Youth in the Service of Age

From the desk 

of Colleen Wilson,

Conservator at the 
Royal BC Museum

David Douglas was a hard-working Scottish botanist.   When he died, aged 35, he had introduced about 250 North American plants to British gardeners.   In addition to the Douglas Fir, he described 7,000 of the 92,000 plants known to botanists in the early 19^th century.  Over eighty plant and animals have douglasii in their scientific names.

Douglas' often requested book of sketches alongside a Pseudotsuga menziesii cone 

He travelled to the Pacific Northwest in 1824 and 1830.  His Book of Sketch maps of a Journey from the Junction of the Columbia and Okanogan Rivers to Quesnel and North, April to May 1833 is in the BC Archives and frequent requests are made by researchers who wish to view or photograph the manuscript maps.  Unfortunately the book is in very poor condition; it is too delicate to travel and photography is difficult because of the damaged binding.  The 25 single-sided pages containing the maps sketched in iron gall ink are relatively stable at the moment, but iron gall ink is notoriously destructive to paper.

We are very fortunate this summer to have Emilie van der Hoorn, an intern from the University of Northumbria (UK) working with paper conservator Betty Walsh.   Emilie has a particular interest in iron gall inks and she tested the pages with Iron Indicator Paper developed by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage.  These revealed that there are loose Fe²⁺ ions present which will catalyze the degradation of the cellulose; in time the ink will eat through the paper. 

She has proposed that the iron gall ink be treated soon to preserve the relatively good condition of the sketches, and that the remaining pages of the book be washed and de-acidified.  There are two options for treatment.  The least invasive would be to interleave sheets of gelatin impregnated alkaline paper between the inked pages.  These would neutralize acids to a pH at which the gelatin could complex the Fe²⁺ ions preventing migration of the corroding ink to facing pages, but not preventing acids and ions embedded in the paper from degrading further.  Alternately the pages could be treated with a calcium-phytate method.  Developed by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed in the Netherlands, this would leave the paper cleaner, probably more supple, deacidified, and with an alkali reserve to counter future acid buildup; ink corrosion would not continue.  The book would have to be taken apart, and rebound after the treatment was complete, however the binding is fairly ordinary and, once apart, the manuscript maps could be better photographed for use by researchers. 

It is always a difficult decision to disassemble an artifact.  Although conservators aim for reversibility in their treatments, in many cases this is impractical.  Conservators also tend to be … conservative, unwilling to experiment with treatments that have not stood the test of time; there are many cases where doing nothing has caused less damage than elaborate “improvements”.  However, the problems with untreated iron gall ink are well known.  

Interns challenge us with their questions, inspire us with fresh ideas from their recent studies, and galvanize us with their youthful energy.  Because of the crush of other projects, treatment of the Douglas Sketchbook will happen after Emilie has returned to her studies, but in the meantime we have all benefitted.  Emilie examined, analyzed and articulated the treatment of a valuable artifact, the Archives received the perspective of two of the leading schools of paper conservation, and the manuscript maps of David Douglas are poised to illuminate future research.

An Acquired Taste

from the desk of
Genevieve Weber
Archivist
Collections, Research
and Access Services 
Royal BC Museum 

    

People often ask me what my favourite part of my job is.  The answer is easy: looking through the records.  I review new acquisitions, decide whether they fit with our mandate, and write proposals recommending whether we should add them to our collections or send them on to a more appropriate repository.  So, a big part of my job is looking through records – before anyone else!  Even better!

The BC Archives collects records relating to the political, business, and social history of British Columbia.  Often people and companies want to donate their records to the Archives, but before we accept them there are a number of things to consider.  For example, do we already have related records?  Were the records created in the province?  Was the creator from the province or did s/he spend a significant amount of time here?  Do the records provide evidence of activities, people, and life in the province?

As I research the records to determine these things, I often find interesting extras tucked in amongst the documents.  The archives generally accepts paper, photographic, audio-visual, cartographic and electronic records, but often other types of objects are included in an acquisition.  When this happens, I have a choice to make: the archives can keep the object and consider it a record; the object can be offered to another part of the museum, such as the Human History department and transferred accordingly; or it can be returned to the donor if it is considered to be irrelevant to the rest of the records.  In the past few months we have found some fascinating items:

• -      Driftwood painted with the image of a seagull (kept with the records of the B.C. Indian Arts and Welfare Society fonds)
•         A sad iron from the 19^th century (to be returned to the donor as the provenance is unknown and it is unrelated to the records)
• -      A lock of hair (re-housed and kept with the records – as it was with a letter it is considered to be a part of the correspondence)
• -      Pince-nez (armless eyeglasses) belonging to a former BC Premier (transferred to Human History)
• -      A 19^th century cash box, used to store the diaries of a former BC Premier (transferred to Human History)

Example of a 19^th century
sad iron

Cash box containing: 
diaries and pince-nez case
RBCM 2011.156

Sometimes I determine that the records would be better suited to another institution.  The BC Archives communicates with museums and archives throughout the province and the country to ensure that records are being stored in the most suitable place possible.  This spring we were offered a group of records that I determined would better fit the mandate of the Japanese Canadian National Museum in Burnaby.  The records, although created in BC, were related to a federal activity and therefore would be more suitable in a national institution.  The donor agreed, and the JCNM was thrilled to be the recipient of the donation.  Likewise, a colleague recently called me from Arizona to offer us some records that had been created in BC and which he felt were completely out of his repository’s scope but may fit in ours. 

Once I have determined that the records are related to BC and fit our mandate, I write a proposal to the Collections Committee, which has to approve each new acquisition before it can be added to the collection.  The proposal is jointly written by an archivist and a conservator.  For each item or group of records offered to the Archives, a conservator must ascertain the state of the records.  As the majority of records are paper, the main concerns are mold, bleeding ink, rust from staples or paperclips, disintegrations, etc.  However, there may also be a concern about “red rot”, something that happens to leather book covers, or photographic emulsion peeling back from the images.  Audio-visual records have their own set of conservation issues. 

Archival Conservator Betty Walsh
examining a registry that is part of
a new acquisition

Recently acquired records vary in scope: registers of mining company shareholders; personal photograph albums created by a Victoria teacher and administrator; the private records of politicians from the last two centuries; sketch books with images by a magazine illustrator; corporate records of BC companies and organizations; and commercial photographs taken of events and places around the province.  With so many intriguing records to examine I am constantly setting myself strict timelines – otherwise I would be at risk of spending all my time reading old letters and looking at pictures but never getting any work done! 

Do you like to look through old stuff?  I would love to hear your stories about interesting things you have found – perhaps in a relative’s home or even your own attic!