{"id":604,"date":"2017-01-17T13:57:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T19:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/?p=604"},"modified":"2018-06-21T15:08:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T20:08:23","slug":"preserving-a-rare-pamphlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/2017\/01\/17\/preserving-a-rare-pamphlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving a Rare Pamphlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Address on African Slave Trade in Houston, TX <\/em>is a rare 1859 pamphlet documenting a speech given by Peter Gray, an attorney, judge, and legislator in early Texas.\u00a0 The item arrived in the conservation lab whip-stitched into an aging pamphlet binder.\u00a0 The pamphlet\u2019s leaves were silked, a previous preservation treatment that has now proved problematic.\u00a0 Partly as a result of the silking, many of the acidic paper leaves were torn and detached, putting them at risk for further damage and loss during use.\u00a0 The acidic pamphlet binder was also causing the leaves to become more brown and brittle over time.<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/a>

Before treatment: silked, acidic, broken leaves.<\/p><\/div>\n

Critical details about the pamphlet\u2019s structure were documented during disbinding.\u00a0 The pamphlet\u2019s leaves were folded into two sections, but typical, pamphlet-style sewing was not observed. \u00a0Instead, the item appeared to have been side-sewn several times in the past.\u00a0 This restrictive sewing method is not viable for fragile, brittle paper.<\/p>\n

\"During<\/a>

During treatment: mending tears<\/p><\/div>\n

Two treatment options were considered.\u00a0 One approach was to re-create a modified pamphlet: rebuild broken folds, punch new sewing holes, and sew with a pamphlet stitch.\u00a0 Another option was to enclose each leaf in a Mylar sleeve and bind the sleeves with stiff posts.\u00a0 We chose the first, more conservative option, which preserves more of the item\u2019s original structure.\u00a0 After treatment, we judged that the paper would be sufficiently strong to tolerate gentle flexing and anticipated use.<\/p>\n

\"After<\/a>

After treatment: pamphlet is sewn into a paper case typical of its period.<\/p><\/div>\n

Leaves were washed, deacidified, desilked, and resized with gelatin.\u00a0 Then, the paper was mended, losses were filled, and the pamphlet was rebuilt as described above.\u00a0 Replacing the whip-stitching with typical pamphlet sewing allows an unrestricted opening that will minimize future damage.\u00a0 The completed pamphlet was sewn into a paper case and housed in an acid-free pamphlet binder for safe storage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Address on African Slave Trade in Houston, TX is a rare 1859 pamphlet documenting a speech given by Peter Gray, an attorney, judge, and legislator in early Texas.\u00a0 The item arrived in the conservation lab whip-stitched into an aging … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}