waring gloves to preserve old manuscripts

Some manuscripts date from the early Abbasid era, while some seventh-century calligraphy boards in Kufic script were written on parchment 'even before the manufacture of paper', Alyawi said.Ī conservator wearing a white lab coat brushed dust from a gnarled board, as a colleague cut fine paper to repair a 17th-century Persian text dedicated to the Shia religious commemoration of Ashura.Įach intervention must 'preserve the old appearance' of a work, said Tayba Ahmed, 30, who has been doing restoration for three years.īut it also must reduce any damage to the work 'so that it can live longer', she added.Ī text 'may not have a cover, the pages might be detached, you may have to sew and make a leather cover', she said. The collection, now ensconced in the national museum in the capital Baghdad, includes books, parchments and calligraphy boards, some of them damaged by humidity, pests and centuries of use. Employees and residents prevented subsequent looting attempts at the 'underground shelter' where it was stored, Alyawi said. It was safely stashed away in the Baghdad suburbs, while the national museum was ransacked in the turmoil following the 2003 US-led invasion. In a country that bears the scars of decades of conflict and has seen antiquities and cultural heritage regularly plundered, the House of Manuscripts' collection has managed to survive. 'There are writings in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and Kurdish,' he added, noting the texts' 'immense cultural diversity'. 'Some manuscripts date back almost 1,000 years,' said Ahmed al-Alyawi, who heads the House of Manuscripts body. It does not store any personal data.In an annex of Iraq's national museum, a conservator pores over a 17th-century manuscript, carrying out delicate restoration work as part of efforts to preserve and digitise 47,000 precious texts. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Performance'. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Other.

The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Necessary'. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Functional'. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Analytics'. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The white fabric contains no dyes that could stain the book, and they show dirt easily, so you know when it’s time for a new pair. The purpose of wearing white cotton gloves is to provide a safe, soft barrier between your dirty, oily hands and the rare book you’re using. Portland State University Library Special Collections follows their advice to handle most rare and valuable books with clean, dry hands.” And gloves often carry far more dirt than clean hands. “According to the Library of Congress, wearing gloves while handling antiquarian books may do more harm than good. News articles highlight the problems archivists had trying to recover and salvage records after … Why do historians wear gloves? Other reasons that archivists may wear gloves while handling collections is actually to protect the archivist-either from dry/ cracking skin, paper cuts, or for more substantial reasons, such as handling moldy materials.

READ ALSO: How much do biometric locks cost? Do archivists wear gloves? In the middle of summer, Frosties (as we call ourselves) sometimes have to wear gloves and two pairs of socks just to keep our blood vessels under control. Air conditioning, stress, even just holding a cold glass can trigger a Raynaud’s attack. We have a condition called Raynaud’s Syndrome. We like to keep it simple in the field, as conditions can be rough. Is it necessary to use gloves to handle artefacts during our glacial archaeological fieldwork? The answer to that is no, unless it is freezing, and we keep our gloves on for protection against the cold. The professors and the visiting archivists all had the same answer: Don’t wear gloves unless you’re handling photographs or a material that could be harmed by fingerprints. Should you wear gloves when handling old documents? 5 Why do archaeologists wear scarves around their neck?.

1 Should you wear gloves when handling old documents?.

Waring gloves to preserve old manuscripts