Tag: paper conservation

Research, Study, Labs, & Community

Research, study, labs, and community are crucial areas that need to be a part of any book arts career path. After years in the academic environment, post-graduate study and practice can take some getting used to. In my practice, with my academic background in history and public history, I have some training in preservation and conservation, but little academic lab work, and it’s been decades since I spent any quality time bookbinding; filling the lab gap is a big concern. For me, the best path forward is to develop a graduate-level book history program with labs focused on a traditional bookbinder’s apprenticeship path with contemporary best practices. This should provide a portfolio of examples to demonstrate skill as well as a collection of essays on the history of bookbinding forms.

The lab work has already begun with a print and binding project centered on the book “The Art of Bookbinding” (1890) by Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf. The text was printed in quarto on quality matte 13 in. x 19 in. (A3+) and works out to a traditional octavo 6 in. x 9 in. book in size. The block has been printed and sewn. Endpapers were designed and printed, and the boards were glued to the fabric cover. The binding will be a cased flat back. A post about this project will be forthcoming. Progress photos have been taken for the project post.

It will take some time to develop and document the curriculum, as it is being put together on the fly and there is already a pile of rebinding and conservation projects to incorporate into the course workflow. I would prefer not to slow too much in the service of academic program development and kill the momentum. The initial reading list is as follows, in order:

  • Abbott, Kathy. Bookbinding: A Step By Step Guide. The Crowood Press, 2010.
  • Cockerell, Douglas. Bookbinding and the Care of Books. Lyons & Burford, 1991.
  • Hollander, Tom and Cindy. Introduction to Bookbinding and Custom Cases. Schiffer Publishing, 2019.
  • Johnson, Arthur W. The Thames and Hudson Manual of Bookbinding. Thames & Huson, 1981.
  • Towne, Laurence. Bookbinding By Hand For Students and Craftsmen. Faber and Faber, 1963.
  • Masson, John. The Art and Practice of Printing: Bookbinding and Ruling. Vol. 5. New Era Publishing, 1940.
  • Diehl, Edith. Bookbinding. Dover Publications, 1980.
  • Cockerell, Douglas. Bookbinding and the Care of Books. Lyons & Burford, 1991.
  • Middleton, Bernard C. The Restoration of Leather Bindings. American Library Association, 1972.
  • Szirmai, J.A. The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Routledge, 2017.
  • Keile, Headdy. The Art of the Fold: How to Make Innovative Books and Paper Structures. Laurence King Publishing, 2018.
  • Lindsay, Jen. Fine Binding: A Technical Guide. Oak Knoll Books, 2024.
  • Burdett, Eric. The Craft of Bookbinding: A Practical Handbook. David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1978.

As reading and lab work progress through the first few textbooks, a project list should develop. Along with the skill development projects, rebinding projects on the bench will also be incorporated into the lab work. Research paper topics should also present themselves and be incorporated into the program. Along with research and lab work, I will be engaging more with the book community through social media on BlueSky (@jwwanzer.bsky.social) and here. As article possibilities present, I will also submit to field journals. In all honesty, the community aspect is the most difficult for me. My graduate programs were in the online environment, and my academic/social circles are small. More to come as things progress.

Wood

From a historical perspective, books and woodwork are closely connected. Before the days of wood pulp paper, the tools of the book trades were made primarily of wood. From the vats used to pulp linen rag in the paper trade, the printing press with woodcut pictures and wood text blocks in the printing trade, to the stitching frame and presses used in the binding trade. To this day, many of the bookbinder’s tools are wooden. As a hand tool woodworker, this makes establishing a traditional hand bindery an exercise in experimental history.

I am embarking on a long-term and expansive set of projects in the book arts and bibliography as an experimental historian. The first phase is to get the workshop back to a hand tool wood shop. This involves scaling back in several areas, and building the infrastructure necessary for woodworking and book arts. The primary piece of infrastructure the rest of the shop is built around is the workbench.

This joiner’s bench has a Moxon-style face vise with 24 inches between the screws. It is a relatively small bench at just 5 feet long and 17 inches wide. A typical joiner’s bench is 7 to 8 feet long; some are as long as 12 feet or more, and the typical joiner’s bench is 24 to 30 inches wide. This bench is made from Douglas Fir except for the face board and vise, which is Maple; it still weighs in at over 300 pounds unloaded. The workshop space available is small, just over 150 square feet of usable space, this set the scale of the bench.

The second step is to remove all of the existing factory-made shop furniture and replace it with options that save floor space and are custom-designed for the space and the work at hand. The first project is a Dutch tool chest.1 The chest being built is a little different from the ones in the book in that this chest has two smaller detached chests under the double shelf version of the main tool chest. The one pictured below is the bottom chest with heavy-duty casters. This chest is 27 inches wide, 14 inches tall, and 12 inches deep. The middle chest is the pile of cut lumber sitting on the workbench and is 27 x 13 x 12. That build starts tomorrow. The top chest build should start within the next two weeks; its final dimensions have not yet been determined, but should come in around 27 x 31 x 12. The total height of the three should be between 60 and 65 inches.

Once all three sections of the tool chest are completed, the factory-made furnishings can be emptied, either into the Dutch chest(s), or into temporary storage containers. The factory tool chest and rolling cabinet/bench will be sold, and the workshop’s cabinetry projects can begin.

The keen observer might have noticed the two wood tap and die sets on the workbench to the right of the lumber. These will be for a set of parallel projects. The 1-inch tap and die is for making the wooden screws for a stitching frame, and the 1 1/2 inch set is for the screws of a finishing vise and trimming frame. A small nipping press will also use a 1 1/2 inch screw. The factory-made wood tap and die sets were purchased for expediency. Down the project path, there will be a need for 2-inch, 4-inch, and 6-inch tap and die sets that will be shop-made. These large shop-made tap and die sets will be substantial projects in and of themselves. As one might expect, the projects requiring such large wood screws will be epic adventures.

Between the cabinetry and bookbinding workshop infrastructure projects, research will continue with an emphasis on bookbinding and bibliographically adjacent subjects as the workshop and bindery come into their own. The workspace and bindery are just the beginning. The journey will be filled with research and experimentation with materials, processes, and equipment. Along the way, conservation and preservation projects will be popping in from time to time, expanding opportunities. I have several 18th, 19th, and 20th century books and documents that need some love and should start making appearances this summer.

Things are beginning to take shape. It will be a very interesting and informative long and windy road. ‘Tis an adventure to my liking.

  1. Fitzpatrick, Megan. Dutch Tool Chests. Lost Art Press, 2004. ↩︎

Bibliography

My last class for the M.A. in public history starts next week and runs for the 8-week D subterm. The course is HIST 706 Digital History which as you will see is somewhat ironic. I have been working with the topic for some time doing digitization projects, digital archiving, database development, and working with metadata structures to make digital objects findable, and accessible. I have burned more than a few cycles on the elements of digital archives like accessioning, cataloging, and preservation of the digital media as well as the metadata to keep it useful and locatable. This was much of what I did for my independent research over the summer preparing for this term.

HIST 706 became available to access yesterday. My usual ritual the week before a term is to prep my OneNote file for the class with all of the readings and assignments with as much of the course info available as possible and start getting resources ready. I usually have all of the textbooks well before this period, and after reading the syllabus and assignments I usually have a list of additional textbooks to order. Yesterday was no exception, OneNote was prepped and the five books specifically mentioned in the syllabus that were not on the book list were ordered. Surprisingly, all of the books ordered should arrive before the end of the first week. The day after the course posts I start watching course videos, synthesizing assignment instructions, and reviewing rubrics. The week four video caught me off guard.

The video for week four is a lecture by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum The Transformissions of the Archive. The lecture is interesting in and of itself, but it impacted me in a personal and unexpected way. I have been struggling with narrowing my field for my doctorate. Not surprising considering how broad my interests usually are and my proclivity for diving head first down deep rabbit holes. This video managed to focus my attention on synthesizing a concept I am well aware of with a genre of research interests. The concept of metadata, and my interests in books and documents, paper, ink, graphology, paleography, codicology, printmaking, bookbinding, and paper conservation. In a word… bibliography.

A couple of hours online have revealed very little on the practice of bibliography, lots on the writing of bibliographies, but sparse on the former. I located several books that look like they may be useful on Amazon and saved them in a list, 15 to be precise, and ordered 3 others. It will take some research on the field to determine what studies I will need to look further into. As for education, the closest I can find are MLA programs with an available focus on special collections and preservation. While I would like to add an MLA to my education profile, I don’t have the time right now but it could be added at some point in the future along with a master’s in conservation. For now, I’ll take on the research on the practice of bibliography and see where it takes me.

Until next time,
~Jon Wanzer

Paper Conservation Survey Results

Before going into the survey results from the Professional Opportunities Analysis project due today, I wanted to touch on the other two projects I covered in the last post. First, the media archive pilot project is moving forward. I have the framework of the website done on a local server and now I am working on the functionality aspects so I can start setting up the tables in the database. As for the documentary edition, I stopped by the museum and met with the principals, and after a review of the materials previously mentioned, it is clear that that project is a non-starter. However, they are interested in working on a doc ed of some kind with me. For now, they, and I will keep an eye out for good candidates for a doc ed, and other project possibilities were also discussed. I did make it clear that I was interested in opportunities to publish. More to come as the opportunities present.

Now on to the Survey

The Assignment

“In general, the goal of this assignment is for students to explore opportunities available within the fields of public history. Students should choose one opportunity to focus on for this assignment, and as long as you make the case that this opportunity fits for a historian as a professional opportunity it will work. There is no length minimum or maximum for this assignment. Instead students should focus on choosing one opportunity related to their field and then analyze how they might be able to engage this opportunity as part of their growth as a historian.”[1]

A Survey of New England Paper Conservators

Introduction

Preservation of documents, documentary editing, document interpretation, reproduction of documents for exhibit, handwritten document analysis and interpretation, and a variety of printing press processes are all related areas of practice that interest me and are important to consider. Among these history and public history related fields, paper conservation is one that stands out. With some experience in library book repair, several bookbinding projects, and rebinding projects completed with more awaiting attention, this is a specific field of interest and would be an important area to develop greater proficiency, expanding my abilities as I am exposed to more historically important documents and a broader array of document types in the museum environment. As relocation to the New England area in the near future is desired and likely, it is prudent to consider the field of paper conservation in the New England area. As no local practitioners of paper conservation have been located or field academics within a reasonable distance, a more clinical approach using a survey to gather data was chosen to explore the field of paper conservation primarily looking at the current demographics of conservators in the geographical area and their impression of the state of the field with regard to the education of candidates for entry into the field.

The Survey

A 10-question survey was developed to focus on 5 demographic questions and 5 opinion questions on the state of the field regarding new entrants into paper conservation, what education the respondents felt candidates should have, and whether or not the academy was producing sufficiently qualified candidates in sufficient numbers. The survey was sent to members of the American Institute for Conservation who identified as Paper Conservators, specifically in books, and documents, and practiced in New England. This provided a narrow scope in field and geographic boundaries and resulted in a pool of 115 conservators invited to participate in the survey. The survey was hosted by SurveyMonkey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H2TJLVR.
The survey was closed on September 21.

The respondent Pool

The first round of invitations consisted of conservators of Connecticut (22), Maine (5), New Hampshire (5), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (4). Once responses subsided a second round of invitations was sent out to conservators in Massachusetts (75) which provided some limited information on the differences in areas of high and low professional density. The total size of the pool was 115 potential respondents.

Questions & Responses

To simplify the report of responses, an interpretation of the results will accompany each question and statistical data and an overall interpretation of the results will serve as the conclusion.

Demographic Questions

Question 1: In what sphere do you practice paper conservation?

One option that was not originally in the answer options was the possibility of a respondent practicing in both spheres. This possibility was subsequently added to the results.

With the additional category, the respondents were nearly equal in private practice and institutional service. Significantly, the first round respondents were predominantly private practice while the second round respondents were predominantly institutional. This is an example of the rationale for the presumption of an effect of higher professional density later in the survey.

Question 2: What kind of institution? (skip if private practice)

In response to this question, there were two areas that were not originally considered and subsequently added, the hybrid library/museum, and nonprofit conservation organization. Fields that received no responses were municipal government, small local museums, university or research libraries, and undergraduate education libraries.

Not surprisingly, museums and academic institutions placed strongly. What was surprising was the representation of nonprofit conservancy. This again seems to have been in part due to professional density.

Question 3: In your private practice who do you contract with? (skip if institutional)

For this question, there were two unexpected categories, auction house/gallery, and historical society. All other categories had at least one respondent. Both additional categories were from round two respondents.

Aside from the two additional categories, the breakdown of private practitioners was predominantly what was expected with a vast majority of respondents including museums of all sizes, academic institutions, and private individuals.

Question 4: Did you train academically to be a conservator?

An added category to this question was a degree or certificate in bookbinding. As the categories used to locate practitioners included document and book conservators as well as general paper conservators, this should have been anticipated. One category was not selected, working on a degree in conservation while working in the field.

One surprise for this question was the lack of any respondents for “working on a degree in conservation while working in the field,” that a conservator would start with an apprenticeship or internship and then progress to a degree while working in the field was expected.

Question 5: How long have you been in the conservation field?

No respondents for less than 5 years or 11-15 years.

From a data standpoint, the experience embodied in responses from a pool of practitioners in the field for predominantly more than 15 years is good. The lack of practitioners less than 5 years is a little disconcerting.

State of the field questions

Upon reflection on the responses, the survey should have included an additional comment option rather than another answer. The additional data was of good quality and should have been encouraged positively in the survey design.

Question 6: There are enough trained candidates for entry-level conservator positions.

There were no responses for strongly disagree.

Respondents had comments that should be considered. One expressed a shortage in paper art conservators and noted that a majority gravitate to libraries and archives. Another noted with the narrow nature of the field and the longevity of practitioners as seen in the demographics makes entry into the field difficult. They also indicated that entry-level positions, thus lower paying positions, could last many years while the now seasoned practitioner waits for an opening to move up. It is worth noting that these comments were from second round respondents which begs the question, is this more of a high density issue, or is it field wide?

Question 7: The academy is sufficiently preparing candidates for employment in the field.

There were no responses for strongly agree.

The responses to this question clearly lean from center to agree.

Question 8: Enough institutions are providing conservation-specific education.

All segments were included.

This question has an even response on both sides from the center. One respondent commented, “while there are limited institutions for education, there are also limited opportunities for a career. It would be nice to have more people have access but if there are not enough jobs, that creates a new problem. The field is very small, requires a significant amount of training, and has a high level of competition so you get highly qualified or over qualified candidates, and the pay does not reflect the effort and expected education/experience needed to enter the field.”

Question 9: Specialization in the field has outpaced the academy training provided for degrees.

This question received no strong response in either direction.

This question appears to be irrelevant to a majority of respondents. This is likely due to the already specialized nature of paper conservation.

Question 10: A candidate for work in the field should have at least…

An addition was made to the potential paths to paper conservation which should have been anticipated. The only path not selected was an undergraduate degree in a related field.

A requisite graduate degree in conservation was the major response by far.

Summary & Conclusion

The field of paper conservation is a narrow space to begin with, the addition of a relatively small geographical boundary further limited the pool of potential respondents. A one week time allotment for respondents to reply, and the nature of cold-calling the invitation limited the responses from the pool still further. The survey did get a 15.6% response rate which is reasonable for a survey. Generally speaking, surveys usually get 10% response rates +/- 3% so this was respectable.

Demographically respondents were evenly split between institutional and private practice with a majority working in academic or medium to large museum environments and an equally strong showing of nonprofit conservation organizations. Private practice responses were predominantly academic institutions and museums with a strong showing for private individual clients. Most respondents had a degree in conservation and had been in practice for over 20 years.

With regard to the state of the field in educational preparedness of candidates, most respondents felt there were enough candidates to fill positions in the field, and few disagreed. A majority of respondents agree that candidates are prepared for employment, presuming they enter the field with a graduate degree in conservation, and while the number of institutions offering this training is small, it produces enough candidates. The responses indicate that the field is so narrow to begin with that there is no sense specialization has outpaced training.

If you are interested in paper conservation as a career, plan on needing a master’s in conservation. Once completed be prepared to be in an entry level position for a while. If you can find an apprenticeship while in school jump on it and get the bench skills in while working on the academics. Paper conservation is a very narrow field within conservation an already narrow field. People who enter this line of work and stick with it stay there for decades.

For me personally, institutional or academic conservation as a career is a non-starter. I am too far along in life with too many obligations and too far down my educational path. This does not preclude private practice in the future presuming I continue in public history and build my skills with credible training in conservation, which is very likely to happen. I prefer to live in lower density environments and this is conducive to opportunities in private practice with small museums and history associations. The key is to continue with conservation specific training and practice.

[1] Professional Opportunities Analysis Assignment Instructions, Module 5, HIST 705, Local History, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA, Fall 2024.

Pilot Project and More

The intention was to post last month but the workload for school has been heavier than expected. The pilot project included in the last post, building an organization’s media archive has been going well. One of the first determinations was that Omeka would not be the platform solution for the project. Omeka is a fine platform, but it is too complex for the organizations environment, personnel, the single media type, and the minimal metadata needs. In this case a simpler PHP/HTML front end for a small database will be more effective and easier to train the organization’s staff on if they decide to continue with the project after the pilot program is completed in December. As of today, the server is built, the platform software (a Linux system with Apache, MariaDB, and PHP [a LAMP server]) is installed, now it’s time to work on the database tables and a simple front end. This will likely be the main daily activity well into October.

In the Local History / Public History class, the next assignment is to analyze an occupation in the field/sub-field of interest, paper conservation was the choice I made as this is an area of great interest to me. Without any local practitioners or local educational resources the decision was made to dive in with a survey of practitioners. The survey is very narrow demographically and geographically, as well as being specific to paper conservation for books and documents, it is limited to the New England area. I would like to relocate to Maine in the near future so the geographic location made sense. Due to the narrow confines imposed, there was a total pool of 115 practitioners invited. As of this writing, there have been 16 respondents, 13.9%, which is pretty good. The hope is to have as close as possible to a 30% response which is asking a lot. Anyone having done a survey by cold-emailing professionals in a field knows anything above 10% is a good response. There are a few more days before the paper needs to be written so we shall see how close I get. The survey has 5 demographic questions and 5 questions on the education of new candidates to the field. SurveyMonkey was used because I have used that tool in the past. The results that have come in have provided an idea for a more detailed research project, an expanded version of this paper, that could make for an interesting journal article. SurveyMonkey is out of the question for an expanded research project, however, they have gotten far more expensive than is practical. Poking around a bit, I found a survey platform that can be added to an existing website and was easy to install and get started. The platform still needs to be explored and learned. This platform could make conducting survey research in a way that fits my workflow and reduces time to process and publish without spending a lot of money for what should be basic feature sets much easier.

Including the two projects above, a collection management system and a research project on paper conservators, there is also a documentary edition project that may move forward. On a recent visit to the local museum, while talking with one of the collections staff about another project for class, they brought up a journal they saw in one of the archive spaces that sounded like it would make a good candidate for a documentary edition for publication. An interest in pursuing this project has been expressed, as of yet no response, however, an in-person follow up will be forthcoming as this would be an enjoyable project and a solid CV / portfolio builder.

Until next time,
~Jon

Edited 21 SEP 2024