Record Preserving Co. took over the business of Mr. F. W. R. Emery who had been repairing and restoring public record books for a number of years." Two actions of incorporation are on record. According to the Corporation Division of the Commonwealth (letter dated February 15, 1963), "the Emery Record Preserving Company was organized Jan. 25, 1933 and dissolved December 17, 1958. Its last certificate of condicion [sic] was filed June 26, 1952." In the articles of organization furnished us, Allen P. Hoard and Edwin A. Tetlow are Mhown as the directors. An August 2, 1963 letter from the Office of the Secre tary of the Commonwealth states that the "Emery Record Preserv ing Company appears by the records of this office to have been incorporated under Massachusetts laws June 11, 1913 and said corporation was dissolved by chapter 109, Special Acts of 1918." Our request for another search availed nothing. We sus pect that other acts of incorporation exist which were not found.
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to "The Massachusetts Public Records Commission and its Work.
By 1903 the report of the Public Archives Commission of the
American Historical Association was sprinkled with references 25 to this process. Thus, for example, in Rhode Island's East
Greenwich, "several of the early volumes have been preserved 26 by the Emery process." In Newport:
Within the last few years the . . . city council has recognized the urgent necessity of more carefully preserv ing these valuable records even at this late date, and has appropriated occasional sums to have them repaired by the Bmery Record Preserving Company of Taunton."
In North Kingstown, "a bad fire in the town clerk's office,
December 16, 1870, greatly damaged the records, nearly all of
which, however, have since been repaired and preserved by the 28 Emery process." In Twerton "several of the earlier volumes 29 have been wisely preserved by the Emery process." And in
Westerly, "nearly all of the volumes previous to 1890 have 30 been preserved by the Emery process."
^^American Historical Association, Annual Report (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901), 103.
^®Ibid., 1903, p. 585. ^^Ibid., p. 589.
27ibid., pp. 605-6. 2*Ibid., p. 609. ^^Ibid., p. 635.
SOlbid., p. 642.
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The Emery process vas also known by 1903 in New York
where the state's "more important papers" were vouchsafed to 31 future generations by virtue of their having been treated.
Similar action on Connecticut's state and local records was
attested by the Public Archives Commission's reports of 1906
and 1907.32
From the countrywide reports it received, the Public
Archives Commission was probably thoroughly conversant with
the nature of the Emery process and the degrew to which its
effectiveness had retrieved decaying records. It is safe to
assume that had the archival manual for American archivists,
long urged by Victor Hugo Paltsits who served as the Com
mission's chairman for a decade, become a reality, the Emery
process would have figured prominently in the projected chap
ter on repairs.
To locate precisely, or even estimate intelligently,
all agencies whose files contain Emery-processed documents,
would be exceedingly difficult. It had not been coraaon practice
3^Report of the State Librarian of Pennsylvania, 1903 (HarFisburg: Vm. S. Ray, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1904), p. 19. 32 AHA Annual Report, op. cit., 1906, Vol. 2, p. 54; and 1907, Vol. 1, p. 165.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 79 33 to maintain or preserve records on repair work. Some con
tribution in this respect is made, however, by a 32-page adver
tising brochure prepared by the "Emery Record Preserving Co.,
described thereon as "Successors to F. W. R. Emery," Taunton, 35 Mass. On page eight the company announces that:
We can furnish references from State, County and City Departments that will readily satisfy Custodians of Records of our Reliability in restoring and further pre serving any valuable records needing such treatment.
" The following list shows a few offices where we have done work: . . .
% 33joh. Papritz, "New Mbthods, New Materials, and New Results in the Restoration and Conservation of Archives and in Documentary Phototechnique since 1950," Current Problems in the World of Archives, Papers from the IVth International Congress of Archives, Stockholm, August 17 to 20, 1960 (Stock holm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1960), pp. 6-7, strongly urges that "every archive restoration laboratory . . . should keep records. ..."
^^The catalog card in the New York Public Library for a similar Emery brochure of sixteen pages bears the supplied date of 1900. The following information was received from the Library, dated November 13, 1963: "In reply to your let ter of November 8th, we have checked the catalog card for the Emery Record Preserving Company 32-page brochure. All that there is on the card is a second entry following the biblio graphical information for the 16-page brochure. The date is given Cl9— ]." The brochure itself, of which we obtained a microfilm, bears no date.
3^The portion reading "Successors to F. W. R. Emery" was blocked out sometime after printing.
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The list includes offices in the states of Massachusetts, Ver
mont, Mew York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland, South
Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wiscon
sin. It is now evident that Emery's work was not confined to
New England and its environs; its spread so far afield as Wis
consin, however, might evoke some doubt. A private communica
tion from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, in addi
tion to confirming the information contained in the brochure
and attesting to its veracity, supplied other important data:
In the period between 1900 and 1945 the Society had some manuscripts professionally silked, inlayed, and mounted by the Emery Record Preserving Company at Taun ton, Massachusetts. . . .
The correspondence files of the Society show that Reuben~G. Ihwaites, Superintendent of the Society, began consideration of the Emery process by 1906, but was de terred by the expense of the work from beginning to use the process until 1909. The Society had more than 100 volumes of manuscripts treated by the Emery Company, primarily in the period from 1909 to 1920. The cost of treatment by the Emeyy Company ranged from about $80 to more than $100, with most of the volumes costing about $100. each. . . .
Whether as a result of fortuity or alertness, the
reports of the Massachusetts Records Commission, with their
®®Letter from Josephine L. Harper, Manuscripts Librar ian, The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, October 18, 1962.
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allusions to the Emery process, came to the attention of Dr.
Friedenwald in his capacity as Superintendent of the Manu
script Department at the Library of Congress. On April 17,
1899 he wrote to Commissioner Swan, requesting a copy of the
lattef's Eleventh Annual Report, together with information
as to where to purchase and how to use transparent silk.3?
Only four days later Dr. Friedenwald again communicated with
Mr. Swan— this time to thank him for his prompt and courteous
attention which had brought to the Library two copies of the 38 report as well as the information sought.
From all indications Mr. Swan had conveyed to Mr.
Emery Dr. Friedenwald's interest in the silking process, for
on April 25, 1899, the Manuscript Department head wrote him:
"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st. instant and have carefully noted its contents.
"I notice in your list at the head of the paper 'of places where samples of your work can be found* is Washington, D. C.
"Please be kind enough to inform me where, in Washington, a sample of your work can be seen."
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Letter Book I, April 26, 1898 to May 7, 1900, Friedenwald to Swan, April 17, 1899. 38 Ibid., Friedenwald to Swan, April 21, 1899. 39 Ibid., Friedenwald to Emery, April 25, 1899.
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From the following letter to Mr. Emery from the Library, a
further exchange of correspondence is assumed:
"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th. ultimo, and to thank you for your courtesy in sending me samples of your work. % e y exhibit a very interesting and novel form of repairing. The samples are herewith returned.
"I regret that it is not possible to adopt the sug gestion that you make to undertake any of this work at the present time."4®
The finality attaching to Dr. Friedenwald*s rather abrupt
dismissal of the Emery process is accounted for in his three-
page letter of January 10, 1900, to Dr. A. B. Meyer of Dres- 41 den, Germany:
I thank you for calling my attention to the Emery process. 1 am familiar with it, having examined it previous to adopting any system here. While it may be harmless, there is, nevertheless, so much oil used in making the silk transparent that I should never be willing to use it on any manuscripts over which I had charge. I very much fear that manuscripts treated by this process will deteriorate and fade in the same way as those described by Father Ehrle and referred to on pp. 27 et seq. of Dr. Posse's p a p e r . "^2
Dr. Friedenwald*s reluctance to expose his priceless
documents to what might be potential danger was in the finest
^^Ibid., Friedenwald to Emery, May 1, 1899. 41see pp. 68-69 supra.
42lbid., Friedenwald to Meyer, January 10, 1900.
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tradition of the prudent custodian. In this instance, however,
time has proved his concern unwarranted. Examined by the
trained eye and practiced hand of a highly competent and
esteemed archivist, documents treated many years ago by the
Emery process were, as recently as last year, pronounced in
an excellent state of preservation.
II. FATHER FRANZ EHRLE AND CARLO MARRE
In attempting to determine when Father Ehrle began
his work with transparent silk gauze—-or crepeline, the term
he used— we can claim little more precision than we were able
to achieve with regard to the Emery process. It is known
that the Jesuit scholar assumed his Vatican Library post in 44 1895. The silking method attributed to him was disclosed
as a fait accompli in the January-February 1898 issue of the
Centralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen; a translation of the
article appeared in the March-May issue of Revue des Biblio- ^ 45 theques. Widely read by scholars, librarians, and archivists.
^^Observations of Dr. Ernst Posner; conveyed in personal conversation, September 1963.
^^Encyclopedia Americana (1962 ed.), X, 23-24.
p. 51, footnote 24 supra.
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these Journals swiftly carried the invaluable message to all
parts of Europe where anxious custodians accorded an enthusi
astic reception to the news which promised hope of rescuing
their decaying records. Nor was its appeal limited to the
Continent. Describing its contents to Philadelphia biblio
phile and Maecenas Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Dr. Friedenwald
spoke of it in these glowing terms: "This article is by long
odds the best that I have seen on the subject.
In the portion of his dissertation dealing with paper
documents. Father Ehrle related the background of his disen
chantment with transparent tissue. Confronted with the neces
sity for finding a suitable and safe substitute, he addressed
inquiries to France, England, and Germany regarding their
methods of treatment. It was in his own laboratory, however,
that he found the answer:
The rare ingenuity of the first workman of our workroom called my attention to a tissue of silk, crepeline, as a substitute for transparent paper. . .
^®LC Manuscript Division Letter Book I, 1898-1900, op. cit., Friedenwald to Sulzberger, November 1, 1898.
^^E. W. B. Nicholson, "Report by Bodley's Librarian to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, on the Conference held at St. Gallen, Sept* 30 and Oct. 1, 1898, upon the preserva tion and repair of old MSS.," December 22, 1898, p. 12, quot ing Father Franz Ehrle, "Sur la Conservation et la Restaura tion des anciens Manuscrits," Revue des Bibliothèques, March- May, 1898.
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It Is at this point that we believe there exists in
the Ehrle story a vital omission requiring immediate rectifi
cation. Father Ehrle did indeed credit his "first workman"
with "rare ingenuity," but the manner in which he chose to com
pliment a skilled craftsman for what in reality was the Euro
pean discovery of silk gauze's usefulness in document restora
tion was so obscure that for years the man labored in anonym
ity. Not until three decades later was it revealed in print
that the name attaching to this ingenious artisan was Carlo
Marre.^^ Obviously, Mr. Marrê was not in position to exploit
the innovation himself as was Mr. Emery. Therein lies the
true value of Father Ehrle's contribution. The nature and
Stature of his official capacity as Prefect gave him the
unique opportunity to introduce publicly the method and its
fabric. That he publicized well and effectively is reflected
in the number of European laboratories where "crepelining"
became a familiar and widely used process. Silking's adop
tion by the Library of Congress, and its spread from that
influential institution, are attributable to him. He cannot,
we believe, be credited, however, with conceiving the idea.
It seems only just, therefore, that Carlo Marre be firmly
^®Eugenio Casanova, Archivistica (Siena: Stab. Arti Grafiche Lazzerl, 1928), p. 96.
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and rightfully established in the chronicles of silking.
Having placed Marre in perspective, we may proceed to
consider the manner in which Father Ehrle accounted for silk
ing's success. So favorably impressed was he with the sug
gested substitute for transparent tissue that he set about
at once to determine the most suitable kind of material. He
explained:
For making an experiment, I chose at the outset, among the varieties which are found in Roman fashion-shops, a quality of medium thickness. A too great thickness diminishes the transparence; too little thickness no longer furnishes to the deteriorated paper the neces sary solidity. From the very first experiment, I ob tained an altogether satisfactory result. The crepeline surpassed in transparence all the species of transpar ent paper, and it consolidates, moreover, so well the scaling morsels of paper, that even in using the MSS. afresh there is nothing further to dread in the way of fresh damage.
Nicholson, o£. cit., p. 12. Father Ehrle did not provide a step-by-step description of the silking.operation. It is known, however, that he employed none of the paraffin used by Mr. Emery and objected to by Dr. Friedenwald. Since communication had developed a relatively high degree of efficiency, it is not beyond the realm of reason that word of finery's use of silk had reached the Vatican. There appear to be no records either to confirm or deny such a possibility. At this point in time the only record of any European's knowledge of the Emery process was Dr. Meyer's letter. See p. 69, footnote 5 supra.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 87
Deeply concerned over the fate of deteriorating records
and convinced that he was now in position to contribute to
their salvation, Father Ehrle was instrumental in convoking a
conference at St. Gallen, Switzerland on September 30 and Octo
ber 1, 1898. Of the fifteen countries invited, twelve were 50 represented. It was Again from foreign sources— German,
French, and Italian journals— that Americans, to whom invita
tions were not extended, learned of the proceedings. For
example. Dr. Friedenwald commented to Father Ehrle:
I have read with great interest the proceedings, as related in the "Revue des Bibliothèques" of the Confer ence at St. Gall. The matters which came up for discus sion there are very important, and I should be much indebted if I could be kept au courant with the subse quent deliberations of the Conference.®^
In the same letter he expressed thanks to Father Ehrle for
certain information contained in the letter's communication
of November 29th, and for the piece of crepeline which appar-
ently had been enclosed as a sample. 52 "I am trying to obtain
®^Nicholson, op. cit., p. 23, lists them as Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, England, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, "Vatican," and Württemberg.
®^LC Manuscript Division Letter Book I, 1898-1900, op. cit., Friedenwald to Ehrle, December 20, 1898.
®2one wonders whether the "information" might have related to procedure since the article did not provide it.
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it or something like it in this country," said Dr. Friedenwald
in response.®®
Concerning the silk, Father Ehrle's remarks contained
in his original article are of interest:
The colour, ordinarily a dazzling white, of the tissue was a little injurious to the reading of the covered writing, by imposing on it as it were a white cloud. I addressed myself then to one of the largest manufac turers of Lyon, and begged him to prepare a piece . . . in such a manner that the tissue should keep its natural colour of a grayish yellow. The piece which was sent us, and which came to about 1 franc the metre, answered com pletely to our desires. . . .®*
Dr. Friedenwald sent Father Ehrle*s sample of crepeline to
Mr. H. C. Espey, Superintendent of Bindery, Government Print
ing Office, with the message that:
This material . . . is made expressly for use in the Vatican Library and as you will note has a slight yellowish color. It is just the thing that is wanted for the purposes I mentioned and in trying to obtain it I would recommend that in case this French firm are com municated with, they be told that the material desired is the crepeline furnished by them to the Vatican Library.
We are indebted to Mr. Nicholson for the information that
33Ibid.
®^Nicholson, 0 £. cit., p. 12.
®®I/7 Manuscript Division Letter Book I, 1898-1900, op. cit., Friedenwald to Espey, March 30, 1899.
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"Father Ehrle obtains his crepeline from M. Brunet Lecomte,
24 Place Colozan, Lyon."^® The silk used by the Library of
Congress was also of French manufacture, but whether the New
York firm of S. Oppenheimer and Levy which supplied it imported
it from Lecomte or from another fabric house is not known.
As of June 2, 1899 the matter of obtaining silk gauze
was still in negotiation. Dr. Friedenwald on that date wrote
to S. Oppenheimer and Levy to acknowledge their letter of 57 May 24th, enclosing a sample "of silk gauze. No. 3405.^*
The purpose of the letter was to inquire whether or not the 58 price of "11 1/4 cents per yard net" included customs duty.
Sometime between June 2nd and November 6th, when Dr. Frieden
wald sent to Mr. Wilberforce Eames of the Lenox Library in
New York "a sample of the 'crepeline* which we use in repair- CO ing manuscripts, . . ." the Library of Congress began the
silking process to which it had been introduced by Father Ehrle.
56 Nicholson, o£. cit., p. 20. Letter addressed to Lecomte brought no response. It is not known if the firm is still in business.
3^LC Manuscript Division Letter Book I, 1898-1900, op. cit., Friedenwald to Oppenheimer and Levy, June 2, 1899.
®*Ibid.
®®Ibid., Friedenwald to Eames, November 6, 1899.
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III. WILLIAM BERWICK
From time to time, beginning July 30, 1898, the Govern
ment Printing Office assigned to the Manuscript Department of
the Library members of its own staff to assist in repair work. 60 On July 30th Mr. Robert C. Gotta was so detailed; on Octo- 61 ber 5th, Mrs. Louisa Adams. Acting Librarian of Congress
A. R. Spofford specifically requested, on February27, 1899, the 62 services of a "Mr. Locurssen." On the following day Mr. Espey
replied: "As Mr. Locurssen is employed on special work, I have 63 assigned Mr. William Berwick, who will report tomorrow morning."
Mr. Berwick arrived at the Library on the morning of March 1,
1899, with Mr. Espey*s introduction of him to Dr. Friedenwald
in hand. "The bearer of this note Mr. Wm. Berwick," he wrote,
"has been assigned to work on the Manuscripts in your Depart
ment; I hope he will prove satisfactory." The new employee
60 Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts, Corre spondence and Memoranda, c. 1897-1902, Box 47, Espey to Frieden wald, July 30, 1898.
G^Ibid., Espey to Friedenwald, October 5, 1898.
^^Memorandum not extant. Its contents are assumed from Mr. Espey's reply to it.
33ibid., Espey to Spofford, February 28, 1899.
3^Ibid., Espey to Friedenwald, March 1, 1899.
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proved more than "satisfactory." So fine an artistry did he
develop and display that he became known as the leading expert
in the Marre-Ehrle method of silking. Peers he may have had,
but it is reasonably certain that none was his superior.
Appointed on October 12, 1897 to the position of Book
binder, English-born William Berwick began his career in the
Government Printing Office on a probationary basis.®® Mr.
Washington Gardner, Michigan's Secretary of State, noted in
a letter from Lansing to the Public Printer, Mr. Frank W.
Palmer, dated February 9, 1898, that "Mr. Berwick was long
connected with the Office of the State Printers in this city 66 and is really an expert in his line of work." In the words
of Mr. John F. Wilkinson, the State's Deputy Auditor General,
communicated to Mr. Palmer on the same day: "I have known
Mr. Berwick ten years. He is the best man I ever knew in his
special line of work, and I have had occasion to examine much 67 of the work done by the state printers."
From Miss Edith M. Berwick, one of his two daughters,
still residents of Lansing, we learned that Mr. Berwick "from
®®His appointment became "absolute" on April 11, 1898. 66 Gardner to Palmer, February 9, 1898 (in Mr. Berwick's personnel file). 67 Wilkinson to Palmer, February 9, 1898, ibid.
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his early boyhood had an intense interest in paper," and that
"his skill was self-taught through many different problems 68 encountered in dealing with ancient documents." Before
moving to Lansing, he lived in Canada for a number of years ■
following his immigration to this Continent at the age of
nineteen. As a man who loved books, his appointment to the
Government Printing Office in 1897 brought him very close
to the Library of Congress where "he was anxious to find a
position . . . tho* at that time he had no knowledge of a 69 MSS Dept, there." How he became associated with the Library
is further related by Miss Berwick;
Out of a clear sky one day three gentlemen walking thro* the GPO, stopped near him and my father was asked if he had ever done any MSS repairing! He never understood how they happened to pick him out of the 3,000 employees there. When he replied in the affirmative he was directed to report at the Library of Congress in the MSS Dept. . . .7°
By November 1899 manuscripts were being restored under
Mr. Berwick's direction by tissue or silk reinforcement. From
the Library of Congress rapidly spread the word and the method
^®Miss Edith M. Berwick, personal letter, undated but received October 20, 1962.
69lbid.
fOlbid.
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of the newly adopted procedure. Librarians and archivists
came in person to observe it; others used the mails to request
information regarding the availability of necessary supplies
and instruction in their use. Among the few examples still
extant in the Library's files are two inquiries from as widely
separated areas as California and Georgia. A Hr. Holdridge O.
Collins of Los Angeles, writing to Dr. Friedenwald for assist
ance, stated that:
In a late account of the Congressional Library was a statement of the material called crepeline which you use for repairing old manuscripts. I have hunted through all the bookstores, binderiep, and dry goods houses but no one here knows anything about it. . . .
In the hope of obtaining some of the new fabric. Hr. Collins
had enclosed a small sum which, according to Library practice,
was returned to him along with the name of the New York firm
which supplied the silk.
From William Harden, Librarian of the Georgia Historical
Society came another typical inquiry:
Will you kindly give me some information about the article called crepeline which is used in your department in repairing manuscripts? Where can it be obtained? Is it sold in the stores? Does it answer well the purpose for which it is intended? And is it gummed ready for use? If possible, can you send me a small sample??^
^^LC Division of Hanuscripts, Cor. and Hem., c. 1897-1902, op. cit., letter from Holdridge O. Collins, April 2, 1900.
^^ibid., letter from William Harden, April 12, 1900.
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Even wider currency was given the silking process by
the publication of the Librarian's Annual Report and Manual
of 1901 which included a concise but adequate description of
the Library's repair procedures. A more liberal policy was
subsequently adopted to accommodate requests for samples of 73 fabric. Worthington C. Ford, head of the Manuscript Division,
in 1903 furnished to the Brooklyn Institute the name of the
supplier and the price of the material, and in addition enclosed
"a sample of the silk used for repairing torn or frail manu- 74 scripts" in the Library. To the Virginia State Library he
dispatched not only the supplier's name, price, and a sample,
but also a copy of the Librarian's 1901 Report, volunteering
in addition that:
If the description in the Manual does not give you suf- ficiest information, I will be glad to give you further inform»/^j^o; in regard to any specific point which you may menti*.y.
Appreciation of Mr. Berwick's attainments ranged far
beyond his much-visited and widely known and respected labora
tory. From a New York newspaper clipping, now deeply cherished
<70 One of Dr. Friedenwald's successors. The Manuscript Department was given division status in 1900.
f^Tbid., Ford to Brooklyn Institute, July 20, 1903.
^^Ibid., Ford to Virginia State Library, June 18, 1903.
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95
by Mr. Berwick's daughters, we ascertained his amazing success
with a particularly intricate problem. Sub-titled "Head
Repairer of MSS. in the Library of Congress Performs a Miracle
with Ancient Sheets," the article graphically recounts the
condition of a Record Book of the Cutlers' Guild of the early
1600's:
. . . It was little more than a rectangular plank of ragged-edged, musty paper, about 9 x 12 inches in size, from which slightest breath stirred the brittle fibre into floating dust. . . . The slightest carelessness from ignorant handling would have caused complete dis integration.
After a detailed description of the vicissitudes which were
visited upon Mr. Berwick in the course of the book's repair,
the account concludes with this encomium:
Specialists who have been fortunate enough to exam[i] ne it were enthusiastic to the highest degree, and there is no doubt whatever that the saving of such a document is not only a matter of moment to the Cutlers' Guild and to English genealogical records, but a triumph of a manu script restoration equaled but seldom, and ajmarvel of the patient skill of a wonderful craftsman.
By 1916, "silking" and "Berwick" had become almost
synonymous terms foreign to few people interested in the
TOpersonal letter from Miss Edith M. Berwick, dated April 20, 1964, identifies the newspaper as the New York Times, The date shown on the clipping is July 6, 1907, and the title, "WONDERFUL PIECE OF MS. RESTORATION."
77Ibid.
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preservation of records. For presentation to the Seventh
Annual Conference of Archivists, meeting in Cincinnati in
that year, Mr. Berwick had prepared an extensive and detailed
paper on "The Repairing and Binding of Archives." Delayed in
the hands of the Chairman en route from Washington, the
restorer's paper arrived too late for oral delivery. The
narrative was later printed in its entirety as part of the
Conference's Proceedings in the Annual Report of the Ameri- 78 can Historical Association. Agreeing to address the ses
sion extemporaneously on the subject of document restora
tion, Dr. Gaillard Hunt, then Chief of the Library's Manu
script Division, described Mr. Berwick as possessing "greater 79 experience than any other man in the United States."
Threatened with the deprivation of Mr. Berwick's
services by the mandatory provisions of the Retirement Act
of May 22, 1920, the Library of Congress petitioned for relax*
ation of the Act's terms to enable him to continue profitably
the exercise of his unmatched skills. Mr. J. C. Fitzpatrick,
Assistant Chief of the Manuscript Division, wrote in glowing
^^American Historical Association, Annual Report, I (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1916), 143-161.
7*Ibid., p. 144.
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and persuasive terms:
He is nationally and internationally known, as Canada and Europe are acquainted with his skill. He has been abroad twice, and conferred with the authorities at the Vatican, at Florence, at the Bibliothlbque Rationale, Paris, and at the British Museum. . . .
Mr. Berwick has repaired and restored such documents as the Wills of George and Martha Washington; and, in the Library of Congress, the George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Mhrtin Van Buren, and scores of other valuable collections of manuscripts. . . .
Mr. Berwick's work is known and has been highly com mended by Mr. Worthington D. Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society; Dr. I. Minis Hays, of the American Philosophical Society; Dr. Gaillard Hunt, of the Depart ment of State; Dr. R. D. W. Connor, of the North Carolina State Historical Commission ; Dr. Solon J. Buck, of the Minnesota State Historical Society; Hon. R. Walton Moore and Judge J. B. T. Thornton, of Virginia, among many others. . . .9®
Mr. Fitzpatrick expressed his conviction that "these gentle- 81 men would willingly write letters of recommendation."
Dr. Herbert Putnam wholeheartedly endorsed the entreaty of
his Division Chief, adding with regard to Mr. Berwick that
"he is preeminently an expert, - undoubtedly the foremost
80 ^Memorandum to the Librarian of Congress from J. C. Fitzpatrick, Assistant Chief, Manuscript Division, June 28, 1920 (in Mr. Berwick's personal file).
81lbid.
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expert in this country, and one of the leading experts of the 82 world in work of this character."
Whether or not affirmative action resulted is not known,
nor, unfortunately, is it of any consequence, for on August 2,
1920 Mr. George H. Smith, Foreman of Binding, informed the
Manuscript Division:
"I have to report the sudden death about 9:30 o'clock A.M. this date (August 2, 1920) of Mr. William Berwick, Bookbinder-in-Charge, employed at the Library Branch Bindery.
"Mr. Berwick was at work at the time of his death.
His demise dealt a severe blow to the Library's restoration
program. Displaying unusual foresight, however, and possess
ing a sense of duty far surpassing any desire for personal
adulation, Mr. Berwick had apparently trained others so
thoroughly and documented procedures so well that no insur
mountable problems ensued. The renovation of records con
tinued at the Library in the pattern and according to the
standards he had originated and to which he himself had
adhered.
^^Letter from Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam to the Public Printer, July 1, 1920, ibid.
^^Memorandum to the Public Printer from Foreman of Binding George H. Smith, August 2, 1920, ibid.
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The history of silking can be written, we believe, only
in terms of the dedicated people who conceived of its princi
ples, experimented with its potentialities, and fulfilled its
promise. The names of Emery, Marre, Ehrle, Friedenwald, and
Berwick are inextricably attached to its various phases. Thou
sands of silked documents pay silent tribute to all five.
IV. AN EVALUATION OP SILKING
Any archival agency which by 1910 was not yet aware of
the silking process had ample opportunity for familiarity with
it during and after the International Conference of Archivists
and Librarians held that year in Brussels. All major restora
tion methods then known were presented to the delegates, then
published in the "Actes" of the Conference.®^
84 Congrès de Bruxelles 1910 (Bruxelles: [n.nJ , 1912). Henry E. Woods, pp. 101-105, discussed the Emery process; Gaillard Hunt, pp. 112-117, the Library of Congress (Marré- Ehrle) process; Elise Samuelson, pp. 205-208, Kitt; and M. Schoengen, pp. 555-564, Zapon. It seems strange that only Emery escaped notice in subsequently published archival manuals, for example, Jenkinson's in 1922 and Casanova's in 1928. The latter attended the Conference. Perhaps the general apathy pervading the archival sessions, as reported on journals of the period, had some influence. It seems hardly likely since the papers were published in their entirety in the Proceedings. Perhaps because the American papers were printed in English few took the trouble to read or translate those portions. This would not have applied to the British, however. Or per haps it was simply overlooked, as was all mention, forty-odd years later, of the Indian innovation of hand lamination.
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In the course of silking*s spread, differing views have
been expressed on its effectiveness and on the ease or dif
ficulty of its application and removal. Mr. Roger Ellis has
pointed to the long years of excellent service rendered by
silk gauze in England's Public Record Office where it was
introduced well over a half-century ago.®^ A similarly
optimistic note was struck by Miss Virginia N. Lawrence,
highly regarded American restorer. She related that Church
records which her mother silked in 1911 are in such a fine
state of preservation that "they might have been done yes
terday!" Miss Lawrence continued: "I see no reason why
these particular volumes should not remain in good condition
for considerably more than the fifty-one years they have 86 already passed through."
Others, equally respected, are of a more pessimistic
bent. While everyone agrees that it imparts considerable
9^ow Secretary of England's Historical Manuscripts Commission, Mr. Ellis was for many years associated with the Public Record Office. In a personal letter dated January 31, 1963, he said, "The silk gauze process is known to have been in use at the Public Record Office more than 50 years ago, having been introduced by Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte (then Deputy Keeper) who had seen the process in use at the Vatican. I do not know in what year Sir Henry introduced the process (except that I believe it was later than 1898). . . .
®®Virginia N. Lawrence, personal letter, November 16, 1962.
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durability to the document at least temporarily, some feel
that silking is a costly, slow, and tedious process. It
requires highly skilled hands in its application, but it fails
to offer the compensation of permanence, or, like tissue, of
any marked resistance to tearing, to moisture, or to atmos
pheric elements. Silked documents have been observed to show
deterioration in the short span of seventeen to thirty years,
cracking, becoming brittle, and suffering corner breakage.
Gradually increasing discoloration has perceptibly reduced
legibility. Since the fabric, the paste, and the paper are
all chemical compounds, liable to decomposition, noxious 87 chemical interaction is expected. Not only has silk dis
integrated where it was in contact with acid inks, but also
where it covered holes or other missing sections, implying
that the paper tends to support the silk rather than the go reverse. Not only is paper's weakness or debilitation com
municable to the silk, which is sensitive to the migration of
87 H. M. Nixon, "Lamination of Paper Documents with Cellulose Acetate Foil," Archives, II (Michaelmas, 1949), 33—34.
®®W. J. Barrow, "An Evaluation of Document Restoration Processes," American Documentation, IV (1953), 50.
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impurities existing in deteriorated documents, but the adhesive
used for its application, as in the case of transparent paper,
is attractive to fungal, bacterial, and insect infestation.
Mr. H. J. Pleaderleith, a recognized authority in the
conservation of ancient materials, notes that one of the dis
advantages is that "the paste fluoresces when the paper is 89 examined by ultra violet radiation."
Not the least of the problems relates, as it did in
the case of tissue, to water soluble ink. The paste needed
to attach the silk gauze to the document places an unstable
ink in extreme jeopardy. And should an impermanent ink sur
vive a pasting operation, re-restoration, should it become
necessary, is virtually impossible, for the only presently
known process for removing deteriorated gauze is total immer
sion.
An encouraging word in the controversy comes from Mr.
Barrow. While supporting the contention that silking lasts
a relatively short time, and that desiIking is "slow and
removeCs] only part of the hardened starch paste," he calls
®9f[. J. Pleader lei th. The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art (London: Oxford University Rress, 1956), p. 61.
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attention to a recent development in the process of removing
the fabric "by converting the insoluble starch adhesive co
a soluble sugar with the enzyme Taka-Diastaste." This is of
paramount importance since, as Mr. Barrow observes, "with
the passage of time more silked documents need re^restoration."90
Tissue's significant contribution to the retrieval of
rapidly decaying documents is now a matter of record. Silk
gauze has restored to usefulness an even more impressive num
ber. Both are threatened with eclipse by a method conceived
in the 1930's and strongly ascendant since: cellulose acetate
foil lamination.
qa - W. J. Barrow, Manuscripts and Documents, Their Deterioration and Restoration.(Charlottesville, Va.: Univer sity of Virginia, 1955), p. 72.
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MISCELLANEOUS REPAIR METHODS
In the chronicles of archival repair are to be found
methods other than the three which attained worldwide espousal,
namely, transparent tissue and silk gauze discussed in pre
vious chapters, and cellulose acetate foil to be covered in
Chapter VII. The first concerted efforts to restore deteri
orated documents are ascribed to sixteenth-century Italy.^
It was in this Mediterranean region that humanistic delvings
into 'the classical past were rewarded with discoveries of
long-forgotten or previously unknown manuscripts. Precisely
of what the initial attempts at restoration in this period
consisted, we do nèt know. We may hazard a guess that they
were similar to and forerunners of seventeenth-century experi
mentation with the removal of stains and the revival of ink.
The well-intentioned but chemically untrained miniaturists
and bookbinders of the 1600's often succeeded only in damag- 2 ing beyond redemption the documents they sought to preserve.
^"Arehivlo e Arohivistica," Enciclopedia Italiana (1933 ed.), IV, 84. 2 Alfonso Gallo, Le Malattie del Libro le Cure ed ^ Restauri (Milano: A. Hondadori, 1935), p. 51,
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I. BLEACHING, STAIN REMOVAL, AND INK REVIVAL
The latter part of the eighteenth century produced
records of restoration work by chemists who were at the same
time passionate bibliophiles. Figuring prominently among them
was one of the pioneers in chemical restoration, G. A Chaptal.
In 1785, using the oxygenated muriatic acid introduced by and
applied to fabrics by Berthollet, he began his experiments in 3 the bleaching of ancient prints. Reporting his findings to \ the Academy of Science in Paris two years later, Chaptal won
for his process the approval of that august body. The dis
closure, however, evoked a rash of emulation by largely inex- V pert hands whose labors proved worse than ineffective : the 4 results were almost totally disastrous.
Giovanni Fabroni (1752-1822),^ Director of the State
Archives of Florence, is considered the first Italian to
occupy himself seriously and systematically with the art of
T. K. Derry and Trevor I. Williams, A Short History of Technology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 537.
^Gallo, o£. cit., p. 56. The vapor method tried in 1786 by Lapira is probably one such ill-fated experiment.
®"Restaure dei Libri e dei Manoscritti," Enciclopedia Italiana (1933 ed.), XXIX, 136.
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restoration as an established and continuing archival prac
tice. As an envisioned Improvement in bleaching procedures,
he proposed in 1797 to the Academy of Economics of Florence
specific changes in the Chaptal formula. In this instance it
is well that Professor Fabroni*s modifications drew no dis
ciples, for the few manuscripts exposed to his suggested vari- g ations did not survive the treatment. In other respects, the
framing of documents, for example, his skills were highly
regarded and his methods widely and profitably adopted.
Summoned in 1824 to restore the papyri of Herculaneum,
Sir Humphrey Davy attempted to contribute also to the repair
of paper documents. His success was limited to separating
Q pages long adhered to each other. To disengage them was,
alas! only to behold their disintegration. Similarly ill-
fated were his experiments with rosin derived from the gum
of olive trees, with choride of iodine, and with the exposure 9 of documents to chemically permeated hot air.
®Gallo, op. cit., p. 52.
^Eugenio Casanova, Archivistica (Siena: Stab. Arti Graf iche Lazzeri, 1928), p. 91. Q Gallo, op. cit., p. 56.
Gibid.
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II. FRAMING, RESIZING, AND SPLITTING
The activities of the first half of the century were
not confined to cleaning surfaces and reviving ink. Fab
roni 's adroitness in framing, or inlaying, has already been
mentioned.The "patching" of numerous books is credited 11 to Gaetano Romeo. At mid-century by far the greatest con
tribution to paper restoration was made by French bibliophile 12 Alfred Bonnardot. His slender volume on repair techniques,
first published in 1846, and revised and augmented in 1858,
became authoritative in his time and commanded respect long
after his recommendations were superseded by newer develop
ments. Father Ehrle referred to it as that "well-known book 13 14 of Bonnardot"; Casanova called it a "classic work." Dr.
^^Casanova-, loc. cit.
^^Ibid. 12 Alfred Bonnardot, Essai sur la Restauration des anciennes Estampes et des Livres rares (Paris; Deflorenne neveu Cetc.] , 1846).
1®E. W. B. Nicholson, "Report by Bodley's Librarian to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, on the Conference held at St. Gallon, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 1898, upon the preserva tion and repair of old MSS.," December 22, 1898, p. 11, quot ing Father Franz Ehrle, "Sur la Conservation et la Restaura tion des anciens Manuscrit^," Revue des Bibliothèques, March- May, 1898.
^^Casanova, op. cit., p. 90.
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Friedenwald described Bonnardot as "the standard author" even 14 though he was by 1900 "somewhat antiquated." Mario Morgana
characterized the work as "monumental, . . . one that still
represents the fountain from which may be obtained the most 15 diverse information of unquestionable profundity." Between
its covers were to be found such treasures as instructions 16 for safe stain removal, bleaching, resizing, and "splitting."
The name of Crlstofaro Marino occupies an important
place in the history of Italian paper restoration, both for
the novelty and for the success of his methods. Marino's
extraordinary skill in stain removal, without causing damage,
commanded considerable attention when it came to light in
1880. Dr. Eugenio Casanova, Director of the State Archives
of Naples, under whom Marino worked for some years, made a
14 Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Letter Book I, April 26, 1898 to May 7, 1900, Friedenwald to Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Philadelphia, November 1, 1898.
^®Mario Morgana, Restaure dei Libri antichi (Milan: Ulrlco Hoepll, 1932), p. 14. It Weems a bit curious that despite the accolades Bon nardot 's work has never been translated in its entirety into any language. In his book entitled Book Repair and Restoration (milladelphia: Nicholas B. Brown, 1918), Mitchell S. Buck did translate some portions.
19"#plitting" refers to the procedure of separating a single page into two sheets, then inserting between them a reinforcing sheet to which the separate parts are pasted.
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concerted effort to discover the craftsman's formula. He was
able to confirm only that it was derived from dried flowers
of an undetermined genus.The secret lies buried with its
discoverer.
III. GOLDBEATER'S SKIN
Another of Marino's innovations, his use of a perito
neal membrane, is known to the annals of repairing. Referred 1 A to as "goldbeater's skin," it was employed by him as a pro
tective sheath for deteriorating documents. In his manual
Casanova describes the operation in minute detail, from the 19 momentary dipping of a document into water, through the
membrane's attachment by means of gelatine, then drying,
pressing, and finally binding the encased paper. Marino's
method, according to Casanova, "was not encumbered by the
17 Gallo, op. cit., p. 65.
^^Encyclopaedia Britannica (1962 éd.), X, 486. "The fine membrane called goldbeater's skin . . . is the outer coat of the caecum or blind gut of the ox. It is stripped off in lengths of 25 or 30 inches and freed ffom fat by dipping in a solution of caustic alkali and scraping with a blunt knife. ..."
^^Marino subscribed to the maxim of Pliny the Elder that immersing an object in pure water could be only beneficial.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 20 disadvantages associated with the system used by Fagiuoli,"
and because the adhesive was applied only to the membrane, it
was accomplished "without a brush ever having grazed the docu- 21 ment and therapy scratching the writing." The advantages
attaching to Marino's method, in Casanova's recounting, were
transparency, despite a slight yellow tinge which elicited
some complaint; flexibility; protection of the document; and
"the possibility of removing the document from its sheath
. . . without damaging the minutest part of it." Casanova
concludes by saying that Marino began his restoration work
in 1887, that as of 1926 forty years had elapsed and nothing 22 had "come about to cast the slightest doubt on that work!"
IV. MOUNTING, PATCHING, AND BEVELING
Perhaps the simplest method for extending the life of
a weak document bearing writing on only one side is mount-
ing, or pasting the document on a sheet of permanent paper. 23
Patching, while similar in principle, has variations. Where
BOCaeanova, op. cit., p. 91, discusses negative aspects of Fagiuoli's use of transparent tissue.
2llbid., p. 95. ®*Ibid., p. 96. 23 Adelaide E. Minogue, The Repair and Preservation of Records, National Archives, Bulletin Number 5, September, 1943.
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no writing appears on the reverse side, a patch which resem
bles the original material as closely as possible is used.
Transparent tissue as a patching medium was noted as early 24 as the fifth century. Among its artistic users of more
recent years were those who first renovated the State Depart
ment records. Begun by the commercial firm of Pawson and
Nicholson in 1889, repairs were continued by staff members 25 of the Government Printing Office. Some of the 1893 repairs
which we examined were made with tissue which in the process
was so carefully beveled that the edges blended impercep
tibly into the document. This was apparently part of the
restorative operation described as involving "a strengthen
ing of each paper requiring it, and the piecing out of ragged 26 edges by a trained process.” The "piecing out" was done
with paper that approximated the weight and texture of the
original.
9^See p. 42 supra.
^#American Historical Association, Annual Report (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894), 287. Hence forth this report will be identified as AHA Annual Report.
^^Memorandum entitled "On the accession and preserva tion of the historical archives in the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State," December 11, 1894, p. 8 (in the Report of Bureau Officers, Department of State, 1882- 1894, presently at the National Archives.)
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V. COATINGS
In the mid-1890's developed another method of treat
ing deteriorating materials whereby documents were coated by
immersion, spraying, or brushing. Carlo Marré— to whom the
archival world of the past was more greatly indebted than it
perhaps realized— even before his ingenuity launched the
Vatican Library on its way to silking, introduced the use
of a gelatine coating. The process found great favor with
the Library's Prefect Father Ehrle. He had long taken a
dim view of reagents, labeling them as only ephemerally
effective, and maintaining that they eventually contributed
to the deterioration of the very documents they were intended
to redeem. Marre's gelatine would be a safe and efficacious
replacement. Derived largely from fish and rendered "insen
sible to changes of temperature" by the addition of the newly
discovered substance "formol," the gelatine was both trans- 27 parent and durable. After wide consultation Father Ehrle
adopted "the French gelatine with a gold mark," noting that
it had been "particularly recommended . . . for this use, even
in Germany."^®
^^Nicholson, op. cit., p. 7. 28casanova, op. cit., p. 96.
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Similar in purpose but different in content was the
nitrate cellulose product known as "Zapon," a name which is
understood to have been coined by "the American Frederik
Claire . . . and for many years a product which was used OQ for protection of metals. . . ." Although we were unable to
determine exactly when experimentation with Zapon began, at
least by 1869 camphor was being added to nitrated cellulose.
As a result of their laboratory work with these very substan
ces in that year, the Hyatt brothers of Newark, New Jersey 30 discovered celluloid to which Zapon is considered kindred.
Almost twenty years liter, Zapon's application to
deteriorating paper was announced at the St. Gall Conference 31 in Switzerland by Dr. Otto Posse, Director of the State
Archives of Dresden, who reported to the delegates on the
experiments conducted in Zapon-imprégnâtion by Dr. Ernst 32 Schill, also of Dresden. Following a year of intensive
29itDie Zapon-Konferenz in Dresden," Centralblatt ffir Bibliothekswesen,. XVI (December 1899), 155. We have been unable to find any trace of Claire. ®°Ibid., p. 555,
It is my belief that Dr. Posse is the "Dr. Edwin Pussey" to whom Dr. Gaillard Hunt referred in AHA Annual Report, 1916, p. 144.
92grnst G. Schill, Anleitung zur Erhaltung und Ausi- besserung von Handschriften durch Zapon-Impragnirung (Dresden; Vetlag Apollo, 1899), p. 3.
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research with Zapon under State auspices, the so-called Zapon
Conference was convened in Dresden in September, 1899. In a
pamphlet prepared after the conference. Dr. Schill disclosed
that following many years of unsatisfactory experimentation
with other substances, his first attempts, about 1890, at
Impregnation of military maps with the Zapon manufactured by 33 Dr. J. Perl and Company in Berlin showed decided success.
Although he had apparently already embarked upon silk
ing operations at the Library of Congress, Dr. Friedenwald
was inclined to continue his inquiries and to investigate
fully any new developments. Shortly after the 1899 Zapon
Conference, Dr. Meyer provided Dr. Friedenwald with a news
paper clipping from which the latter "was able to derive suf
ficient information respecting zapon to have some of the 34 government chemists make a small quantity" for him. A
letter from Dr. Friedenwald to Dr. H. W. Wiley, Division
of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, reads:
"I have to thank you for the trouble you have taken in providing the pyroxilin varnish and as well for the speci mens of paper tested with it.
93ibid.
^^Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Letter Book I, April 26, 1898 to May 7, 1900, Friedenwald to Meyer, January 10, 1900.
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"It accomplishes great things for the restoration of paper, but its very strong odor is, I fear, against its use. Is there any way of deodorizing it, or do you think the odor will disappear in time?"^®
A later communication from Dr. Meyer brought to Dr.
Friedenwaldts desk "two pamphlets by Dr. Posse and Dr.
Schill"®® which the recipient acknowledged on January 10,
1900, appending this assessment:
I do not think that emersing sic a torn or mildewed manuscript in zapon alone, will prove sufficient in cases where manuscripts are likely to be handled to a consider able extent. In such cases I still consider the use of the crepeline, which Father Ehrle has described and of which I gave you a sample, necessary.
That the varnish-type products possessed, in his opinion,
some merit for certain purposes is illustrated by Dr. Frieden
wald 's continuing interest. To the Fred Crane Chemical Com
pany of Short Hills, New Jersey, he wrote:
I am informed that you manufacture a compound of cellulose and amulacetate, known to the trade as "Zapon." Please be kind enough to inform me what your price for it is per gallon.98
®®Ibid., Friedenwald to Wiley, November 6 , 1899.
BGprobably the work described in footnote 28, and Otto Posse, Handschr if ten-Konservirung (Dresden: Verlag Apollo, 1899).
9'^LC Manuscript Division, Letter Book I, 1898-1900, Friedenwald to Meyer, January 10, 1900.
®®Ibid., Friedenwald to Fred Crane Chemical Company, February 7, 1900.
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Similar requests for quotations and samples were dispatched 39 in February and March. More precise information was sought
from The Scovel Manufacturing Company, Rochester, New York:
I have been informed thàt pyroxilin enters largely into the manufacture of your photographic films. Also that there is such a danger of chemical change occuring Csici in time that they cannot be guaranteed to last beyond a certain period.
Within the last few years a pyroxilin varnish has been strongly recommened [sic] by European archivists as suit able for use in repairing manuscripts that have been ex posed to damp and mildew and that consequently require reenforcement of some sort for their preservation. I have obtained a number of samples of this yarnish but hesitate to use it (italics mine) in view of the state ments made to me about its possible deterioration. 40
The contents of the reply, which Dr. Friedenwald forwarded
to Professor Charles E. Munroe of Columbian University, Wash
ington, D. C . , are unknown. We surmise from subsequent cor-
respondencdothat the Professor suggested still another sub
stance : "cellulose tetracetate," used by A. D. Little of
Boston. Dr. Friedenwald was invited to and, in fact, did,
send subsequently "a few manuscripts of no particular value"
39 Ibid., Friedenwald to Celluloid Zapon Company, New York, February 28, 1900; Friedenwald to the Sales Manager of the same firm, March 5, 1900. 40 Ibid., Friedenwald to Scovel, March 11, 1900.
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for the firm "to experiment upon.From all indications,
the Library of Congress never incorporated into its restora
tion activities the treatment of manuscripts with Zapon or .
with any other varnish-type substance.
By 1910 the general attitude toward Zapon was notice
ably cool, as noted by Dr. M. Schoengen, State Archivist in
the Province of Overyssel, at Zwolle. Explaining the process
of Zapon treatment at the 1910 International Congress of
Archivists and Librarians at Brussels, he pointed out that
Zapon had been employed "by no means as extensively as was
at first expected and fwould] have to be tested further before
it could be recommended with entire safety.
At the same conference the discovery of still another
varnish-type product was announced. Developed by Mile Elise
Samuelson of Sweden and named "Kitt," it was in the form of
"a hard and transparent jelly" prior to liquefying. When
applied in its fluid state, Kitt had "a very beneficial
effect on pale writing which became distinct after having
^Ijbid., Friedenwald to A. D. Little, April 25, 1900.
Schoengen, "Ueber Erhaltung und Ausbesserung der Archivalien," Congres de Bruxelles 1910 (Bruxelles: 1912), 563.
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been treated.It is interesting to note that Kitt, unlike
similar products, was recommended for use in conjunction with
Japanese paper. In describing her process to the conference,
Mile Samuelson pointed out that after Kitt was applied, "some
moments" must "elapse before applying Japanese paper. How- 44 ever, it must be placed before thé Kitt has time to coagulate."
As late as his 1921 tour, Mr. Botha wrote:
The use of various substances such as Zapon, Kitt, Neu- Zapon (A non-explosive cellulose acetate), Cellit (recom mended at Berlin), is a subject which has received the attention of European countries. They are not yet in universal use, and scientific experiments are being made from time to time."
Only rare mention of similar products is found in Mr. Smith's
1938 inspection of European archives, for example, Cellon in
Vienna.Objections to all such varnish-type preparations
include inflammability, discoloration, liability to chemical
change, and embrittling influences. There exists among archivists
^^Elise Samuelson, "De la Restauration d'anciens Manuscrits par le Kitt," Ibid., p. 205. 44ibid.
Graham Botha, Report of a Visit to Various Archives Centres in Europe, United States of America, and Canada TPretoria: Government Printing and Stationery Office, 1921), p. 43.
Herman Smith, "Manuscript Repair in European Archives, Part I, Great Britain," American Archivist, I (January, 1938) , 6 6 .
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"after the poor experience of zapon . . . a justifiable aver
sion to the large numbers of synthetic resins supplied for
application with a spray or brush."*? Today, only "a new
document lacquer made by Chr. Lechler in Stuttgart-Feuerbach
has found some use for archive purposes," but reservations
are implicit in the cautious statement that "it requires
thorough testing.
Of the various miscellaneous methods of document
repair discussed in this chapter, only those of a traditional
nature have persisted over the years. Backing, patching,
framing, and splitting, for example, are still in evidence,
usually in small archival establishments; they have long
since become impracticable for large institutions burdened
with heavy backlogs. T:i general, these methods requiring
skill, patience, and mt.; ® time than most archival agencies
can afford, have given way to a process which is little
more than thirty years old, yet has revolutionized the work
of restoration.
^^Joh. Papritz, "New Methods, New Materials, and New Results in the Restoration and Conservation of Archives and in Documentary Phototechnique since 1950," Current Problems in the World of Archives, Papers from the IVth International Congress of Archives, Stockholm, August 17 to 20, 1960 (Stockholm? Almqvist and Wiksell, 1960), pp. 17-18.
**Ibid., p. 18.
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CELLULOSE ACETATE FOIL LAMINATION
From the burgeoning scientific activity of the last
century has emerged the process of "lamination." For pur
poses of this study, it refers to the preservation of a docu
ment by sealing it between sheets of cellulose acetate foil.
Although strict interpretation would classify all three major
methods as lamination, regardless of the protective material
employed— transparent tissue, silk gauze, or cellulose ace
tate foil— the term has become popularly associated only with
the last named.
First developed in 1869 in France, cellulose acetate
was not made into film on a large scale for some sixty years.^
Long in the forefront of searchers for new methods in the
protracted battle against paper deterioration, the New York 2 Public Library pioneered in this country by applying the
^W. J. Barrow, Manuscripts and Documents, Their Deteri oration and Restoration (Charlottesville, Va.: The University of Virginia, 1955), p. 55. Schutzenberger and Naudin are credited.
%arr y Miller Lydenberg was long its crusader in the quest.
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foil to the leaves of deteriorating books.^ In 1934, after
a series of experiments, the National Bureau of Standards
proposed the use of lamination for the preservation of news
papers, and photostat prints "for reproducing records of perma- 4 nent value." After considerable deliberation, the National
Archives in 1936 modified the recommendation by adopting
lamination for rehabilitating the torrents of records with
which it was deluged in the two brief years since its estab
lishment.
The original method prescribed the application of a
sheet of cellulose acetate foil to each side of the docu
ment and the subjection of the whole to controlled heat and
pressure; for this purpose the National Archives selected
a steam-heated flat-bed hydraulic press. Upon reaching the
suggested temperature, the thermoplastic foil melts and is
forced under pressure into the pores Of the paper.
During the next two decades, certain observed flaws,
for example, some discoloration, limited tear resistance.
^Barrow, loc. cit.
^A. E. Kimberly and B. V. Scribner, Summary Report of Bureau of Standards Research on Preservation of Records, National Bureau of Standards,Miscellaneous Report No. 144 (Washington: Government Printing Office, May 9, 1934), p. 1.
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and occasional separation from the laminae, raised questions 5 as to its reliability. The National Archives, the Army Map
Service, the Library of Congress, and the Virginia State
Library, all vitally interested in the problem, called upon
the National Bureau of Standards once more. Its task this
time was to undertake research for the purpose of establish
ing specifications for the cellulose acetate film with maxi- g mum stability. In the course of its testing, the Bureau did
find materials which by performance, even if not by formula,
met the specifications which the researchers prescribed.
Under the impetus of the Bureau's initial studies,
and the incentive provided by his own observations of deteri
orating silked documents, Mr. W. J. Barrow, whose name has
become synonymous the world over with eminence in document
rehabilitation, began in 1937 to experiment in his labora
tory with this newest of restoration phenomena. His epochal
experiments resulted in the development of the Barrow roller-
type laminator, the addition of two sheets of high-grade
^W. J. Barrow, "An Evaluation of Document Restoration Processes," American Documentation, IV (1953), 51.
William K. Wilson and B. W. Forshee, Preservation of Documents by Lamination, National Bureau of Standards, Mono graph No. 5 (Washington: Government Printing Office, Octo ber 30, 1959), p. 1.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123
tissue to halt the foil's proclivity to tearing, and the pre- 7 scription of deacidification of documents before lamination.
Opinion is divided on the relative merits of the two
types of laminating equipment. Although more expensive and
more cumbersome, the flat-bed.is perhaps the more versatile
in that it can accommodate with ease architectural plans,
large maps, and oversize documents as well as smaller items.
Better adapted to small space and limited budgets, the roller
type is recommended by those who feel that the principle of
forcing air out as the sandwich moves along in the process Q of lamination prevents the formation of bubbles. As of
1961, Barrow-type equipment was installed in fourteen estab
lishments in this country as well as in Belgium, France,
Brazil, England (British Museum), Cuba, Puerto Rico, and
7 The accepted triple-layer "sandwich" thus became a five-layer arrangement in the following sequence: TiSsue- foil-document-foil-tissue. o According to Mr. James L. Gear, Chief of the Document Restoration Branch of the National Archives, "The National Archives now uses teflon instead of matte finish steel plates as separator release sheets, and has had no recent instances of bubbles." Mr. Gear's remarks were contained in his "Com ments on Mr. Turner's Article," The American Archivist, XX, No. 4 (October, 1957), 332. The article referred to is Robert W. 8 . Turner, "To Repair or Despair?" 319-329 of the same issue.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 124 g Poland.
Predicated upon Barrow's concepts are several inven
tions of European design, namely, the Sundex and Ademco
methods of England; the Rotobond, the Vulkan III, and the
Karl Henneke "coating machine" of Germany; the "Termopressa
idraulica per il restaure meccanico" of Italy; and the Im- 10 pregnator of Yugoslavia.
Ifr. Barrow found that the addition of high-grade tis
sue achieved four improvements in the initial process. It
produced a much stronger overall product than when cellulose
acetate is used alone ; a twelvefold increase in newspaper
folding endurance; a fourfold increase in tearing resistance;
and more easily formed binding margins. 11 He further noted
g W. J. Barrow, Procedures and Equipment Used in the Barrow Method of Restoring Manuscripts and Documents"%Rich- mond: W. J. Barrow, 1961), p. 11.
^^Joh. Papritz, "New Methods, New Materials, and New Results in the Restoration and Conservation of Archives and in Documentary Phototechnique since 1950," Current Problems in the World of Archives, Papers from the IVth International Congress of Archives, Stockholm, August 17 to 20, 1960 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1960), pp. 8 , 9, and 29. Mr. Melville Ruggles of the Council on Library Resources also observed laminating equipment in Russia. Communicated in interview, October, 1963.
*^W. J. Barrow, "Restoration Methods," The American Archivist, VI, No. 3 (July, 1943), p. 153.
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that edge tear was discouraged by providing for a small excess
margin, beyond the page, of cellulose acetate, but not of tis-
sue.
To Agarde's four "hurtes" which may "bring wracke to records," the 2 0 th century has added a fifth— acidity in papers acquired either in the course of making or picked up from polluted atmospheres.13
Today, the fifth "hurte," acidity, with which we dealt at 14 some length earlier in this study, is acknowledged as per
haps the single most important factor in the deterioration
of paper. Mr. Barrow was not the first to recognize the
problem, but it was he who made the most significant contri
bution, possibly of all time, to restoration by focusing his
own efforts upon and urging the attention of all others to
the need for and method of deacidification.After evalu
ating the extensive testing undertaken by the National Bureau
l^Barrow, "An Evaluation . . . ," op. cit., p. 52.
13g. Doris Mercer, "Sulphur Dioxide Pollution of the Atmosphere: A Further Report," Journal of the Society of Archivists, II, No. 5 (April, 1962), p. 221.
^^See Chapter III supra.
l^iir. Roger Ellis, Secretary of London's Historical Manuscripts Commission, termed deacidification "a develop ment of cardinal importance." "Latest Information for the Private Owners and Smaller Repository,” Archives, VI, No. 29 (Lady Day, 1963), p. 2.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 126
of Standards from 1929 to 1933,^^ and after surveying the
results of his own concentrated work in treating acidity, Mr.
Barrow in 1939 announced his conclusions. Any hope of long
enduring preservation, by whatever method, he maintained, is
dependent upon removing the debilitating acidic content. He
recommended a process of deacidification by subjection of
documents to consecutive solutions of (a) calcium hydroxide,
which neutralizes the acid, and (b) calcium bicarbonate, which
has the virtue of neutralizing acids assimilated at some future
date.l?
In the light of the fugitive inks suspected as early 18 as 1800, some anxiety might be engendered by the need for
immersion. However, permanent inks suffer no damage from
water. As for soluble inks, a variant of conventional
^®Kimberly and Scribner, op. cit. 17 W. J. Barrow, Manuscripts and Documents, op. cit., pp. 44-54. 18 In his 1916 paper dealing with document restoration, Mr. William Berwick stated that immersion was "perfectly safe . . . for any manuscript dating before . . . 1800; after that date the quality of the ink is doubtful. ..." "The Repair ing and Binding of Archives," in the American Historical Asso ciation Annual Report, I (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1916), 156. See also Chapter III supra.
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lamination may be considered. Depending upon the nature of
the paper and the ink, a document so inscribed may first be
laminated on the recto alone, thus preventing the exposure
of ink to any fluid, then deacidified as usual. Customary
lamination may be completed after the document is dry but
with reduced pressure and temperature. As for the effect of
neutralizing solutions on the cellulose acetate of the lami
nated recto, no adverse consequences have been observed; if 19 anything, a salubrious effect has been noted.
The value of pre-lamination deacidification was com-
pellingly borne out by a series of experiments which Mr. Bar
row performed on eighteenth-century deteriorated papers which
were variously silked and laminated, then subjected to accel- 20 erated aging tests. Silked samples were found to lose as
much as 52 per cent of their folding endurance. Unneutral
ized laminated samples lost 31 per cent, and neutralized 21 laminated documents only 5 per cent.
l*Interview with Mr. James L. Gear, Chief of the Docu ment Restoration Branch of the National Archives, May 21, 1962. 20 National Bureau of Standards, Accelerated Ageing Test for Paper, Research Paper No. 352 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932). See also S. Chakravorti, "A Review of the Lamination Process," Indian Archives, I, No. 4 (October. 1947), p. 305. 21 Barrow, "Restoration Methods," op. cit., p. 154.
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Until now the discussion of lamination has implied
the need for mechanical equipment to provide heat and pres
sure. A' notable contribution was made to the process by
India's development of a relatively simple manual technique
of lamination. After preparing the five-layer sandwich recom
mended by Barrow, the foil is lightly moistened with acetone
which, as a substitute for heat and pressure, accomplishes
adhesion.Known as "solvent lamination," this method, at
once simple, inexpensive, and effective, made its initial
appearance in 1951. It boasts of the additional attribute
of dispensing with the heat and high pressure upon which 23 some archivists look askance. A most valuable adjunct to
the American process, it has been strongly recommended for
institutions with small collections where economy is a more
pressing consideration than is volume ; for the repair of
torn pages in large volumes not easily given to dismantling;
and for documents with seals. On the basis of tests. Hr.
Gear, who has adopted it for similar purposes, corroborates
OQ Y. p. Kathpalia, "Hand Lamination with Cellulose Ace tate Foil," The American Archivist, XXI, No. 3 (July, 1958), p. 271.
23 Ibid.
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Mr. Kathpalia's statement that:
Specimens repaired by the acetone process are nearly as satisfactory as the heat-laminated samples. Only their resistance to water and gaseous penetration is less than that of documents laminated under p r e s s u r e . "34
Any innovation is, ipso facto, suspect; lamination was
no exception. Reactions were as varied as the spectrum. Sir
Hilary Jenkinson, never prone to counsel retreat from fresh
investigation, maintained even as late as 1952 a cautious
"wait and see" attitude,insisting that the efficacy of
the new method had "still to be submitted to the only final
and decisive test— that of time."^^ To the end of his days
in 1961, the venerable dean of English archival practice could
not be converted fully to an appreciation of its merits and
safety. Nor was he alone in his skepticism. His colleague
Mr. D. L. Evans, in questioning the permanent quality of the
new material, wondered if "in the passage of time its trans
parency will not be marred by discoloration and its flexibility
34 Ibid., p. 275. But even in these respects hand lamination is shown to be far superior to both the silk and tissue methods.
33nilary Jenkinson, "The Principles and Practice of Archive Repair Work in England," Archivum, II (1952), 37.
26lbid., p. 39;
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give way to brittleness." 2 7 Another compatriot, Mr. H. M.
Nixon, while granting it provisional endorsement, suggested
that "it should be tried for some years on printed materials
before using it for important archives."3® In 1957 still
another distinguished Englishman, Mr. H. J. Plenderleith,
reservedly indicated his acceptance, but encouraged the issu
ance of specifications for film to be used on valuable docu-
OQ ments. The 1959 National Bureau of Standards report was
apparently sufficiently responsive to the need expressed by
Mr. Plenderleith, for he has now become one of laminationls
staunchest supporters.30
Among Indian archivists divergent views have been
noted. Contrasted with Dr. B. S. Baliga's conservative view
that insufficient time had elapsed for an appraisal was Dr.
S. N. Sen's unqualified conclusion that "it seems desirable
that lamination of records with cellulose acetate foil . . .
3?D. L. Evans, "The Lamination Process, A British View," The American Archivist, IX, No. 4 (October, 1946), 320.
33f[. M. Nixon, "Lamination of Paper Documents with Cel lulose Acetate Foil," Archives, II (Michaelmas, 1949), 35.
3®H. j . Plenderleith, The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), 61, 30 Wilson and Forshee, op. cit.
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131
should be introduced in all organized Record Offices in
India.
Similarly eloquent approval was registered by Bel
gium !s acquisition in 1951 of laminating equipment for its y y o o Archives Générales du Royaume.^ The first European country
to practice heat lamination, Belgium was shortly to be emu
lated by France.
A fair assessment at this point in lamination's devel
opment would ascribe to it certain characteristics not to be
encountered ^ toto in any other restorative method. It dis
plays ease and speed of application without the requirement
of great skill. It requires relatively low cost materials.
It eliminates the need for adhesives with their attendant
31 Imperial Record Department, Notes on Preservation of Records (New Delhi: 1941), p. 6 . 32 J. Bolsee, "La restauration des documents aux Archives Générales du Royaume," Archives, Bibliothèques et Musées de Belgique, XXI (1950), 3-10.
33 Barrow, Procedures and Equipment, op. cit., p. 11.
34>rwenty years ago a sheet of cellulose acetate foil 21 x 36 cost approximately two cents, according to Adelaide E. Minogue, The Repair and Preservation of Record^, National Archives Bulletin No. 5, September 1943, p. 35. Even at a substantial increase, it would be considerably less than the two dollars currently quoted by the Transparo Company, New Rochelle, New York, for a yard of silk gauze.
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hazards. The foil is completely transparent, assuring unim
paired legibility. Quick and easy delamination is assured,
should necessity arise, by immersion for little more than half
an hour in a covered container of acetone, without damage to 35 the document. The availability of both machine and hand
lamination affords alternatives suitable for solving most
problems. The only elements governing choice are volume,
budget, space, or intended use. The lamination process lends
itself to producing either a glossy or a matte finish. Since
cellulose acetate foil is considered a highly stable material,
no reaction of paper to covering should occur unless a high
degree of acidity is present.
The literature applies the terms "preservation" and
"restoration" not only to lamination but to silking and to
tissuing as well. Although we, too, have followed the pattern,
we are aware that these expressions are in fact misnomers when
applied to the latter two methods. Indeed they are, as Miss
Minogue points out, more in the nature of repair or reinforce
ment. Only for lamination is "preservation" accurately used.
35 Should isolated sheets fail to meet specifications, or should occasional wrinkling occur from inexperience of opera tors, delamination would be indicated. 36 Minogue, loc. cit.
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It must'be narrowed to refer to encased documents that are
rendered almost impervious to pen and pencil marks, to bac
terial and insect infestation; to papers that are protected 37 substantially from harmful atmospheric elements. Herein
lies lamination's most impressive advantage.
The treatment of a unique document is a serious matter.
No conscientious archivist shouldjbe willing to entrust his
valuable records to a process which cannot command his full
confidence unless his only alternative is total loss. Even
so, he should withhold his sanction until his doubts have
been satisfactorily dispelled. Indeed, by constructively
raising questions and projecting criticisms, he proves a
stimulus to improvement, if not perfection. Queries of this
nature arose regarding the fugitive quality of the plasticiser, 38 an essential element of cellulose acetate foil. The National
Bureau of Standards specifically investigated this aspect in
1957. Its research led to the conclusion that the plasticiser
may be fugitive under some conditions, but that its transitory
^^While gases can penetrate the foil, the rate is much slower. No claim is mdde for the foil as an effective shield against light or sun. Lignin in paper yellows despite the document's lamination state, but deterioration does not occur. 38 Turner, op. cit., p. 321; and Plenderleith, op. cit., pp. 61-62.
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character is generally irrelevant. The plasticiser is
required for one purpose: to effect adhesion at "a tempera
ture low enough to keep degradation of the film and the paper
at a low level." After lamination is completed, the loss of
plasticiser is of little moment and does not deleteriously 39 affect the product.
Archivist Darlington points out two deterrents, in
her judgment, to the adoption of lamination: high initial 40 cost and insufficient time lapse. However, hand lamination
requires no extensive expenditure and offers almost all the
benefits, except the handling of large volume. As for time
lapse, the aging test of the National Bureau of Standards
is considered a fair and equitable criterion.
A third drawback might be added: laminated documents
do not readily lend themselves to folding. But silked docu
ments also do not take kindly to such manipulation for long.
qo Wilson and Forshee, op. cit., pp. 1 and 4. 40 Ida Darlington, "The Lamination of Paper Documents: An Interim Report on Methods Available in the United Kingdom," Journal of the Society of Archivists, I, No. 4 (October, 1956), p. 108.
41see p. 31, footnote 26 supra.
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Inasmuch as certain English archivists, until recently,
represented the hard core of reserve vis-a-vis the approval
of lamination, it is just that we detail the views of one of
their most articulate spokesmen, Mr. Roger H. Ellis.In
the past he has raised a number of thought-provoking questions;
some, we believe, have been adequately answered; others may
still require attention.
Mr. Ellis maintained that, at least insofar as British
record offices were concerned, the process is limited and
inflexible; limited by the size of the laminator, and inflex
ible because it is applicable only to paper documents. Size, 44 it has been pointed out, is not an insurmountable hurdle.
A document larger than the laminator may be treated either
in sections or in successive stages.As for its limited
43]|r. Ellis was associated for years with the Public Record Office in England. He is now Secretary of the Histor ical Manuscripts Commission.
^^Roger H. Ellis, "An Archivist's Note on the Conser vation of Documents," Journal of the Society of Archivists, I, No. 9 (April, 1959), 252-254.
44iiinogue, op. cit., pp. 37-38.
45rhere is not total agreement on this point. Some contend that it is neither easily nor satisfactorily accom plished.
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application, namely, for paper, this is true, although maps
can be successfully treated by a slight variation of the
process. It is not prescribed for parchment, but neither is
silking. In any event, the vast majority of records requiring
care almost anywhere in the archival realm are on paper.
Since the needs of each document differ, Mr. Ellis
pointed out that the "orthodox repairer" will treat each one
individually, according to his estimate of whether it requires
gauze, paper, sizing, or thicker or thinner paste. Lamination,
however, he viewed as a method indiscriminately applied to all
documents.
Mr. Ellis was not satisfied with the assurance that ace
tone would quickly and effectively remove the foil when neces
sary, without apparent damage. He was not convinced that cel
lulose acetate pressed into the paper would not bruise or
break the fibers, and wondered whether microscopic examina- .
tion would not elicit a precise answer. Perhaps he was unaware
of tests of this nature applied by Mr. Barrow in the late
194U's which led Mr. S. Chakravorti to observe: "It has been
reported that on microscopic examination no difference in the
texture of the delaminated and the original paper was noticed.
^^Chakravorti, op. cit., p. 305.
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If such tests were known to Mr. Ellis, perhaps further inves
tigation along this line is still among the desiderata.
Conceding that lamination has great possibilities, Mr.
Ellis asserted that even after the "uncertainties at present
attending its use" are resolved, it would offer only a partial
solution to the kind of repair problems experienced in Eng
land. That cognizance of the problem had been taken in
English archival circles was evidenced by the comment of
Mr. D. B. Wardie. Principal Assistant Keeper of the Public
Record Office that:
Although the vast accumulation of modern records on paper of doubtful durability would make it necessary in the future to adopt rapid methods of mass-repair for such records, it is nevertheless most important to maintain and foster the craft of the skilled repairer who would give the older documents the individual treatment they require.4?
This more moderate view was shared by Mias Darlington who,
after excluding the "old and unique documents," agreed that
lamination appeared to provide the solution for "modern docu
ments on poor quality paper for which traditional methods are
unsuitable or too expensive in labor" and "office documents,
lists, etc., which are expedted to have a comparatively short
4^%r. D. B. Wardle addressing a Meeting of Document Repairers on October 6 , 1961, in Journal of the Society of Archivists, II, No. 5 (April, 1962), 230-231.
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life but which are likely to deteriorate rapidly from constant
handling.’’^®
Of this latest of restorative processes, the most suc
cinct summation has been made by Chakravorti:
To combat the vast accumulation of records on inferior paper that is piling on us and to take care of the repair ing work long overdue, we must have some mechanical means of rehabilitating the documents inexpensively and speedily without any highly skilled labor. The lamination process is the first effective answer to this demand.49
The archivist who raises every conceivable objection
in order to shield his records from possible harm commands
the most careful attention when he finds reason to alter his
views. Because his recent acceptance of lamination followed
a position of strong reservation, Mr. Ellis's warm words
redound both to his own and to the credit of the long-
controversial method. Speaking before a convention of docu
ment repairers in December 1962, Mr. Ellis called lamination
"the most spectacular development in repair technique." To
Mr. Barrow he referred as the individual "who led us into new 50 paths and opened up new dimensions."
^®Darlington, loc. cit.
4®Chakraverti, o£. cit., pp. 311-312.
3®Ellis, "Latest Information, ..." Archives, op. cit., p . 3.
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What may prove of even greater significance was Mr.
Ellis's announcement of a new and momentous process. A vari
ation of Barrow's method developed by Mr. Herbert Langwell,
leading English craftsman and scientist, the operation uses
"tissue impregnated with polyvinyl acetate and acid neutral
iser." With this innovation "lamination and deacidification"
are accomplished "in one process." It "can be used not only
with the Barrow press but, at much lower temperature, with
a photographic mounting press, or (if spirit be used as a 51 solvent) cold in an ordinary binder's press." Mr. Lang
well 's contribution should have wide appeal to many who here
tofore have been unable to take advantage of lamination's
virtues.
In laboratories throughout the world scientists are
using new formulas and new methods to discover and isolate,
to refine and perfect. Lamination is not a finished process.
Research continues with foils and procedures in order to
improve and secure this instrument of great service to cus
todians the world over.
Sllbid.
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MANUSCRIPT REPAIR SURVEY
To determine both the current status of manuscript
repair techniques and the condition of previously treated
documents, the following questionnaire was circulated to
appropriate agencies throughout the United States, and to
representative institutions in Canada and Europe. Of the
Asian countries, only Japan was included:^
1. By what methods have your documents been repaired since your Society was established? What method(s) are you currently using? (Tissue; silk; cellulose acetate foil lami nation-machine or hand application; Zapon- or Kitt-type preparations? Other?)
2. When was each adopted by your establishment and under whose influence or at whose suggestion, ^.e., as a result of your restorer's perusal of the literature on the subject, correspondence with other institutions, or his train ing in the procedure by some other agency?
If discontinued (each method, that is,) when and why?
Do you have in your files correspondence, reports, or memoranda indicating either the adoption or the abandon ment of any method? If so, is it possible to obtain photo copies? Are there published articles on your restoration work?
1 Communications addressed to Tokyo University and the National Diet Library in Japan, to the Japanese Embassy J.n Washington, and to a prominent American professor of Far East ern studies availed nothing.
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3. Is, and/or was, your repair work done by your staff or sent out to be done commercially?
4. What is the present state of preservation of docu ments repaired by all methods, principally silking?
Has any re-restoration been necessary? If so, of what method and after what period of time? Was re-restoration accomplished with ease or with difficulty?
Of seventy five inquiries, composed either of the ques
tionnaire or of requests for associated data, only five failed
to evoke a reply. Those who did contribute to so gratifying
a response are noted in the Appendix.
I. METHODS USED
A resume of methods employed indicates that fourteen
institutions still use tissue; six others have abandoned it.
Twenty-seven still use silk gauze ; six no longer do. Twenty-
seven use cellulose acetate foil lamination, while four others 2 are contemplating its adoption. Ply-on Film, Stikon-Film,
Perafilm, and Magic Mending Tape were variously mentioned, as
were Mylar protectors and Vanishing Patch ; none of these was
used widely or extensively. Varnish-type preparations were 3 unknown in this country. Sweden used Zapon from 1905 to 1911;
3Some use one, others use a variety of methods.
3While Kitt was not mentioned by name, that is very likely the "sizing" introduced in Sweden in 1907 and announced in 1910 at the Brussels Conference.
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Belgiiïm experimented with it sometime between 1912 and 1920.
Four American institutions resort solely to microfilm, pro
viding their readers with a positive service copy and retiring
the original to safe storage. A number of agencies engage
in no repair work other than mending minor tears. These col
lections are on durable paper of fairly recent vintage and
require no restorative attention. Others find little work
of this nature necessary because they are located in climates
where paper maintains its stability. Still others have need
for repair work but lack funds to accomplish it.
II. DATES OF ADOPTION
It was roughly thirty to forty years ago that tissue
and silk were introduced to American archival agencies for
conventional use. 4 Earlier dates were reported from abroad. 5
In general, they appear to have given a good account of them
s e l v e s . ® Indeed, for some, silk remains even now the most desir*
able reinforcement material. However, the great enthusiasm
^Among earlier examples are The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1909; The Connecticut Historical Society, 1912; and the Department of Archives and History, State of Mississippi, between 1902 and 1937.
^Archive Historico Nacional, Madrid, reported the end of the nineteenth century. Holland used tissue in 1858.
Gsee "VI. Condition of Restored Records," this chap ter infra.
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expressed for cellulose acetate foil lamination mirrors the
unmistakable trend.
From its initial acceptance, and the purchase in 1939
by the Delaware Public Archives Commission of "Barrow Machine 7 No. 2," the reputation of lamination has been progressively
enhanced. Our survey brought forth only three replies reserv
ing judgment or expressing skepticism of its merits. Adduced
as reasons for postponing adoption of the latest known proc
ess were: (1 ) lamination has not been tested long enough to
inspire complete trust; (2 ) the process changes the charac
ter, texture, and appearance of a document; and (3) the cost
is prohibitive. Not generally shared is the view expressed
by the British Museum that lamination "is not (and is not
intended to be) used as a substitute for silking. It is an 8 adjunct to silking for a different type of problem."
For those who approve of lamination in principle, but
must forego its benefits for lack of funds for the purchase
of the required mechanical equipment, hand lamination appears
ideal. It is all the more astonishing, therefore, that abso
lutely no mention of the Indian development was to be found
^Delaware Public Archives Commission, personal letter, November 21, 1962. g British Museum, personal letter, August 21, 1963.
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in the correspondence. Perhaps, as Dr. Papritz expressed it
in relation to European archivists, it "unfortunately escaped g general attention."
III. INFLUENCES
From observation of work being performed in the labora
tories of the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and
the Maryland Hall of Records, many state agencies obtained
their initial exposure to document restoration. It is not
unlikely that these three leading agencies exerted an influ
ence far greater than the replies intimate. The Library of
Congress alone, by virtue of its early operations, accounted
for the training of a number of incipient craftsmen. Pub
lished accounts, reports, and manuals succeeded early in
furnishing either primary or supplementary stimuli and direc
tion. In recent years, agencies in possession of newly ac
quired laminators have been generous in allowing visitors
free access to their plants for observation purposes.
^Joh. Papritz, "New Methods, New Materials, and New Results in the Restoration and Conservation of Archives and in Documentary Phototechnique since 1950," Current Problems in the World of Archives, Papers from the IVth International Congress of Archives, Stockholm, August 17 to 20, 1960 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1960), p. 9.
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IV. RECORDS
The reluctance or failure to make or maintain records
of restoration work has affected American archivists no less
than their European colleagues. Notable exceptions among
our informants are the American Philosophical Society of
Philadelphia whose admirable practice it is to keep "a record
of the restoration of each iuem. . . . " ; and The State His
torical Society of Wisconsin whose comprehensive response,
and the files upon which it was based, display an amazing
historical consciousness. Many others conscientiously sup
plied whatever data could be gleaned from less extensive
records, from memory, or from solicited hearsay. A few pub
lished articles on state or library restoration work do exist.
V. STAFF OR COMMERCIAL TREATMENT
All minor repairs, as well as the bulk of the tissuing
and silking operations, are handled exclusively by staff mem
bers. Particularly difficult or demanding silking tasks are
sometimes entrusted to well-known specialists.^^ Eight
10 American Philosophical Society, personal letter, September $4, 1962.
Those mentioned were Miss Virginia Lawrence, Mrs. Gertrude Weadock, Mr. Wiliman Spawn of the American Philosophi cal Society, and R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company.
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institutions laminate in their own or associated laboratories;
others rely wholly on commercial firms. 12
VI. CONDITION OF RESTORED RECORDS
The state of preservation of documents ranges from
very poor to excellent. Among the former are numbered a few
copies of the New York Times, now "very brittle and . . . sel ls dom used," which the New York Public Library reinforced with
tissue in 1920. The Massachusetts State Library disclosed
that its holdings are in poor condition. From the Missis
sippi Department of Archives and History came the report that
silk on documents treated between 1902 and 1937 has disinte
grated. The Itaiversity of Texas noted some rotting after
forty or fifty years. Some brittleness has been observed
in the Illinois State Historical Library, although not enough
to warrant further treatment at this time. The Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission advised that silked records
which they had "inherited" from a predecessor agency are in
need of "extensive restoration"; the documents' brittle state
is attributed to "a complete lack of temperature and humidity
12 W. J. Barrow and the Arbee Company were named.
13 New York Public Library, personal letter, November 19, 1963.
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control and virtually unregulated steam heat in the quarters
where [they] have been housed for the past century.The
experience of North Carolina is probably among the most seri
ous. After only twenty or thirty years, silked documents re
quired re-restoration. But still worse was the Kansas State
Historical Society's encounter with silk which began only in
1933. "Toward the end of the 1930's it became apparent that
some of the items preserved by silking were becoming extremely
brittle."^® This may well be the only case on record where
silked documents showed deterioration within six years.
In most instances, however, silking's record is good.
The British Museum, Harvard, the Clements Library, the Con
necticut State Library, and the Connecticut Historical Soci
ety report that records remain in good condition after thirty-
five to fifty years. From Lansing we learn that the 1835
Michigan Constitution which Mr. Berwick silked in 1914 is
still in good condition after a half century. Despite daily
use, records silked years ago by the Emery process are holding
up well in the Portland, Maine City Hall. The church records
^^Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, personal letter, October 23, 1962.
^^Kansas State Historical Society, personal letter, November 16, 1962.
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which Miss Virginia Lawrence's mother silked in 1910 are in
fine form; their storage in a safe, shielded from adverse 16 elements, may well account for it.
VII. RE-RESTORATION
The consensus of our communications was that (1) desilk-
ing is a tedious, exacting, and time-consuming task, but not
one of insurmountable difficulty; (2 ) no damage to the docu
ment has been observed where its silk covering had deteri
orated; and (3) when re-restoration became necessary, it was
accomplished, with few exceptions, by lamination.
From a number of letters coalesced a view which deserves
to be recorded where some action might be taken upon it: Many
archival agencies are severely handicapped by inadequate staff
and meager budgets. Myopic legislators to whom they must look
for appropriations are characteristically lacking in percep
tion. They usually fail to make available the funds neces
sary to secure for succeeding generations the precious records
that will pulverize for lack of attention. Despite the dif
ficulties, a most penetrating spirit permeated almost four
score letters, that of undisguised devotion to the task of
preserving the records entrusted to each custodian's care.
IGgee p. 1 0 0 supra.
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This study resulted from a term paper on the subject
of document restoration methods characterized by a dearth of
readily available historical data. While lamination with cel
lulose acetate foil was amply documented, the beginnings of
its predecessors, tissue and silk, were exceedingly obscure.
It became our objective, therefore, to trace the principal
restoration methods to their initial stages. As work pro
gressed, it appeared only logical to round out the picture
by providing some familiarity with paper's origin and spread,
with the technical evolution in its manufacture as it bears
upon deterioration, and with the causes for its decay which
make restoration necessary. To refer briefly to other methods
employed from time to time seemed also of value.
Since an historical study of this nature possesses sig
nificance principally in its relationship to current experi
ence, it was considered desirable to draw upon that experience.
Those who themselves do the restoring or use the materials
which have been treated would seem to have the most direct
knowledge of their durability and effects. A survey of eighty-
odd institutions, here and abroad, was therefore undertaken to
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elicit their observations. It proved a most useful device
and a reliable source of data from which could be drawn what
we believe to be valid conclusions.
Catalogs, specialized journals, and bibliographies
appearing in works dealing with book and paper preservation
provided ample references to secondary-source material. The
records preserved in the National Archives, the Patent Office,
and the Library of Congress made important contributions to
this study. Much valuable information was provided by or sug
gested in communications from archivists, historians, and
restorers. It is hoped that the material has been well used.
Harvard's Curator of Manuscripts, Mr. W. H. Bond, is
not alone in his conviction that it is best to be "very spar
ing in repair and restoration." Others would join him in
"preferring to rely on care in handling and shelving, and the
protection of air-conditioning. . . . However, before the
days of air-conditioAing and controlled storage conditions,
many documents vanished for want of attention and treatment.
The use of transparent tissue, as a supporting agent for dis
integrating paper documents, was called into being by great
need. To its success, even if for a brief period, we owe the
^W. H. Bond, personal letter, September 28, 1962.
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continued existence of certain documents until other means
appeared to assure their survival. So long as its limita
tions were perceived and accepted, tissue served well in
the absence of other effective measures.
With all its fallacies, silking, for some sixty years,
has been a widely accepted process. By proper application
and subsequent careful handling and protection from deteri
orating elements, it can conceivably last for indefinite
periods of time, maintaining good visibility, considerable
strength, and high resistance to tearing. Indeed, the method
represents a decided improvement over tissue and a signal con
tribution to the preservation of valuable records. Were it
not for gauze they might already have been beyond the reach
of past and present scholars, or might have decayed beyond
redemption before scientific advances provided other means to
secure them for future generations of researchers.
Despite the esthetic appeal silking has for the con
noisseur, from a long-range and practical point of view it,
too, must be considered a palliative. It must yield before
the superior capabilities of cellulose acetate foil lamination.
From my studies it appears that lamination has pre
empted the field of paper document restoration, that silking's
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use has become exceedingly circumscribed, that tissuing as a
process occupies mere vestigial status, and that miscellane
ous methods are useful for limited and specialized purposes.
Lamination has already achieved that station in its
development where it commands the respect and confidence of
its users. Events of the past year place upon lamination,
at least for the time being, an additional responsibility:
Microfilm, which was to have been its effective ally, or
substitute, has been attacked by a strange malady described
as "measles." Until scientific research solves what has
become a problem of major and alarming proportions, lamina
tion remains the sole method of preservation. Records whose
originals have already been destroyed or allowed to disinte
grate in the full confidence that their contents had been
safeguarded by microfilm, may well be lost for all time.
Greater reliance on lamination could preclude a repetition
of similar occurrences.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Hunter, Dard. Papermaking; the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943.
______. Papermaking through Eighteen Centuries. New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1930.
Jarrell, T. D., J. M. Hankin, and F. P. Veitch. Deteriora tion of Book and Record Papers. HnitedaStmtesaDepdrtment of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin No. 541. Washington : Government Printing Office, November, 1936.
Jenkinson, Hilary. A Manual of Archive Administration. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.
Jugaku, Bunsho. Paper-Making by Hand in Japan. Tokyo : Beiji-Shobo, Publishers, Ltd., 1959.
Kaempfer, Engelbertus. The History of Japan. Trans. J. G. Scheuchzer. London : Printed for the publisher and sold to T. Woodward and C. Davis, 1728. Kaempffert, Waldemar. Discovering New Facts about Paper. Holyoke, Mass.: American Writing Paper Company, 1920.
Kantrowitz, Morris S., Ernest W. Spencer, and Robert H. Simmons. Permanence and Durability of Paper. Washington: Government PrintingoTTTce, lyau.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 157
Kimberly, Arthur E., and Adelaide L. Emley. A Study of the Removal of Sulphur Dioxide from Library Air. National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Miscellaneous Publication No. 142. Washington: Govern ment Printing Office, 1933.
Kimberly, Arthur E., and B. W. Scribner. Summary Report of Bureau of Standards Research on Preservation of Records. National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Miscellaneous Publication No. 144. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1934.
Labarre, E. J. A Dictionary of Paper and Paper-Making Terms. Amsterdam: N. V. Swetz and Zeitlinger, 1937.
Langwell, W. H. The Conservation of Books and Documents. London : Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1957.
Lydenberg, Harry Miller, and John Archer. The Care and Repair of Books. Revised by John Alden. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1960.
Massachusetts Records Commission. Report on the Custody and Condition of the Public Records of Parishes, Towns and Counties. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1889-1921.
Minogue, Adelaide K. The Repair and Preservation of Records. National Archives, Bulletin No. 5. Washington: [Govern- ment Printing Offic^ , 1943.
Morgana, Mario. Restauro dei Libri antichi. Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1932.
Munsell, Joel. Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and Paper-making. Fifth edition, with additions. Albany: J. Munsell, 1876.
Murray, John. Practical Remarks on Modern Paper. London : T. Cadell, 1829.
Narita, Kiyofusa. Japanese Paper-Making. Tokyo : Hokuseido Press, 1954.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 158
Notes on Preservation of Records. New Delhi: Imperial Record Department, 1941.
Plenderleith, H. J. The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art. London: Oxford University Press, 1956.
Posse, Otto. Handschriften-Konservirung. Dresden: Verlag Apollo, 1899.
Report of the Government Chemist, 1958-59. London ; Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1960.
Report of the State Librarian of Pennsylvania, 1903. Har risburg: Wm. S. Ray, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1904.
Ruggles, Melville J., and Raynard C. Swank. Soviet Libraries and Librarianship. Chicago: American Library Associa tion, 1962.
Schill, Ernst G. Anleitung zur Erhaltung und Ausbesserung von Handschriften durch Zapon-ImprRgnirung. Dresden: Verlag Apollo, 1899.
Second Annual Report of the Archivist of the United States. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1936.
Sutermeister, Edwin. The Story of Papermaking. Boston: S. D. Warren Company, 1954.
The Manufacture and Testing of Durable Book Papers. Based on the investigations of W. J. Barrow. Edited by Randolph W. Church. Richmond: The Virginia State Library, 1960.
Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin. Written on Bamboo and Silk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
United States Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards. Accelerated Ageing Test for Paper. Research Paper No. 352. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932.
Vottero, Pier-Ignazio. Conservazione e Restauro dei Docu- menti. Pisa: Enrico Spoerri, Libraio-editore, 1912.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 159
Walton, Robert P. (comp.). Causes and Prevention of Deteri oration in Book Materials. New York: The New York Public Library, 1929.
Waters, C. E. Inks. National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Circular C-413. Washing ton: Government Printing Office, 1936.
Wilson, William K., and B. W. Forshee. Preservation of Documents by Lamination. National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Monograph 5. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1959.
B. ARTICLES AND PERIODICALS
Adams, Samuel Hopkins. "Fade-outs of History," Collier's, the National Weekly, May 12, 1923, p. 14.
"Archivio e Archivistica," Enciclopedia Italiana (1933 ed.), IV, 83-90.
Barrow, W. J. "An Evaluation of Document Restoration Proces ses," American Documentation, IV (1953), 50-54.
"Migration of Impurities in Paper," Archivum, III n^53), 105-108.
"Restoration Methods," American Archivist, VI Duly, 1943), 151-154.
Barrow, W. J., and Reavis C. Sproull. "Permanence in Book Papers," Science, CXXIX (April 24, 1959), 1076-1084.
Bartlett, Richard. "Remarks and Documents Relating to the Preservation and Keeping of the Public Archives," Collec tions of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Vol. V, No. 1. Concord: 1837. Pp. 1-34.
Beljakova, L. A., and O. V. Kozulina. "Book Preservation in USSR Libraries," UNESCO Library Bulletin, XV (July- August, 1961), 199-202.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 160
Boisée, J. "La Restauration des Documents aux Archives Générales du Royaume," Archives, Bibliothèques et Musées de Belgique, XXI (1950), 3-10.
Browning, B. L., and R. W. K. Ulm. "The Nature and Measure ment of Paper Acidity," Paper Trade Journal, CII (Febru ary 20, 1936), 69-86.
Burton, John O., and Royal H. Rasch. "The Determination of the Alpha-Cellulose Content and Copper Number of Paper," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, VI (April, 1931), 603-619.
Campbell, W, Boyd. "Hydration and Beating of Cellulose Pulps," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, XXVI (1934), 218-219.
Chakravorti, S. "A Review of the Lamination Process," Indian Archives, I, No. 4 (October, 1947), 304-312.
. "Preserving the Past," Modern Librarian, XI, No. 3 (April-June, 1941), 13-18.
Darlington, Ida, "The Lamination of Paper Documents: An Interim Report on Methods Available in the United Kingdom," Journal of the Society of Archivists, I, No. 4 (October, 1956), 108-110.
"Die Zapon-Konferenz in Dresden," Centralblatt fur Bibliotheks- wesen, XVI (December, 1899), 555-557.
Ehrle, Franz. "Sur la Conservation et la Restauration des anciens Manuscrits," Revue des Bibliothèques, Nos. 3-5 (March-May, 1898), 152-172.
Ellis, Roger H. "An Archivist's Note on the Conservation of Documents," Journal of the Society of Archivists, I, No. 9 (April, 195977^252-254.
"Latest Information for the Private Owners and Smaller Repository, Archives, VI, No. 29 (Lady Day, 1963), 1-3.
Evans, D. L. "The Lamination Process, a British View," American Archivist, IX, No. 4 (October, 1946), 320-322.
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Flieder, F., and J. Boissonant, "Study of the Fungicidal Properties of Ethylene Oxide," Bulletin d'information sur la Pathologie des Documents et leur Protection aux Archives de France, No. 1 (196171 61-64.
Gear, James L. "Comments on Mr. Turner's Article," American Archivist, XX, No. 4 (October, 1957), 329-335.
_____ . "The Repair of Documents— American Beginnings," American Archivist, XXVI, No. 4 (October, 1963), 469-475.
Goel, 0. P. "Repair of Documents with Cellulose Acetate Foils on a Small Scale," Indian Archives, VII (July-December, 1953), 162-165.
Hall, Gosta. "Permanence of Paper," Paper Trade Journal, LXXXII (April 18, 1926), 52-57.
Herzberg, W. "Die Ausdauerfahigkeit unserer Papiere," Die chemische Industrie, Leipzig, 1895, Jahrg. 18, pp. 476-479. Abstracted in Robert P. Walton (comp.). Causes and Pre vention of Deterioration in Book Materials (New York: The New York Public Library, 1929), p. 6 .
Hill, Frank P. "Deterioration of Newspaper Paper," American Library Association, Papers and Proceedings. Chicago: American Library Association, 191Ô. Pp. 675-678.
Hoffman, W. F. "Effect of Residual Acid on the Rate of Deterioration of Paper," Paper Trade Journal, LXXXVI, No. 9 (March 1, 1928), 58-60.
"Japan," Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.), XV, 156-274.
"Japan," Encyclopaedia Britannica (1963 éd.), XII, 893-954.
"Japanese Painting and Prints," Encyclopaedia Britannica (1963 éd.), XI, 963-968.
Jenkinson, Hilary, "The Principles and Practice of Archive Repair Work in England," Archivum, II (1952), 31-41.
Kathpalia, Y. P. "Hand Lamination with Cellulose Acetate Foil," American Archivist, XXI, No. 3 (July, 1958), 271-276.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 162
Kimberly, Arthur E. "Deteriorative Effect of Sulphur Dioxide upon Paper in an Atmosphere of Constant Humidity and Tem perature," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, VII, No. 2 (February, 1932), 159-173.
Kimberly, Arthur E., and J. F. G. Hicks. "Light Sensitivity of. Rosin Paper-Sizing Materials," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, VI (May, 1931), 819-827.
Kohler, S., and G. Hall. "Acidity in Paper," The Paper Industry, VII (October, 1925), 1059-1063.
Launer, Herbert F. "Determination of the pH Value of Papers," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, XXII (May, 1939), 553-564.
Little, Arthur D. "The Durability of Paper," The Printing Art, I (June, 1903), 115-118.
Manning, William J. "Permanent Printed Records on Linen," Scientific American, (June 6, 1908), 407.
Mercer, E. Doris. "Sulphur Dioxide Pollution of the Atmos phere: A Further Report," Journal of the Society of Archivists, II, No. 5 (April, 1962), 221-222.
Nixon, H. M. "Lamination of Paper Documents with Cellulose Acetate Foil," Archives, II (Michaelmas, 1949), 32-36.
"Paper," Encyclopaedia Britannica (1962 éd.), XVII, 229-237.
"Paper Destruction Hastened by High Temperature and Humidity," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, XXVI (1934), 219.
Papritz, Joh. "New Method#, New Materials, and New Results in the Restoration and Conservation of Archives and in Documentary Phototechnique since 1950," Current Problems in the World of Archives, Papers from the IVth Interna tional Congress of Archives, Stockholm, August 17 to 20, 1960. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1960.
Rasch, Royal H. "Accelerated Aging Test for Paper," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, VII (1931), 465-475.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 163
"Restauro dei Libri e dei Manoscritti," Enciclopedia Italiana (1933 éd.), XXIX, 127-136.
Richter, George A. "Purified Wood Fiber," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry; Part I, "A Study of the Physical and Chemical Properties," XXIII, No. 2 (February, 1931), 131-139; Part II, "The Paper-Making Characteristics of Wood Fiber High in Alpha-Cellulose," XXIII, No. 3 (March, 1931), 266-272; and Part III, "Accelerated Aging Test of Various Types of Paper-Making Fibers," XXIII, No. 4 (April, 1931), 371-380.
______. "Relative Permanence of Paper Exposed to Sunlight," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, XXVII (January-June, 1935), Part I, 177-185; Part II, 432-439.
. "Researches on Wood Fibers as a Paper-Making Mate rial," Journal of the Franklin Institute, CCXII, No. 4, (October, 1931), 403-437.
Sartory, A., e^ al. "Some Paper-Destroying Fungi," Papier, XXXVIII (June, 1935), 529-542. Abstracted in Morris S. Kantrowitz, Ernest W. Spencer, and Robert H. Simmons, Permanence and Durability of Paper (Washington: Govern ment Printing Office, 1940TT P* 18.
Scribner, B. W. "Comparison of Accelerated Aging of Record Papers with Normal Aging for Eight Years," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, XXIII (September, 1939), 405-413.
______. "The Preservation of Records in Libraries," The Library Quarterly, IV, No. 3 (July, 1934), 371-383.
Shaw, Merle B., George W. Bicking, and Martin J. O'Leary. "A Study of the Relation of Some Properties of Cotton Rags to the Strength and Stability of Experimental Papers Made from Them," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, XIV, No. 6 (January-June, 1935), 649-665.
Shaw, Merle B., and Martin J. O'Leary. "Effect of Filling and Sizing Materials on Stability of Book Papers," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, XXI (November, 1938), 671-695.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 164
Sindall, R. W. "The Durability of Paper," Paper Trade Journal, LUX, No. 7 (August 17, 1911), 60.
Smith, L. Herman. "Manuscript Repair in European Archives," American Archivist; Part I, "Great Britain," I, No. 1 (January, 1938), 1-23; Part II, "The Continent," I, No. 2 (April, 1938), 51-78.
"The Work of the International Congress of Archivists and Librarians at Brussels, August 28-31, 1910," American Historical Association, Annual Report, (1910) 282-292.
"Times File Saved by a New Method," The New York Times, August 12, 1921, p. 12.
Torrey, W. V., and E. Sutermeister. "A Brief Study of Some Old Papers," Paper Trade Journal, XCVI (May 25, 1933), 45-46.
Tribolet, Harold W. "Binding and Related Problems," American Archivist, XVI, No. 2 (April, 1953), 115-126.
Turner, Robert W. S. "To Repair or Despair?" American Archivist, XX, No. 4 (October, 1957), 319-329.
Veitch, F. P., R. W. Frey, and L. R. Leinbach. "Polluted Atmosphere a Factor in the Deterioration of Bookbinding Leather," Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association, XXI (March, 1926), 156-176.
Wardie, D. B. An Address before a Meeting of Document Repairers on October 6, 1961, reported in Journal of the Society of Archivists, II, No. 5 (April, 1962), 230-231.
Wessel, Carl J. "Paper," Deterioration of Materials, Causes and Preventive Techniques, Glenn A. Greathouse and Carl J. Wessel, editors. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corpora tion, 1954), 355-407.
Wiesner, J. "The Influence of Gas Lighting on the Rapid Dis coloration of Wood-made Papers," Dingier*s Polytechnic Journal, CCLXVI (1887), 181-184. Abstracted in Robert P. I^alion (comp. ). Causes and Prevention of Deteriora tion in Book Materials (New York: The New York Public LibrarjT» 1929), p. 107.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 165
Wilson, William K., et al. "Accelerated Aging of Record Papers Compared with Normal Aging," Technical Associa- tion of the Pulp and Paper Industry, XXXVIII (September, 1955), 543-547. .
"Wonderful Piece of MS. Restoration," The New York Times, July 6, 1907.
Zimmerman, Elmer W., Charles G. Weber, and Arthur E. Kimberly. "Relation of Ink to the Preservation of Written Records," National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, Journal of Research, XIV, No. 4 (January- June, 1935), 463-468.
C. UNPUBLISHED MATERIALS
Department of State, Report of Bureau Officers, 1882-1894. Memorandum entitled, "On the accession and preservation of the historical archives in the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State," December 11, 1894.
Letters from Miss Edith M. Berwick. (1) Undated; received October 10, 1962. (2) April 20, 1964.
Letters Patent No. 561,503, dated June 2, 1896, United States Patent Office. See also National Archives Record Group 241, Records of the Patent Office.
Library of Congress, Librarian's file, Incoming letters, 1897-1899, Box 29.
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Correspondence and Memoranda, c. 1897-1902, Box 47.
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Letter Book I, April 26, 1898 to May 7, 1900.
Nicholson, E. W. B. "Report of Bodley's Librarian to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, on the Conference held at St. Gallen, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 1898, upon the preser vation and repair of old MSS.," December 22, 1898.
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Personal interviews with Mr. James L. Gear, Chief of the Document Restoration Branch of the National Archives, May 21, 1962, and May 1, 1964.
Personal interview with Mr. Alvin W. Kremer, formerly Keeper of the Collections, Library of Congress, April 17, 1962.
Personnel file of William Berwick, Federal Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
Telephone conversation with Mr. Melville Ruggles, National Council on Library Resources, May 17, 1962.
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Communications, either in response to a standardized
questionnaire or to an individual request for information,
were received from the following:
EUROPE
Archives Nationales Paris, France Archive Historico Nacional Madrid, Spain Algemêen Ryksarchief te s'Gravenhage The Hague Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana Rome, Italy Bodleian Library Oxford, England British Museum London, England Historical Manuscripts Commission London, England Riksarkivet Stockholm, Sweden
CANADA
Provincial Library Winnipeg, Manitoba The New Brunswick Museum St. John, New Brunswick
LIBRARIES
William L. Clements Library Ann Arbor, Mich. Harvard University (Houghton Library) Cambridge, Mass. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery San Marino, Calif. Newberry Library Chicago, 111. New York Public Library New York, N. Y. William Henry Smith Memorial Library Indianapolis, Ind. The Library Company of Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pa. Tulane University Library New Orleans, La. University of Texas Library Austin, Tex. Yale University Library New Haven, Conn.
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HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Connecticut Historical Society Hartford, Conn. Florida Historical Society Tampa, Fla. Georgia Historical Society Savannah, Ga. Historical Society of Montana Helena, Mont. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pa. Idaho Historical Society Boise, Idaho Kansas State Historical Society Topeka, Kans. Kentucky Historical Society Frankford, Ky. Maine Historical Society Portland, Me. Maryland Historical Society Baltimore, Md. Massachusetts Historical Society Boston, Mass. Nebraska State Historical Society Lincoln, Nebr. Nevada Historical Society Reno, Nev. New Hampshire Historical Society Concord, N. H. New Jersey Historical Society Newark, N. J. New York Historical Society New York, N. Y. New York State Historical Society Cooperstown, N. Y. Oregon Historical Society Portland, Oreg. Rhode Island Historical Society Providence, R. I. South Carolina Historical Society Charleston, S. D. South Dakota State Historical Society Pierre, S. D. State Historical Society of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa State Historical Society of North Dakota Bismarck, N. D. State Historical Society of Wisconsin Madison, Wise. Utah State Historical Society Salt Lake City, Ut. Vermont Historical Society Montpelier, Vt. Washington State Historical Society Tacoma, Wash. Western Historical Manuscripts Collec tion, University of Missouri Columbia, Mo.
AMERICAN DOCUMENT RESTORERS
W. J. Barrow Richmond, Va. Virginia N. Lawrence Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Willman Spawn, American Philosophical Society Philadelphia, Pa. Harold W. Tribolet, R. R. Donnelley and Sons Company Chicago, 111.
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STATE LIBRARIES AND/OR ARCHIVES
Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Library Boston, Mass. Connecticut Historical Commission Torrington, Conn. Connecticut State Library Hartford, Conn. Department of Library and Archives Phoenix, Ariz. Department of Archives and History Little Rock, Ark. Department of Archives and History Atlanta, Ga. Department of Archives and History Jackson, Mich. Department of Archives and History Raleigh, N. C. Department of Archives and History Charleston, W. Va. Illinois state Historical Library Springfield, 111. Louisiana State Library Baton Rouge, La. Michigan Historical Commission Lansing, Mich. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Harrisburg, Pa. Public Archives Commission Dover, Del. The State Historical Society of Colorado Denver, Colo. Wyoming Archives and Historical Department Cheyenne, Wyo.
MUNICIPAL OR COUNTY AGENCY
Municipal Archives and Records Center New York, N. Y. Surrogate's Court of the County of New York New York, N. Y,
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The following paragraphs have been extracted from a
personal letter, dated December 7, 1963, from Adjoint au Direc
teur General F. Dousset of Archives Nationales:
La restauration des documents anciens a ete entreprise aux Archives de France dés 1808. Nous n'avons jamais eu recourse aux préparations que vous indiques. Nous n'avons jamais utilisé non plus de tissu japonais ni d'autres matières transparentes.
L'emploi du tissu de soie est en usage depuis cent ans aux Archives nationales et, grace à ce procédé, les docu ments ont résisté aux épreuves du temps. . . .
. . . J'ignore s'il existe un ouvrage sur 1'historique de l'usage de la soie pour la restauration des documents. Je vous signale toutefois qu'un manuel archivistique, écrit par des archivistes français, est en course d'impres sion. Il apporte des indications précises sur les méthodes de restauration.
M. Dousset's assertion would establish c. 1863 as the
date of silking's introduction to France, long before the
names of Emery, Marré, or Ehrle became associated with it.
Perhaps in the pages of the new manual will be found further
enlightenment on this intriguing question. An attempt will be
made to find documentation.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.