Conservation Methods

I ascended up to the second floor at Library And Archives Canada to check out some more that was on display at Doors Open. There was a large room up here with displays and colourful murals, and staff members on hand. 

While this building is the headquarters of the organization, there are other buildings associated, including one over on the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River, where a good deal of conservation work goes on. At one table, a couple of staff members were displaying items and talking about the process of restoration. This sample book offered a glimpse of how complex that can be- the woman explained that to put a new cover on a book in such disrepair might require finding out what kind of leather the original cover was, and then slowly re-creating it- complete with seams put in by a curved needle. She noted that just one seam- you can see two of them below her hands- can take an hour to do. Another restorer showed some of the techniques to removing the yellow marks of aging paper (which I should have photographed). That involves creating a gel-like substance with a base created from the scrapings of lily pads of all things. It ends up looking like a soft sheet of translucent rubber, and is applied to old paper for awhile, lifting the discolouration off.

A copy of Queen Elizabeth's proclamation of the Canadian 1982 constitution was on display.

I glanced out the window at the rainy weather. The Garden of the Provinces is there across the street, with the two churches beyond that. We'll start looking at them tomorrow.