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Comments by Former Curator
Comments made by Mary Durio, Former Curator of the Rare Book and Texana Collections:
The purpose of this project, as stated by Misty at the beginning of this report, was to make the book usable by those who wish to access it. The item could not be read in the condition that it was donated to the Rare Book Room. The cover boards were completely broken off, the item had leather rot and the spine was broken in several places. With each opening the book continued to fall apart, and with each handling the leather and boards crumbled away. We were not in a position to completely restore the item to its original condition, and found that the item proved to be more important for the content that it holds as opposed to any intrinsic value that it might have held.
In most cases, we make every attempt to maintain the original materials, when rebinding is necessary. Unfortunately, the only salvageable material from this item was the text block. However, we did feel the importance of maintaining the correct binding techniques that were originally used for the time period of this item. Our philosophy is to use what original materials we can; when we can't, but find that some sort of conservation is necessary, we stay true to the application techniques that were used to create the item.
While taking the item apart, we were able to see exactly what techniques were and were not used. Automatically, we knew the item was a traditional-bound book, rather than a modern case binding. We knew this because of the time period that the book was made, and by how the item was falling apart. In a traditional-bound book, the cover boards detach from the text block, but the spine remains attached. In a modern case-bound book, the entire casing detaches from the text block. This is due to the processes used in creating the items. In further examinations of the book, we discovered a few techniques of the time period that were not used for this particular item, such as cutting V-shaped channels into the binders board in order to accommodate cord lacings. Therefore, we chose not to use those techniques for the rebinding.
Though the project has not been completed, Misty is coming along very strong. She has done a tremendous amount of work in a short time. Her conservation techniques are very good and she has been dedicated to not only the completion of this task, but also in doing quality work. Misty's performance in the preservation course proved to be very good for someone who had never done this type of work before. In seeing that potential, I was not hesitant at all to let her work with an item from our collection.
