{"id":2364,"date":"2021-04-16T08:30:41","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T08:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2364"},"modified":"2021-04-13T09:15:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T09:15:16","slug":"the-conservation-of-the-herrison-hospital-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/04\/16\/the-conservation-of-the-herrison-hospital-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Conservation of the Herrison Hospital Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year saw the cataloguing of the Herrison Hospital Archive completed by our Project Archivist, Sophie Smith<\/a>.\u00a0 Sophie\u2019s timing was perfect, leaving us just two days before the first lockdown.\u00a0 However, the conservation of the collection, which still had several weeks to run, was postponed due to the pandemic.\u00a0 This part of the project has now also been completed, and the following blog looks at some of the challenges faced by our Conservator.<\/p>\n

The conservation of the Herrison Hospital Project saw the treatment of 78 individual items that were previously either difficult or impossible to access.\u00a0 These included maps that had significant damage and pressure-sensitive tape, bindings that were suffering from \u2018red rot\u2019 and required leather consolidation, and volumes that had failed and needed rebinding.<\/p>\n

A great example is NG\/HH\/CMR\/4\/21\/17<\/a>, a medical journal dated 1920-1926.\u00a0 At some point in its past it had been exposed to water, and mould growth had eaten a sizeable hole through the back board and 20 pages.\u00a0 These pages had also fused together, the mould interlocking the paper fibres.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Medical Journal, NG-HH\/CMR\/4\/21\/17, before treatment<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Access to this volume was impossible due to the potential loss of further information and the health implications of mould spores.\u00a0 The first task was to clean the dirt and mould hyphae off the volume in our fume cupboard.\u00a0 The pages were carefully separated with a microspatula and each was repaired with a thin Japanese paper.\u00a0 The hole in the board was filled using layers of archival card shaped to fit the contours. \u00a0Finally, the board was covered with blue bookcloth to match the original.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Medical Journal, NG-HH\/CMR\/4\/21\/17, after treatment<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—<\/p>\n

A number of volumes required re-sewing or consolidation of the sewing structure before they could be re-bound, such as NG-HH\/CMR\/4\/1\/9<\/a>, an admission register dated 1882-1948.\u00a0 The first half of the sewing had come undone, but the three linen tape sewing supports were still intact and securely joined to the boards.\u00a0 It was possible to sew the loose sections back onto the supports following the original sewing pattern.<\/p>\n

\"\"
NG-HH\/CMR\/4\/1\/9, consolidation of sewing<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bookcloth was damaged and had left a brittle adhesive on the boards.\u00a0 This needed to be removed and the boards consolidated before the volume could be rebound in new black bookcloth.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Medical Journal, NG-HH\/CMR\/4\/1\/9, before and after treatment<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—<\/p>\n

A number of volumes had sustained insect damage as well as mould damage, such as NG-HH\/CMR\/3\/17\/6<\/a>, a furniture and bedding account book dated 1941-1948.\u00a0 This volume required reconstruction of lost areas of boards before being re-backed in maroon goat leather.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Account Book, NG-HH\/CMR\/3\/17\/6, before and after reback<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—<\/p>\n

Several plans of the Hospital site were also conserved, many of them suffering from surface dirt, tears, areas of loss and pressure-sensitive tape.\u00a0 This engineering plan, NG-HH\/CMR\/6\/4\/3<\/a>, 1889, required the removal of several different tapes, repair and in-fill to the paper and consolidation of the linen lining.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Engineering Plans, NG-HH\/CMR\/6\/4\/3, before and after treatment<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—<\/p>\n

Alongside the cataloguing and conservation work, significant repackaging of the collection has taken place.\u00a0 The plans, once held within flimsy acidic folders, have been transferred to archival portfolios.\u00a0 Moreover, the fabulous project volunteers have done an incredible job repackaging, providing extra protection and easier access to documents such as these patient admission papers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Patient admission papers, before and after repackaging<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The conservation of the Herrison Hospital archive has been an extended affair, but thanks to the generous support of the Wellcome Trust, its most inaccessible documents are now safe to view.\u00a0 In conjunction with the new catalogue<\/a>, this important collection is now available for family and academic research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year saw the cataloguing of the Herrison Hospital Archive completed by our Project Archivist, Sophie Smith.\u00a0 Sophie\u2019s timing was perfect, leaving us just two days before the first lockdown.\u00a0 However, the conservation of the collection, which still had several weeks to run, was postponed due to the pandemic.\u00a0 This part of the project has… Read more The Conservation of the Herrison Hospital Archive<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[82,9,103,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2373,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}