Preserving our heritage

The UW Alumni Association got the rare opportunity to tour the inner workings of the preservation and conservation facility at the UW Libraries. Take a look behind the scenes with the team that keeps the UW’s vast trove of information circulating.

In two windowless rooms in the basement of Suzzallo Library, conservation staff work to keep the materials in the UW Libraries’ collection available to students and scholars. The space, home of conservation at the Libraries since 1963, is packed with a bewildering array of projects awaiting repair: Glass orotones by early Northwest photographer Edward Curtis are nested, frame and all, in custom-built boxes; a map of Seattle annotated by civil rights pioneer Gordon Hirabayashi rests spread out, creases carefully relaxed, encapsulated in polyester to provide additional protection from anticipated handling and use.

And of course, there are books. Torn, tattered, with missing covers or broken spines, each is a small piece of our shared heritage, waiting to be repaired by specially trained staff for use by students and researchers. Some fixes take minutes, others can take several weeks. It doesn’t help that many of these materials were not built to last. Books produced in the 20th century, now historical documents themselves, were produced on wood-pulp paper that often becomes increasingly acidic, fragile, and brittle over time. A rubbing from a Buddhist temple in China, produced for the tourist trade on handmade paper, takes on new importance and poignancy when you learn that few of the original inscriptions survived the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Keeping the 9 million items in the Libraries collections available for the scholars of today and tomorrow is a big job, but it is critical to the Libraries’ mission of “connecting people with knowledge.” Many rare materials are used by faculty in undergraduate classes, letting UW students physically interact with history.

VIDEO: Libraries share their reasons why conservation and preservation remain vital in the digital age

Conservation techniques have advanced since the first repair program was instituted in the Libraries in 1935, and there are some tasks that cannot safely be performed in the current basement space. For example, without specialized equipment, the team could not use chemicals to help loosen some of the adhesives that, over the decades and centuries, have become dark and brittle. Other items that needed extensive, complex conservation treatment had to be sent to labs on the East Coast for repair.

In 2012, thanks to a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, the Libraries began a plan to expand their capacity for conservation. Justin Johnson was hired as senior conservator, and one of his first projects was resewing and rebinding a first edition of Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World. Published in 1614, this rare and fragile work would either have been sent to an East Coast lab for restoration, or languished in storage, preserved but unseen.

Meanwhile on Suzzallo’s fifth floor, a new conservation lab is being built to provide the additional equipment and space needed to work on more complex and larger projects. The lab will be one shared space for all phases of conservation, equipped to handle the Libraries’ most fragile and important artifacts. With the new lab, fume hood, and large washing sink, staff will have additional options for stain reduction and the ability to remove lacquer from large maps. Other new equipment will allow staff to safely stabilize corrosive iron gall ink and flaking paint on medieval manuscripts. The new lab, equipment, and senior conservator position will greatly increase the Libraries’ capacity to conserve materials on site.

Finally, the Mellon grant allows the UW to contribute to the future of conservation by supporting an annual summer internship. More than 70 individuals from around the world applied for the spot last spring, which gives students a chance to gain real-world experience before applying to a graduate program. In this way, UW Libraries is helping secure and build on its long legacy of preserving and providing access to its legendary collections.

Visit the UW Libraries conservation page to learn more about the new conservation facility and how you can join more than 500 supporters in helping the UW build on its legacy of keeping historical artifacts available for students and scholars.

Top image: Senior Conservator Justin Johnson displays an example of his conservation work.