PROJECTS

Archives at Vilassar de Dalt, Spain
Photo Tour | Spanish Archival Bindings
Working alongside paper conservation instructor Karen Pavelka, Beth Heller and I traveled to Vilassar de Dalt, Spain (just north of Barcelona) June-July 2004 to work in the private archives of the Marques de Santa Maria de Barbara y de la Manresana at his private home of El Castillo de Vilassar de Dalt. Our chief responsibilities included the creation of custom enclosures for materials in the archives and flattening of parchment documents, as well as the negotiation of archival order. Additionally, I studied examples of Spanish archival bindings from 1300 to 1800 ... as well as the examination spanish cuisine, travel, and culture!

The Cochineal: An Online Student Journal & Repository
of Conservation, Preservation, and Cultural Studies
To document and share the rich variety of research conducted by PCS students, Beth Heller and I collaborated to create website to host an online journal, repository, and hub for alumni communication, naming it after the much beloved cochineal -- a mascot for PCS students through the years. By the end of summer 2004, the journal will be operational via Eprints, software that facilitates the uptake, managment, access, and storage of student papers.

Southwest Research Institute Library
Interested in exhibiting the library's small but significant rare book collection, library director Anita Lang recruited me to assess the condition of the library's collection, to evaluate the proposed exhibit environment, to recommend exhibit furniture and practises, and to introduce the library staff to basic conservation practise as well as brief them on the needs of a digitization project.

National Preserve of Tauric Cheresonesos (Ukraine)
In the summer of 2003, I ventured to Sevastopol Ukraine to work in the Library and Archives of Chersonesos, an archaeological site that was first an ancient Greek, then a Roman, and finally a Byzantine city. Accompanying the Institute of Classical Archaeology from the University of Texas, I conducted a general preservation needs assessment which was later translated into a sucessful grant proposal to gain much needed equipment, supplies, and staffing for the extensive preservation needs of the Library and Archives.

Instantaneous Discs
Research Paper | Collection Assessment | Patent Research
Between the soaring popularity of recorded sound of discs of the early twentieth century and the high-fidelity recording capabilities of magnetic tape achieved after World War II lies the brief but enthusiastic niche of the instantaneous disc. Developed in the 1930s and used well into the late 1940s and 1950s as an inexpensive and accessible method of recording, the instantaneous disc was different from commercially distributed records. The instantaneous disc – sometimes called lacquers, acetates, transcription discs, old time radio (OTR) recordings, Insta-discs, dubs, or reference recordings – was a “compromise of ease of engraving and playback life,” composed of softer materials than mass produced phonographs and thus more fragile and susceptible to the hazards of playback.