The National Archives
has one of the largest conservation departments in the UK. We
spoke to Angela, who heads up the book conservation section, about
major projects that the team are working on.
What other major projects are the conservation team working
on?
The whole conservation department is working through the series
ADM
36
muster rolls. There are about 17,000 documents in this series
so it is a big job. These Admiralty records are very popular,
but many are also unfit to be handled as the paper with the text
is badly damaged.
What would have caused the damage?
Some of the damage was caused by mould from the documents being
stored in damp conditions - of course this was prior to their
being held by The National Archives. Also, in some cases the ink
that was used - made of iron and oak galls - starts to degrade
and eat away at the paper. This is caused by a chemical reaction.
We try to treat this problem in a number of ways - if anyone is
interested in finding out more about this, they can visit the
website www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ink/.
What about the bindings?
The bindings vary in condition - most are either reversed calf
or reversed calf and marbled paper. However, as the paper is severely
mould damaged, the bindings have to be removed anyway.
What is the process of conserving these particular documents?
Before the documents come to us to be rebound, the manuscripts
section remove the old binding and separate the sections into
individual sheets so that holes in the paper can be repaired.
In this case the leaf casting process is used.
Once the paper has been repaired it comes to us and is re-collated
into sections and re-sewn.
We also sew on a concertina guard (which can be seen in the
photograph) - this allows us to paste on a spine, giving a stronger
binding, but protects the paper sections, so that if necessary,
they can be re-bound in the future. We aim to always make our
work reversible.
Here a conservator is sewing a muster roll onto tapes.
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