Volume 12, Number 6
Sep 1988

AIC Meeting & Developments

First, the developments. AIC has lost its lease on the historic mansion it was leasing from the Park Service, but has found a building near Dupont Circle for only $33,000 a year plus utilities: 1400 16th St. NW, Suite 340, Washington, DC 20036. The telephone number is new too: 202/2326636.

The financial picture is discouraging. Although dues were increased last year, they will have to go up again next year and again soon after that. Registration for the conference was expensive: $125 if you applied early, $140 if you dallied. Although membership has risen to 2490, this organization has experienced no economies of scale. It can no longer afford to publish preprints of papers given at its annual meeting, but plans to make abstracts available. It can not afford to tape the sessions any more, or even to have a commercial outfit tape them. It does put out a membership list, it does have a newsletter and a journal, and someday it may have a referral system.

Next year s meeting will be in Cincinnati, June 4. In 1990, the members would like to meet in Richmond; the board will make the final decision.

Now for a few highlights of the meeting. The Preprints contain a lot of material of interest. The presentations I thought were moat significant were the following--bet everyone must judge for themselves.

• Susan Blakney - A Conservation Strategy for a Static Non-funded Collection: The John D. Barrow Art Gallery. The story of a bootstrap operation made possible by a combination of long-term planning, local pride, volunteer conservation and novel fund-raising.
• Klaus B. Hendriks and Lincoln Ross - The Restoration of Discolored Black-and-White Photographic Images in Chemical Solutions. Rarely are chemical treatments described in conservation meetings, except to condemn them. This 18-page article gives theoretical background with electron micrographs of silver grains at every step of the treatment described.
• Sylvia Rodgers and Thomas C. Albro - The Examination and Conservation Treatment of the Library of Congress Hark-ness 1531 Huejotzingo Codex. Every aspect of this extremely important Mexican codex was researched in connection with its treatment and rebinding (pictographs, native paper, pigments, inks, calligraphies, original structure, and so on); the Manuscript and Hispanic Divisions worked with the Conservation Office.
• Leslie Kruth's summary of recent developments in paper conservation, originating in research, was part of the Book, Paper and Painting Update session. Unfortunately, it is not represented even by an abstract in the Preprints, and was not recorded. It would be valuable for binders and book conservators who did not go to the meeting, and even for those that did go to the meeting. She covered, among other matters, bleaching, washing and drying, the fold endurance test and degree of polymerization (which is more and more used in research instead of fold endurance), water quality, deacidification, encapsulation and fumigation.
• Eugene Cain - Evidence for Multiple Causes of Foxing in Paper. Ten years ago, people took sides: Foxing was either a result of metal in the paper (iron, copper, cobalt) or it was a fungal colony (see reports of Meynell and Newsam's work in the December 1978 Abbey Newsletter, and Tang's work in the February 1979 issue). Now both sorts are recognized. Furthermore, several labs have been able to cultivate the fungi responsible for the spots that are not caused by metals, among them Cain's and a Japanese lab whose work is reported by Hideo Arai in the most recent AATA.
• Mary Wood Lee - Alternatives to Fumigation: A Review of Techniques for Removal of Mold Growth from Works of Art on Paper. Fumigation is not recommended because of its toxicity and the effect it has on the art work; brushing only spreads the spores; and bleaching is only necessary for stains. Removal of the colonies is effective, safe and easy with the right tools: vacuum aspirator, Erlenmeyer flask with plastic tubing, eyedropper tip, fine brush, tweezers, microscope.
• Linda Ogden, with Denys Pineda Morisset - Conservation Activities in Central and South America. Since 1980 there has been a lot of action under initiatives taken by government agencies, notably in Mexico, where an organizing meeting for a Panamerican conservation organization like the AIC will be held October 26-28. One of their goals is to increase contacts with North American conservators. For information write Mr. Pineda Morisset, Mapoteca Manuel Orozco y Berra, Av. Observatorio #192, Tacubaya, Mexico D.F., Mexico.
• Dianne van der Reyden et al. - Aqueous Light Bleaching of Paper: Update on Current Research at the Conservation Analytical Laboratory. The debate between the theoretical camp (which maintains that the process weakens the paper) and the applied camp (which maintains that a weakening effect is minimal or absent) may now be resolved. Research is not complete yet.
• Doug Nishimura et al. With James Reilly and others at the Image Permanence Institute, he has co-authored two significant papers, one (given at the spring seminar at the National Archives) on photographic enclosures and the improved Photographic Activity Test, and the other (published in the last issue of this Newsletter) on sulphiding as protection against oxidation--an inexpensive way to protect film of all types that cannot be stored under ideal conditions.
• Bob Weinberg and Bill Minter told an incredible story of how they washed, deacidified and dried a 1000-page Bible from 1674, without taking it apart. What is incredible is not that it was washed and dried (freeze-dried) as a whole, because similar procedures have been described by David Ouellette (Abbey Newsletter, June 1986) and Otto Waechter of Vienna (Office of Technology Assessment report, "Book Preservation Technologies," p. 97); it is that the book hung in a bucket of water for 19 days and still turned out fine. (This talk was not included or abstracted in the Preprints.)
• Pam Barrios and Sue Martin have found a way to encapsulate entire pamphlets of one or several folios, while retaining the folds. A description of the process will appear in this Newsletter.
• Carol Turchan - The Chicago Historical Society Flood: Recovery Analysis Two Years Later. Mimi Lampert, Bill Minter and Bob Weinberg co-authored this report of a successful recovery effort, from which everyone could learn something. The sling devised for transport of wet architectural drawings was a handy innovation. Mimi Lampert described the organization and operation of DRAT, a cooperative disaster recovery plan for Chicago, which should make the next one easier to respond to.

At the business meeting of the Book and Paper Group, it was announced or decided that: 1) there would be a new committee on vocabulary control, headed by Walter Henry; tell him about all good word lists for information retrieval, 2) back issues of the Postprints are back in print, 3) last year, the first on the NEH grant, twice as many sections of the Paper Catalog were completed as in any previous year; there are now 12 sections, 4) there has been no progress on the Book Catalog, which would be a record of book conservation methods presently in use; anyone with ideas or motivation to take part should call Eleanore Stewart.