{"id":325,"date":"2016-09-14T12:53:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T12:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetforyou.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=325"},"modified":"2018-05-09T14:41:52","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T14:41:52","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-an-archive-conservator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2016\/09\/14\/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-archive-conservator\/","title":{"rendered":"A day in the life of an archive conservator"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a lot of science involved in the continuing care of our archives. Our conservator reveals what she gets up to in the collections care room.<\/p>\n

Prevention and cure<\/h2>\n

As the Conservator at the Dorset History Centre my job is to take care of the collections that are housed here.\u00a0I do this firstly through preventative measures; by ensuring the strongrooms, where we store our documents, are kept at the correct temperature and humidity, and by monitoring and controlling any insects which might want to feed on them.\u00a0However, before collections arrive at the History Centre they may have been stored in inappropriate conditions such as damp attics or garden sheds, where they have\u00a0become mouldy or damaged, or the materials from which the collections are made, such as newspapers, are inherently weak and so they are deteriorating.\u00a0Such documents come to me and I can carry out conservation treatments to make them stable and accessible.<\/p>\n

Each day is different and presents new challenges.\u00a0 I usually have several varied projects on the go at any one time.<\/p>\n

Re-connecting a parchment map<\/h2>\n

This morning my first job is to soak some gelatine leaves.\u00a0We use\u00a0gelatine as an adhesive for parchment documents and it needs about an hour to fully swell.\u00a0While the gelatine is soaking I check my emails and write a little on a talk I’m giving – we do a lot of outreach at the History Centre and I enjoy promoting conservation, both the services we can provide and showing people how they can care for their own precious family documents.<\/p>\n

With the gelatine swollen, I heat it to 40o<\/span><\/sup>C in a double boiler and then leave it to cool.\u00a0Gelatine can be used warm or cold, as a sieved mousse.\u00a0As well as the archives housed at the History Centre I take on private work and I am currently repairing a map from 1659 belonging to the Shaftesbury Estate.\u00a0It measures over 1 metre by 2 metres and is made of six separate parchment skins.\u00a0In the past the adhesive joining the skins together has failed and someone has sewn along the joints to try and keep the map whole, but this is coming apart too and the map is now unwieldy and difficult to handle.\u00a0I have removed the sewing, cleaned the skins and have started re-adhering them as they would have formerly looked.\u00a0Unfortunately when parchment is exposed to damp conditions it wants to return to its original animal shape and so the lines of the map no longer meet up.\u00a0As I re-adhere the skins I have to gently manipulate them with light humidification through a Gortex barrier so that I can align the map.\u00a0This is slow but satisfying work.\u00a0I re-adhere small sections at a time and while I am waiting for them to dry I can work on one of my other projects.<\/p>\n

\"Re-adhering
Re-adhering skins of a parchment map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s not just about paper!<\/h2>\n

I need to know about every material we house at the History Centre including books, paper, wax seals and photographs.\u00a0I get to work with the very oldest of parchments (our oldest document dates from 965AD) to the most up-to-date technologies (I recently ran a project using a 3D scanner printer to make replicas of fragile seals).\u00a0It’s not all glamorous however and I have spent days donned in overalls, gloves and mask cleaning mould from a series of books.\u00a0 Once a month I spend a morning crawling under shelves checking our bug traps for any insect pests, using a magnifying glass to identify anything we’ve caught.<\/p>\n

A Conservator’s work is slow and thoughtful and requires high manual dexterity and patience.\u00a0At the heart of it is an understanding of chemistry and the materials we work with. Conservators regularly attend training courses to ensure we have the latest understanding of scientific research to make certain a document lasts far beyond our own lifetimes.\u00a0It is a privilege to be able to conserve objects that represent a moment in history, to think about the person who made it and to play a small part in saving it for future generations.<\/p>\n

The map is coming together and should soon be finished.\u00a0I am starting to prepare for my next big project; the conservation of the Bankes archive<\/a> from Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle. I am greatly looking forward to this as amongst the 800 boxes there are some beautiful but highly degraded transparent papers that will test my knowledge and hand-skills.<\/p>\n

Jenny, Conservator<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a lot of science involved in the continuing care of our archives. Our conservator reveals what she gets up to in the collections care room. Prevention and cure As the Conservator at the Dorset History Centre my job is to take care of the collections that are housed here.\u00a0I do this firstly through… Read more A day in the life of an archive conservator<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,31],"tags":[9,42],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}