Corner Repair for a Bound 1916 Vivaldi Cello Music Score

The cello music collections at UNCG's Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) constitute the largest single holding of cello music-related materials in the world, a fact of which we are very proud and have likely mentioned on this blog before. At times, items from the cello music collection may be diverted to Preservation Services for treatment for a variety of reasons, but age, quality of the original materials, how items were stored prior to arriving at UNCG, and how items were used are all contributing factors to items needing repair.

Vivaldi's Sonate Antiche (note the missing corner on the back cover)

One such item in the lab for treatment currently is a 1916 bound cello music score, a copy of Vivaldi's Sonate Antiche with performance notes in the hand of Luigi Silva. 

Left: Luigi Silva, Right: His handwritten notes on a cello score

Luigi Silva (1903-1961) was a prominent cellist, teacher, and musicologist who began his illustrious career in Italy and eventually immigrated to the United States. Silva taught at various Schools of Music including Eastman, Julliard, Mannes, and Yale University. We are pleased to house the Luigi Silva Collection of approximately 1775 music scores and 13 boxes of archival materials, books, and periodicals.

Silva's copy of Vivaldi's Sonate Antiche had detached covers, brittle and acidic paper, and was missing the lower corner of the back cover. Aside from spine repair and mending of some of the pages, we needed to replace the missing cover corner so the book could safely stand on the shelf in SCUA.

Missing corner of the back cover

Part of the book board was missing altogether and what remained was delaminating at the corner and quite thin. 

It was necessary to build up the corner to both the original thickness and rigidity. The missing piece was replaced with a piece of archival museum board sandwiched on either side with a gray lining card (often used as a spine stiffener in spine repair). See the diagram and in-progress photos below.

A diagram of the materials used to rebuild the corner

The rebuilt corner before covering material is added

Once the corner had been built up to the thickness of the original board, the missing corner cloth was replaced.

The replaced corner cloth

In order to more closely match the original decorative paper covering material, we photocopied the cover and used the resulting image to fill what was missing. With the aid of mylar, we traced the ragged edge of the original paper so that the new covering material would overlap only as much as needed.

The steps for tracing the jagged edge, transferring it to the new paper,
and replacing the missing decorative paper

Once the cover paper was replaced, we used the same technique with a corner of handmade paper to fill what was missing on the interior paste down.

The new interior corner pastedown

Though the repair is not completely disguised, it is much more integrated than if we had used a solid colored paper for the exterior covering material and the strength and structure of the corner is greatly improved.
 

Before and after the corner was replaced

For more information about the Luigi Silva Collection please click here. To explore other collections in our Cello Music Collection, please click here. Or, to visit the online collections or to visit Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, please click here.

Instructional Technology: A Game-Changer for a Hands-On Workshop

In early October, Preservation Services Staff had the pleasure of teaching a pre-conference workshop for the North Carolina School Library Media Association's (NCSLMA) 2018 conference in Winston-Salem, NC. 

NCSLMA Pre-Conference Workshop in Winston-Salem, NC

"Book Repair on a Budget" is a hands-on workshop we developed to teach basic book repair techniques to school media specialists who often have very little time or funding to tackle book repairs, yet have an important need to preserve the life of their collections for as long as possible. After providing the workshop for several groups of Guilford County Schools Media Specialists in March of this year, we were invited to teach an extended version at the NCSLMA conference. (To read more about our partnership with Guilford County Schools Library Media Services, click here.)

Audrey Sage, Preservation Manager,
demonstrating how to reback the spine of a book

In the three-hour workshop, we addressed a variety of book repairs including paper mending, repairing loose covers, and repairing book spines. We focused on treatments that were relatively quick and easy to perform and that required materials media specialists likely have on hand or could acquire inexpensively. 

Lumens DC125 Ladibug Document Camera

Thanks to a Lumens DC125 Ladibug Document Camera (click here for more information), each step of the repairs we taught could easily be viewed by participants from the comfort of their seats. The document camera allowed us to easily alternate between demonstrations and hands-on work with participants to facilitate learning and improve their performance of each repair technique. At times, instructional technology can be a distraction from learning, but in this case it was a positive game-changer.

Suzanne Sawyer, Preservation Technician,
demonstrating how to tip in a loose page

Sawyer demonstrating a book repair with
the aid of a document camera

Participants of the workshop received a bag of sample materials that were used in our demonstrations as well as a link to our libguide, an online resource we have created (click here to view our libguide). It includes our PowerPoint presentations and videos, along with other digital resources about book repair, and a list of vendors for book repair supplies and equipment. It is our hope that the libguide will serve as a manual of sorts for school media specialists to return to for their own reference or as a guide for teaching book repair techniques to older students or library volunteers.

Innovation & Program Enrichment Grant Award: Revitalization of Spring Garden Press

Preservation Services Staff are pleased to announce that we have been awarded an Innovation & Program Enrichment (IPE) Grant. The Dean of University Libraries, Martin Halbert, along with his predecessors, has identified restricted funds for innovation and program enrichment here at UNCG Libraries. This year, we have been awarded the IPE Grant for the purpose of revitalizing Spring Garden Press, the imprint of Jackson Library's elegant 19th century Washington Iron Hand Press.

UNCG Libraries' circa 1850s Washington No. 2 Iron Hand Press

Spring Garden Press will be revitalized for the purpose of outreach to the UNCG community as well as the greater Greensboro community. The IPE Grant will provide funding to reinvigorate and enhance Spring Garden Press for regular, recurring programming. It will afford the opportunity to train a group of University Libraries staff to operate the iron hand press so that it can be used for educational and outreach purposes. Such training will allow for integration into various departments' curricula, promotion of assorted holdings in Special Collections & University Archives (SCUA), education of patrons about the history of printing and its evolution over time, demonstrations for special events and library supporters, and provide an opportunity for our digital-native students to experience hands-on traditional letterpress printing, possibly as a method for exploring their own ideas.

The circa 1850s Washington No. 2 Iron Hand Press has been used for class demonstrations periodically over the last 25-30 years that it has resided in the library, most recently under the tutelage of Paul Hessling. Hessling serves as the Special Collections/Chief Monographic Cataloger and is the only staff member at present who is knowledgeable about the operation of our press. The press use has dwindled in recent years for various reasons despite a core group of library staff – Hessling and a number of SCUA staff – being very interested in seeing the press used more often and becoming a more integral part of the department’s offerings and outreach.

Ten SCUA staff have volunteered to be trained by Paul Hessling and Sarah Smith to use the press. As Program Manager of the Book Arts Workshop at Dartmouth College Library, Smith teaches letterpress printing, bookbinding, and other aspects of bookmaking. She works closely with faculty at Dartmouth to create hands-on projects to strengthen the impact of their coursework—and with students and non-students on their extra-curricular projects. In November, with thanks to the IPE Grant Program, Smith will travel to UNCG to conduct a workshop on the Iron Hand Press for SCUA staff.

If you are unfamiliar with iron hand presses, please see the following video of Amelia Fontanel, an Associate Curator at the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection, as she walks you through the process of printing using the Kelmscott/Goudy Albion iron hand press, a similar press to our Washington No. 2 iron hand press.

 

 
A core group of our staff will be trained to use the iron hand press for presentations and demonstrations. The goals are to increase faculty collaboration with SCUA in use of the press as well as existing collections and to expand existing partnerships with Guilford County Schools (GCS). We will collaborate with GCS art teachers and students to educate students about printing history, book arts, and SCUA collections and meaningfully tie in with a classroom project.

It is our hope that the revitalization of Spring Garden Press will allow for a sustainable collaboration with GCS, regular, recurring programming with faculty and students, and to leverage the existing talent and expertise of SCUA staff by training them to use the iron hand press both in existing partnerships and in new ones to be determined over time. 

Spring Garden Press will be SCUA’s version of a makerspace by inspiring creativity and new partnerships in the UNCG community and beyond. What's a makerspace? Learn more by clicking HERE.