Volume 10, Number 1
Feb 1986

Events in the News

• Last August 25-28, the second International Symposium on the Stability and Preservation of Photographic Images was held in Ottawa, with Klaus B. Hendriks as General Chairman and Jim Reilly as chair of the first session on general topics. Other sessions took up the subjects of standards, hypo retention, restoration; stability and preservation of color materials; a proposed Image Permanence Institute at RIT; non-silver halide imaging systems; and the growth potential of photography. The symposium had a very favorable review in the December Journal of Imaging Technology.
• The Scottish Region of the Society of Bookbinders and Book Restorers busted this year's biennial conference in September, with a varied program which attracted members from all over Britain.

  Workshops included Maureen Duke on onlaying and inlaying, John Coleman on gold finishing, Paul Delrue on paring and covering in full leather and Joanna Mackinven giving Rafe Fleming's demonstration on limp vellum binding (Rafe unfortunately being unable to attend through illness). Members also visited Hewit' s leather works in Currie and the new conservation laboratory at the National Library of Scotland. John McIntyre, conservation officer at the NLS, explained future plans for the laboratory and also showed a film during the conference on leafcasting. [From the December Designer Bookbinders Newsletter]

• The December 10 Preservation Conference at the National Archives had an attendance of 220 and was considered so successful that another one will be held next year on exactly the same day, December 10. The conference was videotaped.
• During 1986, the Guild of Book Workers exhibit, entitled "Bookworks," will travel from Chicago throughout Canada, winding up in Seattle. This is the exhibit connected with its Standards of Excellence seminars.

  Jan.-Feb.: Newberry Library, Chicago. Contact Bonnie Jo Cullison, Conservation, Newberry Library.
  Mar.-Oct.: Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Victoria. Contact Susan Corrigan of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.
  Nov.-Dec. 15: Seattle. Contact Don Guyot. Sponsor: Book Arts Guild.

• Beginning January 7 and continuing through the year, the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will have back-to-back exhibits on topics related to art and bookbinding. Each of the eight exhibits has a separate sponsor. During October the Danish Consulate is sponsoring "Danish Bookbinding and Printing by Ole Olsen, Paul Christensen, and Helge Ernst." Open Tues.-Fri. 10-4:45. Call Mindell Dubansky, (212) 879-5500 ext. 3220.
• Classes start mid-February at the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT. All are held evenings and run 12-15 weeks. Jenny Hille and Gisela Noack teach hand bookbinding. Workshops on marbling, mending books and headbanding are on Saturdays. Call (203) 562-8396.
• March 3-7, the Society of Archivists' Conservation Training Scheme Week will be held at the Library Association, 7 Ridgemont St., London WC1. It will cover topics in administration, Japanese and Western paper, early and archival bookbinding, environmental control, storage systems, boxing, exhibitions, and conservation chemistry. Presentations will be by outstanding experts, as they always are at this yearly event. Nonmembers may attend (£25 a day, £15 a half day). Contact Jennifer Thorp, Hampshire Record Office, 20 Southgate St., Winchester S023 9EF.
• The Center for Book Arts' new semester starts Feb. 17, and offers both regular classes and weekend workshops as usual. Subjects include hand bookbinding, restoration, oriental bindings, photograph album & slipcase, boxes, marbling, equipment making, book design, and long stitch envelope bindings. Write for list of classes: Center for Book Arts, 626 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10012 (212/460-9768).
• March 19-21, at the University of Texas's Humanities Research Center, there will be a symposium with invited participants on matters of mutual concern to conservators and special collections curators:
  1. Identifying elements and qualities of the object to be conserved.
  2. Effects of treatment on these elements and qualities.
  3. Documenting these elements and qualities prior to and during treatment.
  4. Deciding on appropriate treatments.
  5. Identifying extrinsic considerations that may modify or eliminate treatment.
• May 8-11, in Kalamazoo, there will be a conference within a congress. The Congress is the 21st International Congress on Medieval Studies. The conference is "Book Production in the Later Middle Ages," and it will include material on the text, scribes, readers, printers and so on. Structure or binding are not mentioned in the notice in the Jan. -April Fine Print II. Write Dr. Martha Driver, Dept. of English, Pace University, White Plains, New York, NY 10603.
• The annual meeting of the American Institute for Conservation this year will be May 21-25 in Chicago. Specialty group activities are scheduled on the last two days, which are a Saturday and a Sunday. The Photographic Materials Group meets all day Saturday and the Conservators in Private Practice that evening. Book and Paper people meet all day Sunday. After the conference, in Matteson, Illinois, Richard Smith is giving a day- long workshop on the use of freezers for drying and extermination, and on spray deacidification.

  Last year a bylaw amendment allowing professional associates as well as fellows to vote on all matters was narrowly defeated. This year it will be brought up again and discussed in the AIC Newsletter before the meeting and in a panel session as well as the business meeting (or perhaps the panel is part of the business meeting) in Chicago.

• The 1986 Society of American Archivists program for their two workshops has been announced: Basic Archival Conservation will be in Philadelphia June 4-6; Atlanta July 17-19; and Hudson, Wisconsin Oct. 8-10. Administration of Photographic Collections will be in Phoenix Feb. 26-28; Jackson, MS Mar. 24-26; Chicago Aug. 24-26; and New York City Dec. 3-5. For details contact Patricia Palmer, Program Coordinator, SPA, 600 5. Federal, Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60605 (312/922-0140).
• In June or July, there is a possibility of a leather course being bald at the B.L.M.R.A., for two days. Contact Betty Hales, B.L.M.R.A., Leather Trade House, King's Park Rd., Moulton Park, Northampton NNS 1JD, England.
• During the last week in June, Silvia Rennie will offer a repeat of the workshop she gave last summer at her Wisconsin country home, on leather binding. It will last six days and cost $325. This will cover lodging, free use of the kitchen, and all materials but leather and/or vellum. Participants should specify on applying whether they want to work in leather or vellum. Also to be taught: edge decoration, paper marbling with the Ascona oil colors and double French head-bands. Contact Ms. Rennie at 705 Hwy. 51 East, Stoughton, WI 53589 (608-873-9799).
• June 22-25, the Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers will sponsor the first international congress on "Pioneers of Photographic Science & Technology" at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. Eugene Ostroff is the Conference and Papers Chairman. Some of the papers to be given are:

  History of Photographic Gelatin - Dr. Jacques Pouradier
  History of Processing & Image Stability - George Eaton
  History of Photographic Darkrooms - Eugene Ostroff
  History of Electrostatic Printing - Prof. Dr. Vladimir Fridkin
  Pioneering the Diffusion-Transfer-Reversal Process - Dr. Edith Weyde
  History of Sensitometry & Densitometry - Calvin McCamy

  Dr. Edwin Land will be speaker at the banquet. The 32 speakers come from the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and Japan. Contact SPSE, 7003 Kilworth Lane, Springfield, VA 22151 (703/642-9091).

• June 23-27, a five-day workshop, "The Conservation of Japanese Prints," will be offered by the Center for the Study of Japanese Woodblock Prints, for practicing paper conservators, at the Intermuseum Laboratory in Oberlin, Ohio. Allen Memorial Art Museum is a cosponsor. Instructors: Keiko Keyes (conservator) and Roger S. Keyes (art historian). $300. Deadline: March 15. Applicants will be chosen by a selection committee and notified of their status by April 15. Write for application forms to: Center for the Study of Japanese Wood-block Prints, 1010 B St., Suite 410, San Rafael, CA 94101 -Attn: Dori Bonn.
• On June 27, just before the ALA conference in New York City, there will be an RTSD Preconference: "Preservation for Collection Managers." Speakers will include Carolyn Clark Morrow, Margaret Byrnes, Gay Walker, Jan Merrill-Oldham, Barclay Ogden, and Sherry Byrne. Topics include: Replacement formatting, library binding, conservation treatment/repair, prospective/preventive preservation, and solving of preservation problems. $95 for RTSD member, $115 for MA members not in RTSD, and $125 for non-ALA. Members. Write to: Preservation for Collection Managers Preconference, American Library Association, RTSD, 50 East Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Brochure available.
• The Book and Paper Intensive at Oxbow will be June 29-July 12 this year. Two weeks, $700; one week $400. This includes room, board, supplies and instructions. Instructors will include Bill Anthony, Tim Barrett, Chris Clarkson, Gary Frost, Don Guyot and Guy Petherbridge. Participant/instructor ratio will be 3:1. Apply to: Gary Frost, 514 Butler, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.
• The ICCM 1986 Conference in Adelaide, August 11-15, will look at conservation in theory and practice. Dr. Frank Preusser, Head of Scientific Services at the Getty Museum, will lead the section on Science and Technology in the Service of Conservation. Tim Padfield, of the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center, and "specialist in 'hands-off' conservation," will be there. The practical sessions will be headed by Robert Futernick, Conservator in Charge at the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco. For information, write the Conference organizers, Taylor Conventions, G.P.O. Box 2433, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia.
• Late in August, the T&E Center of Rochester Institute of Technology will give its seminar on "Preservation of Black-and-White Photographs," as it does every year, but this time it will focus on laboratory sessions featuring hands-on experience. Through combined lectures and workshops, participants will learn how to identify and properly store 19th and 20th century photographs; how to provide temporary protection to damaged photographs; how to rebind damaged Daguerreotypes; and perform some mounting and matting techniques. Coordinator: George Eaton. Instructors include Michael Hager, Grant Romer, Constance McCabe, Mary Lynne Ritzenthaler, James Reilly, Siegfried Rempel; and Debbie Norris. There will be four groups of not more than 12 people in each group. Dates: Aug. 17-22. $425. Contact Deborah Bongiorno (716/475-2246) or write her at T&E Center, RIT, One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-0887.