Beacon Street Diary

Four more Hidden Histories collections available

It's been a few months, but we're pleased to announce at last that four more of the collections in our New England's Hidden Histories program are now available for use. You can access them through the NEHH collections list, or go directly to each collection page:

• Georgetown, Mass. First Congregational Church (1736-1886)
    founded as Second/West Parish in Rowley
• Mattapoisett, Mass. Congregational Church (1736-1886)
    founded as Second Precinct in Rochester
• Rowley, Mass. First Congregational Church (1728-1835)
• Wenham, Mass. First Congregational Church (1643-1847)

There are more collections at various stages in the process, and we will let you know as soon as they are ready for use, as well.

Illuminating history

Working at the Congregational Library has given me a soft spot for large illuminated manuscripts, particularly Bibles. So when I came across a recent article on the British Library's Medieval manuscripts blog, I just had to share it. This early-8th century tome went on quite a journey in its day, being taken from northeastern England, through France, and finally ending up at an Italian monastery.

King Offa and the Ceolfrith Bible

Our story begins with Ceolfrith, saint and abbot of the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria from 690 to 716. Ceolfrith was Bede's early mentor, and during his rule the size and wealth of the monastery increased greatly and the number of books in the library doubled. Most famously, Ceolfrith commissioned three large Bibles from his own scriptoria: one for Jarrow, one for Wearmouth and the third for the Pope.

Realising that he was close to death, Ceolfrith resigned from the abbacy in 716 and set out for Rome, where he planned to present one of the Bibles to Pope Gregory II (715-731) and to remain to await his death. But he died en route, at Langres in Burgundy, and the Bible he was carrying instead made its way to the monastery of Monte Amiata in Florence. It is the only one of Ceolfrith's three Bibles to survive intact, and is now in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana at Florence, known as the Codex Amiatinus and the oldest surviving full copy of the Bible in Latin. The image [to the right] of Christ in Majesty with the four Evangelists is one of two full-page miniatures from this huge volume, which is over 48cm tall, weighs 35kg and has more than one thousand pages.

If you'd like to learn more about the fate of this book and see some of its text, you can read the full article on the Medieval manuscripts blog. Or if Bibles don't strike your fancy, you can explore other beautiful books in the British Library's Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, where all of the images are free to use under public domain copyright rules.

--Robin

Preservation Week: Preserving your photographs

We now return to Preservation Week!

Nothing is more evocative of a particular time, place, or person as a photograph. Yet, given their chemical composition, photographs can be rather delicate items and they need special consideration for their long-term preservation. All photographs are comprised of three basic layers: the bottom support (paper, glass, leather, etc.), a top binder (gelatin, albumen, etc.) and a sandwiched layer between containing the fixed image in suspension (this can be made of silver, platinum, organic dyes, etc.).

There are many different kinds of photographs and photo-mechanical processes used in the last 175 years to produce photo-static images. Ironically, this is one instance where new is not necessarily better — chromogenic photographs popularized by 1960 are among the least stable of photographic processes, due to the migration of organic dyes, rather than salts, to make them. For more information on the various kinds of photos go to the Graphics Atlas from the Image Permanence Institute.

untitled Daguerreotype, ca. 1850
click to enlarge

Many of the most important things you can do to aid in the preservation of your personal photographs can be done at low, or even no, cost.

• Photographs are very sensitive to temperature and humidity fluctuations.
  They are best stored out of basements or attics and away from pipes and windows. It is critical to keep photographs away from all water sources, including humid air. This is another reason not to frame important photographs directly against glass. High levels of moisture may cause the top level binder to get tacky, causing photographs to adhere to the glass frame.
• Photographs are enormously ultra-violet light sensitive.
  Exposure to ultra-violet light expedites the degradation of photographs. As much as you may wish to hang an image of a loved member of your family, if the image is particularly important to you, you may wish to scan the original and hang the copy to enjoy. This will allow you to have a "convenience" copy available without harming the original image. This is particularly important if you no longer have the original negative from which to create another image.
• Photographs are easily affected and damaged by air pollutants and surface dirt.
  Particles, even small ones, can easily scratch the surface of photographs, damaging the emulsion adhered to the support. Additionally, beyond darkening or staining the image, pollutants may also affect the chemical composition of an image, leading to discoloration or pigment migration. The easiest way to limit damage caused by pollutants and dirt is to keep photographs appropriately covered.
• Photographs, more than many other paper based archival materials, are easily damaged by handling.
  This is one instance where we strongly recommend wearing cotton gloves to handle photographs and limit their handling to the edges of the item, only. Fingerprints can cause real chemical damage to the image, causing dyes to fade and deteriorate.
• Keep albums and scrapbooks together, whenever possible.
  Generally speaking, don't disassemble albums, they are important as objects and provide a great deal of contextual information. One exception may be for failed adhesive on magnetic albums, however. If you find yourself in this situation, you will need to rehouse the photographs. The photographs will still have residual failed adhesive on the back, do not attempt to remove it, the chances of damaging the photo is too great. In the case where photographs are stuck in magnetic albums, it is recommended to leave them alone or consult a conservator. Again, the chance of damaging the images is too high to attempt their removal without professional consultation.

Now that you know a little more about the things you can do to protect your photographs, you can them focus on how to store your photographs. We recommend storing items of like size will avoid warping and breakage. The next step is to invest in some good quality enclosures for the photographs and boxes for protection. While archival supply companies sell a variety of photograph enclosures, most are made out of paper or an inert plastic like Mylar©. Each has its own merits and detractions and your choice may be made by the type of photographs in your collections, the size of your collection, and your budget. See archival supply companies like Gaylord Brothers, Hollinger-Metal Edge, and University Products, or ask us, for more information.

Lastly, one of the most important things you can do to care for your personal photographs is take the time to identify and label the people, places, and dates associated with the images. When labeling photographs, avoid using ink pens, which can migrate and fade. Instead, use a soft pencil on the back of the photograph or even better, on the outside of a paper wrapper.

Additional Resources:

• American Institute for Conservation — Caring for Your Treasures
• Family Archives — How to Preserve Your Photos
• George Eastman House — Photographic Processes video
• Image Permanence Institute
• Library of Congress — Care of Photographs
• National Park Service Museum Management Program. "Conserve O Grams"
• NEDCC Leaflets and Preservation of Photographs Bibliography

 

-Cristina

 

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image "Untitled" by an unknown photographer courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, found via Flickr user Cea.

40th Anniversary for NEDCC

Congratulations to our friends at the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) for turning 40! This amazing organization is a gem. We've mentioned them from time to time, most recently in Monday's post kicking off the Amerian Library Association's Preservation Week. They've recently redesigned their website, so even old friends of the Center might want to visit and see what's new. For example, a link to their preservation leaflets and disaster assistance resources are highly visible on their homepage. They are also offering new sections about conservation treatment for several types of media.

If you're in the market to learn more about preservation or conservation, working proactively on a disaster plan or are in the middle of a disaster, or if you need something conserved, we hope you'll contact our friends in Andover.

-Jessica

Preservation Week: Caring for your personal papers

Welcome to Preservation Week!

I spend a fair bit of time helping churches deal with how to care for their historical records. Much of what I tell that audience can apply to what you might be keeping in your own home. There are several things you can do that cost you little to nothing and will do a lot to keep your stash of letters and pictures from unnecessary risk.

Here are the top 3 things to get you going in the right direction:

1. Be Proactive.

You can avoid a problem before you start if you review where you are keeping your valuable papers and if there is a high probability of that space being a problem, relocate before Grandma's old love letters are a mouse nest or under a foot of water. We try to find out of the way places to keep our stuff. Basement, attic, garage are the trifecta. They live there for a reason, usually — because those are not great living areas, because you don't have anywhere else to put them. We make due with the space we have.

Whenever possible, minimize exposure to overly moist air or potential water sources: sump pumps, pipes, leaky rooves, flooding basements, drafty garages. Minimize risk and check in now and then to make sure they're still OK, not after the disaster has struck.

2. Box It.

Create a barrier between your precious documents and the elements. Sunlight is the enemy for healthy skin for humans and healthy paper for archives: both get burned. Keeping things in a box will keep the sun off the papers. You have some choices when considering what kind of box to use. Ideally, archive-quality cardboard boxes are the best. Cardboard also provides extra protection from major changes in humidity, which is another of paper's enemies. However, if you feel plastic is the way to go, choose an inert plastic one and be very sure to check in to be sure that moisture doesn't get trapped in them, which can create a mold situation. Whatever box you choose, be sure it's clean and structurally sound.

3. Get Smart!

There are a lot of options when it comes to preserving paper records and books. It's been a topic of study and has been refined over generations. So much available online to help you learn more and make some smart decisions. Here's just a few to get you started:

• ALA — Preserving Your Memories
• ALA — Preservation Resource Links
• Family Archives — How to Preserve Your Photos
• NEDCC — Preservation Leaflets

 -Jessica

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photograph of waterlogged comic books courtesy of Flickr user Allen Holt

Lost and found: U.S. War Department papers

One of the benefits of living in the internet/digital world is the opportunity for collaboration. One such program that I learned about during the spring New England Archivist meeting's keynote by Tom Sheinfeld was the Papers of the War Department 1784-1800. The earliest records created by our government were primarily through the War Department, so when their offices burned in 1800, the nuts and bolts of what made up our infant nation was lost. But maybe not lost forever!

These Papers record far more than the era's military history. Between 1784 and 1800, the War Department was responsible for Indian affairs, veteran affairs, naval affairs (until 1798), as well as militia and army matters. During the 1790s, the Secretary of War spent seven of every ten dollars of the federal budget (debt service excepted). The War Office did business with commercial firms and merchants all across the nation; it was the nation's largest single consumer of fabric, clothing, shoes, food, medicine, building materials, and weapons of all kinds. "Follow the money," it is said, if you want to learn what really happened, and in the early days of the Republic that money trail usually led to the War Office. For example, the War Department operated the nation's only federal social welfare program, providing veterans' benefits (including payments to widows and orphans) to more than 4,000 persons. It also provided internal security, governance, and diplomacy on the vast frontier, and it was the instrument that shaped relations with Native Americans. In many respects, the papers lost in the War Office fire of 1800 constituted the "national archives" of their time.

Through this online project, dedicated souls have been piecing together the puzzle through dozens of repositories that collected correspondence, records, and articles relating to and by the War Department. They provide several search options, allow users to view images of the original documents, and are working on generating crowdsourced transcriptions. This repository is a valuable historical resource, and getting better by the day.

-Jessica

Common-place music

The latest issue of the online journal Common-place is focused on music in early America. From Native Americans to African slaves to French music publishers, Quakers to Methodists to Congregationalists, there are plenty of interesting topics to explore. There's even a 13-minute video of a costumed performance of Puritan tunes by scholar/musician Larry Young.

A bit friendlier than a scholarly journal, a bit more scholarly than a popular magazine, Common-place speaks — and listens — to scholars, museum curators, teachers, hobbyists, and just about anyone interested in American history before 1900. Common-place is a common place for all sorts of people to read about all sorts of things relating to early American life — from architecture to literature, from politics to parlor manners. And it's a place to find insightful analysis of early American history as it is discussed not only in scholarly literature but also on the evening news; in museums, big and small; in documentary and dramatic films; and in popular culture.

If you're interested in any aspect of life during the colonial era, chances are good you can find something to whet your appetite on this site. Read the current issue or delve into the archive.

 

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Image of Hymns 23 and 24 with music is from a manuscript hymnal attributed to John Wesley. Courtesy of Ms. Gwenda Grayiel Moore. Scan courtesy of Digital Collections, J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.

Reading colonial handwriting

Last week I told you about a great surprise discovery in the Reed College digital collection — the Indian Converts collection. I mentioned in the post that there were a number of great study guides and lesson plans for educators associated with this collection. Today I would like to draw your attention to one specific guide: the study guide on Colonial American Handwriting.

The guide provides a brief history on the importance of handwriting in the American colonies, and on its evolution. The guide provides citations throughout, and encourages critical thinking by asking questions for which you can find the answer by clicking on the associated hyperlink. There is a small "test your skills" quiz at the end, or you can also practice reading and transcribing short bits of text. There are also links to several handwriting games you can play (warning: these are slightly addictive!).

Enjoy!

--Sari

 

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Think this is really cool? Or perhaps you have discovered a talent for transcription of colonial handwriting? You can help us transcribe an 18th-century document!

New archival collection -- First Congregational Church of Jamestown, NY

We recently mentioned the process of using the "MPLP" standard to make our collections available more quickly. One of our most recently processed collections is from the First Congregational Church in Jamestown, New York. This was my first foray into the MPLP methodology, which employs a different philosophy from traditional archive training.

Types of material found in this collection include records of the church's auxiliary organizations, committees, clerk's reports, membership information (including deaths and baptisms), and finances. Researchers are welcome to review the guide to the collection; it is entirely open for public use.

-Jessica

Basics of Church Records Stewardship

Those who've been looking at the workshop options at our Church Anniversary Event next month may have noticed that I am teaching a class called "Basics of Church Records Stewardship". So, what is this class? It's essentially what was billed as the Records Management class in previous years, however, we felt that the name didn't properly describe the breadth of topics that I cover. To go with the spiffed-up title, I have spent the last few months revising the resources that are shared at that class.

I will remind our readers if your conference, association, or club gathering is planning an event and needs more content, I welcome the opportunity to be part of the scheduled activities. Please contact me if you would like to arrange for this sometime in the next few months.

-Jessica