Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in RCSI Library's Heritage Collections? Preservation and conservation are key tasks that the team carries out on works housed within our collections, and on new items donated. Here, Sarah Timmins of the Heritage Team shares an insider view of that process to mark Archives Week 2019.
The gloves are off. Or are they on?
If you’ve ever visited a reading room to consult archives or heritage collections, you will be familiar with some handling guidelines - no pens, no drinks, clean hands, no flash photography... These kinds of common-sense rules for readers extend from the duty of Collection Care which is undertaken by the RCSI Library Heritage Team.
The long-term preservation of our collections takes on a varied approach. At the heart of it is prolonging the usable life of records and items. The principle concept is minimal intervention but, as long as interventions are carried out properly, every little effort counts towards this preservation goal.
When material arrives with us, it may well already be dirty, long-since faded or damaged - so then what?
 |
| Printed plate of Dublin Fireworks at St. Stephen's Green, 1748 - removed from its frame and surface cleaned (RCSI/VS/Print/06) |
When some new old thing arrives on my desk, I assess our options from 'Do (almost) nothing' to 'External expertise required'. In the case of damage to our collections, the 'external expertise' would be specialist conservators, but generally speaking, unless there is something, for example, like a brittle rolled parchment, a water-damaged work of art, a woodwormed gilt frame or a mould-damaged rare book, we need only intervene, ourselves, with standard preservation equipment and techniques. No irreversible alterations, one way or another.
 |
| 'Bassaire' HVAC work station and conservation brushes |
 |
| 'Smoke sponge' and nitrile gloves |
In front of me are crates of framed mixed media, including mostly photographs which will feed into the ongoing RCSI Photo Collection project, but also printed plates, paintings, telegraphs, newspaper clippings and calligraphy. They have been sent to Heritage Collections having been assembled from various places, invariably having spent time hanging on walls or stored in cellars.
A quick survey of the material tells me they range in age from the early 18th century to the late 20th. The aim of this new framed media project is to process the material, from cataloguing it to housing it in our archival storage area, including making customised archival folders and boxes. Often and ideally, this means removing pictures from their frames, but if the frame forms part of the essence of that piece, we don't discard it.
A quick survey of the material tells me they range in age from the early 18th century to the late 20th. The aim of this new framed media project is to process the material, from cataloguing it to housing it in our archival storage area, including making customised archival folders and boxes. Often and ideally, this means removing pictures from their frames, but if the frame forms part of the essence of that piece, we don't discard it.
With the frames aside, I can handle everything safely for cataloguing and may proceed to create neat archival housing. In the event that a frame is significant or integral to an item, I can gently press a microfibre cloth to lift the dust and surface dirt from it and store it for possible future re-framing.
 |
| Framed prints awaiting care and attention |
Ready, get set, go slowly
I begin by preparing my workbench and area. A preservation toolkit is at hand, as are safety goggles and gloves for dealing with removing the old and damaged glazed frames. I inevitably will be dealing with some surface and ingrained dirt so all the standard cleaning equipment is ready, from the little brush to the big HVAC document workstation. A dust mask and apron are always recommended before diving into a delivery to the Heritage Collections.
 |
| Detail of calligraphy - National Board Medical Examiners USA Commemoration of RCSI Bicentennial (RCSI/EX/1) |
There are things we can and can’t - must and must not - do
Looking, for example, at one of the calligraphy manuscripts, I can be sure the inks may be soluble and the pigments may be unstable, so I won't want to intervene unnecessarily. This unique handmade item - an ornate commemorative certificate presented to the college - has one small area showing delamination and damage. This appears to have been caused by the warping of the paper and adhesion of ink to the glass. This tells me that as the paper fibres must have naturally fluctuated in certain conditions, the paper then pressed against the glass, meaning that further damage could occur in the same vein if left in situ. It is a modern document and so will do well in an archival folder instead for the foreseeable future.
I wear a pair of nitrile gloves for handling these documents to avoid risk to the inks. The overall condition of the document generally appears clean and stable, so I carry out only the lightest preservation cleaning with a special conservation grade brush, around the outer edges of the paper, always brushing in the direction away from the ink.
 |
| Bespoke archival folder with unbleached cotton tying tape |
Trying to keep things black & white
I come to a black and white photograph which is titled 'Opening of New Accident Hall and Dispensary Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin. By Their Excellencies The Earl and Countess of Aberdeen', 1910. I note there is another print of this same photograph, in slightly poorer condition. Both photographs are to be removed from degrading low-quality frames and evident light damage markings are revealed on the mount boards. One photograph, on close inspection, has areas of foxing, the cause of which is not obvious to me but could be chemical degradation caused by previous environmental conditions.
The photographs seem stable on their mount boards with no apparent problems with the adhesive used to affix them.The mounts themselves hold a lot of information for provenance and form part of the items. Overall, the small stains and marks are not a major concern and are not going to impede their accessibility to researchers.
 |
| Opening of New Accident Hall and Dispensary Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin. By Their Excellencies The Earl and Countess of Aberdeen, 17th October 1910 (RCSI/Photo/61) |
Again, I wear nitrile gloves as photographs are especially sensitive to the oils on our hands. I clean the mounts by lightly and carefully "pouncing" a square of specialised conservation grade sponge, made of an air-blown vulcanised rubber, around the edges and on the verso of the board, avoiding the photographs themselves. I lightly dust the photographs only with a special ultra soft hair brush- a traditional Japanese utensil favoured in conservation.
Equal but different treatment for all
Each picture out of the crates, the majority of which are photographs, will get as a minimum this individual care and attention. All of these images have one thing in common- they will benefit from a stable, dark environment from now on. The catalogue record will note any concerns I may have for the condition and when a reader comes to view an item, they may be asked to put the gloves on.
The RCSI/Photo collection is an ongoing and varied project shared by the Heritage Collections team.
RCSI Library is celebrating Archives Week 2019 from Saturday 23rd November to Sunday 1st December. Follow @RCSILibrary on Twitter for daily highlights from the Heritage Collections and join us at 1pm on Thursday 28th November for a talk from RCSI Archivist Leanne Harrington on Roots: Tracing your Family History. No booking necessary, talk taking place in the Amphitheatre, Level 2, 26 York Street.