Manuscripts

Macaroni Machine
Thomas Jefferson
["Macaroni" machine with instructions for making pasta]
Holograph drawing and text, 1787

Manuscript Division

This drawing of a macaroni machine by Thomas Jefferson, made during a trip to Italy, shows a sectional view with holes through which dough was extruded. It reflects Jefferson's taste for continental cooking as well as his mechanical aptitude.

Treatment: The document is written with iron gall ink on handmade paper. In the early 1900s, it had been wetted to flatten it out for silking, a now-outmoded process of attaching a transparent piece of silk to a document to stabilize it. In the process some pieces of the document became misaligned. The document was conserved in 1994 to remove the old silk and re-align the pieces. In areas where the ink was fractured and delicate, new repairs were done with materials that can be easily removed, or "reversible materials." The document was re-housed in polyester film to protect it. It was digitized for the Core Collection Project.

Diary pages laid into presentation bindings.

Diary returned to its original format.

George Washington Diaries
George Washington
[36 Pocket size Diaries]
Bound volumes, 1786-1799
Manuscript Division

The 36 pocket-sized diaries cover the years 1748-1799 and contain a fascinating handwritten record of George Washington's activities, including observations and memoranda on a variety of subjects, from the weather and agriculture to the Revolutionary War.

Treatment: During the 1930s the diaries were unbound from their original format and rebound in a larger presentation-style format .as part of the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth. Beginning in the 1980s, the Conservation Division returned the diaries to their original pocket-sized, "almanac" format, an oblong, horizontal or vertical shape designed for journal inscription. The 1930s treatment included silking, or covering both sides of each leaf with a transparent silk. Silking was discontinued by the Library in the 1950s because it can become chemically unstable over time. Conservators removed the silking from individual diary pages by aqueous immersion until the adhesive dissolves and the silk falls away from the paper.

Weakened or torn pages were repaired using paper made from the inner bark of the Kozo, an indigenous Japanese plant known for its long, strong fibers. Areas of loss were repaired by means of "leaf casting," a method in which a thin layer of new paper is deposited over the missing areas.

Once the pages were mended, bookbinders sew them by hand in sections 'through-the-fold'. These sewn sections were then bound and covered, using the original boards if they were in good condition, or with new boards covered with handmade paste paper decorated in a style typical of the day.

Finally, each almanac received a custom-fitted protective enclosure.

Islamic Calligraphy: The Koran
The Koran
[Islamic Calligraphy]
Calligraphy sheets, some fragments
9th and 10th century
African Middle Eastern Division

Treatment: "Long fiber" repair was made to the calligraphy sheets using fibrous paper made from the bark of the indigenous Japanese Kozo plant. The fibers are adhered with starch paste, an extremely pure paste that is soluble in water so the repairs can be removed if need be. The surfaces were dusted and cleaned, any distortions in the sheets were relaxed, and crude paper patches and labels were removed from the sheets.

After treatment

Before treatment

After treatment

Torn Up by Freud
Sigmund Freud
[Torn Manuscript Pages]
Manuscript Division

These oversize manuscript pages in Dr. Sigmund Freud's own hand were reportedly torn up by the father of psychoanalysis and thrown into the wastepaper basket, only to be retrieved and taped together by his daughter, Anna. What one of the modern age's most influential thinkers would have to hide is now up to researchers to piece together.

Treatment: Although the document could have been repaired seamlessly, conservators and manuscript specialists decided not to hide the fact that the several page document had been torn into a dozen pieces. Instead, they were placed adjacent to one another between sheet polyester. But first, the tape, its residue and the stains it left had to be removed, which presented a sticky problem. The solvent for the tape also dissolved the ink. A wax resist was used to protect Freud's handwriting while the solvent went to work on the tape. In addition, conservators painstakingly mended the torn edges in such a way as to retain as much as Freud's handwriting as possible despite the rips.

Corn, Turkey, Chili Peppers and Beans
Edward Stephen Harkness Collection
[Huexotzinco Codex]
Amate paper, 1531
Manuscript Division

The 1531 Huexotzinco Codex is a legal document created by the Nahua Indian people from south east of Mexico City. They joined Hernando Cortés in a legal case against the abuses of the Spanish administrators 10 years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521.

The eight-panel pictographic document, which combines Christian imagery and indigenous graphic symbols, is a precise accounting of the products and services that the people of Huexotzinco were forced to render as tribute to the new Spanish colonial government. They included corn, turkey, chili peppers and beans, adobe bricks, lumber, limestone, and woven cloth. They also included the amount of gold and feathers needed to create a Spanish military campaign banner of the Madonna and Child.

Treatment: The Codex consisted of a handwritten Spanish text on antique laid paper with eight foldout Indian drawings on native-made paper sewn into the center of the manuscript.

Treating the Huexotzinco Codex meant deciding whether to change its format. The decision to alter the original format of a valuable artifact is reached only after careful consideration of conservation and curatorial concerns. Numerous scholars of early Mexican manuscripts as well as Library curators were consulted.

As a result, the manuscript was disbound to remove the Indian drawings, which had been sewn into the text in a way that was damaging to the document and which made study of it difficult. The Codex manuscript text was later rebound and the fibers of the Indian drawings were flattened and mended with long-fiber Japanese paper.

Drawings stabilized

Text resewn into new binding

After treatment

After treatment

Reconstructing a Diary of the Reconstruction
Houston Hartsfield Holloway
[Diary of the Reconstruction]
Bound volume, 1900's
Manuscript Division

In this holograph autobiography, Houston Hartsfield Holloway describes his life as a slave in Meriwether and Pike Counties, Georgia, before and during the Civil War, and as a blacksmith and African Methodist Episcopal minister during the Reconstruction era and through 1910, when he organized congregations and built churches. The diary's account of slavery includes Holloway's recollection of work chants, hymns and other folkways.

Treatment: Paper conservators examined each page of this unbound manuscript and tested the media to determine and carry out appropriate treatment. The pages were cleaned and mended and preservation photocopies were made for use by researchers. Each page of the original diary was encapsulated in a polyester sleeve with an insert of buffered paper to mitigate the effects of acidic components. Paper and book conservators worked together to construct a post-binding for the encapsulations. The preservation photocopies were bound in a separate volume. Book conservators constructed clamshell boxes for both volumes.

By Royal Charter: Go West!
Thomas Jefferson Collection
[Virginia Co. records]
1607
Manuscript Division

Treatment: To improve access to this important record, the Library digitized the Virginia Company Records from microfilm and enhanced the images for increased legibility. The collection of 135 documents were severely deteriorated from prolonged exposure to moisture and a poor storage environment. In the 1920s, a portion of the documents were silked, which caused discoloration and brittleness as well as the sinking of and the obscuring of the original ink. Conservators worked with manuscript historians to select items from the collection for treatment. They then de-silked, washed, and deacidified the documents, mended them using the leaf-cast method and re-housed them.

Silk removal

Desilked leaf

Mended, conserved leaf

Morse's message , enlarged, in 4 parts;
one - two - three - four

'What Hath God Wrought?'
Samuel Finley Breese Morse
[First telegraph message]
Papers, 24 May 1844
Manuscript Division

Treatment: Conservators humidified, unrolled, and flattened the tape. They made minor mends before matting it in polyester sheeting and placing it between two pieces of acrylic sheet glass.

First in Flight
Orville and Wilbur Wright
[Notebooks]
Diaries and Pocket Size, Notebooks, 1900-1919
Manuscript Division

Treatment: The 1900-1919 diaries were generally in good condition with slight wear on the leather covers and a broken joint along the flyleaf where the text block is attached to the cover. Stored in file folders among the papers of the Wright Brothers, these slim volumes (averaging less than 2 x 3 x 1/4" in size), needed a more secure and stable housing. By creating a double-tray box fitted with custom cavities for each diary, conservators significantly extended their useful life.

"Memorial and Remonstrance" on Freedom of Religion"
James Madison
["Memorial and Remonstrance" on Freedom of Religion"]
1785
Manuscript Division

Treatment: Conservators removed previous fabric and paper mends, using a poultice treatment to remove the latter. The document was then washed to remove discoloration. Next they mended it using heat-set tissue and encapsulated it in polyester sheets.

Poison Pen Letter
Ulysses S. Grant
[Letter]
Paper, January 22, 1884
Manuscript Division

Treatment: Grant dictated this letter to his secretary, who composed it on very thin paper. The ink reacted with the paper, causing substantive losses. Conservators humidified and flattened the letter and infilled the losses. They placed the letter in a polyester sleeve for protection and support.

Ulysses S. Grant Letters
Ulysses S. Grant
[Collection of Grant Papers]
Manuscript Division

Treatment: Conservators performed minor mending to select collection items. They also dry cleaned pieces using erasers; humidified and flattened items; and re-housed them in acid-free folders and boxes.

After treatment

Letter to Howell Lewis
George Washington
[Letter to Howell Lewis]
July 28, 1793
Manuscript Division

Treatment: This heavily fragmented letter was in more than 20 pieces. It was carefully reassembled, cleaned and mended. Conservators worked at length to match paper fibers and handwritten text so the letter was again readable as one sheet of paper.

A Benchmark in Inaugural Addresses
George Washington
[First Inaugural Address]
April 30, 1789
Manuscript Division

George Washington (1732-1799) delivered his first inaugural address to a joint session of Congress, assembled in Federal Hall, New York City, on April 30, 1789. The newly elected president delivered the speech in a deep, low voice that betrayed what one observer called "manifest embarrassment."

Aside from recommending a constitutional amendment to satisfy citizens demanding a Bill of Rights, Washington confined himself to generalities. He closed by asking for a "divine blessing" on the American people and their elected representatives. In delivering an inaugural address, Washington went beyond the constitutional requirement of taking an oath of office and thus established a precedent that has been followed by every elected president since.

Treatment: Conservators removed previous lamination in repeated solvent baths of acetone and then removed old mends. They re-mended tears with Japanese tissue and starch paste, a standard conservation technique that, unlike the old-fashioned lamination technique, can be easily undone, or reversed, with water.

After treatment

After treatment

Protective enclosure for diary

Theodore Roosevelt's Pocket Diary
[Diary]
Leather bound volume, 1884
Manuscript Division

Treatment: Conservators reinserted loose pages, consolidated the sewing and spine, and reinforced. the leather, applying new leather to the head of the volume, or, the area of the binding that extends beyond the text block. Because the diary is small, they made a larger box to house it.