The British Library

Our second day was spent at the British Library where we were given a tour of the building and a behind-the-scenes look at one of their departments. I was part of the group learning about their conservation efforts. 

Their conservation centre is a large, open room with environmentally controlled temperature and large north-facing windows that allow for natural - but not direct - sunlight. Workstations for each of the conservators are scattered throughout the room as each works on their own project. 

The museum curator will propose different items for conservation based on need and planned exhibitions. The conservators have a set number of hours they are able to work in a year which determines the level of restoration each item will receive. They will propose to the curator several plans for the item with varying timelines. The curator must decide how much time they want to be spent on the item, keeping in mind the time spent on one item will mean less for another. 

We chatted with three people about what they're working on. Francesca showed to us a bound poem from Persia about Alexander the Great. The goal of conservators today is to restore rather than replace, and so Francesca was doing as much as she could to restore the worn leather casing of the book and to preserve the Islamic-style binding. A century ago a similarly conditioned book would just be rebound using the British-style binding, losing the historical value of the original cover. She kept detailed records of every step in her process so there would be a history of what she found and what repairs had been done. What I found most interesting about this item was the results of a colour analysis she had done, showing that the hand paintings on each page contained arsenic, lead, and mercury. 

The next conservator, Gavin, was working on an old colonial photo album put together during the British occupation of India. This item was not designed to be long-lasting, so was stored in such a way that left damage to the pages and photographs. It was interesting to learn about the damage that can be done innocently enough through simple actions like storing a book upright, which allows dust and water to fall between the pages, distorting the colours and warping pages. 

Finally, we chatted with a textile conservator who was in the long process of restoring a British flag that had long been wrapped in an oilcloth and long left on a shelf. When she first received the item it was ragged and there was hardly anything left of it. She had thus far spent 400 hours on the elaborate process of restoring this flag to a recognizable condition. 

Next, we were given a tour of the library by Andy. The British Library is the largest library in Britain, owing to its position as a repository for everything published in Britain. Every day the institution receives approximately 8000 items of books, newspapers, magazines, comics etc. resulting in a collection of over 200 million items. In addition to their enormous on-site storage, they have warehouses in Leeds and York. On-site they store the rare, valuable, and heavily used items while the remainder is stored off-site.

Andy gave us an extensive purview of their stamp collection, which was donated entirely by the collector Thomas Tapling. Some of the more rare and precious stamps include the Penny Black and a very rare image of the Confederate flag with Thomas Jefferson. 

When you first walk into the library your eye is immediately drawn to the huge collection of books displayed in the middle of the room. This is the King George III collection, which holds 85,000 books. His successor King George IV gave this collection to the British Library under the condition that they would be kept together and would be kept on display. 

I wrapped up my time at the British Library by getting set up with my own library card. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to come back as a reader and access some of the amazing items they have available!