The Wizarding World of Conservation

Day 26:

Today we headed back to the British Library (remember, the home of King George's really cool library tower?! If you don't remember this, go back and read my blog "Independence Day at the British Library".), but this time we had an appointment to see the British Library Conservation Centre.  This department is in charge of conserving the materials used in the British Library.  Since the library is a reference library and the items can be checked out and handled by patrons, it's important for them to be functional.

The team of six has plenty to work on since the Legacy Collection has 150 million items, which are the items on which they focus their efforts.  Newer items needing conservation go to their department based in Yorkshire.  In order to determine which items will be worked on, individual curators for each department in the library prioritize the work they need and send in bids to the conservation team.  Then the conservation team leader gets all of the bids, looks at the items, and estimates the number of hours of work each item needs. Then the curator and the conservator determine which course of action would be best based on hours available, need, frequency of handling, uniqueness, priority, and whether the item is going to be digitized.

Our guide showed us examples of his conservation work. (We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I don't have photographs of these examples.)

The first was a Dutch leather tooling example from the 1800s.  The example was like a resume' for this Dutch craftsman.

We also saw an India Office Record Box from 1832.  This book was particularly interesting because it has a spring back, which pops open.  While he was showing us this particular book, our guide explained that the marbling on the edges of pages of account books served the dual purposes of decoration and security.  Marbling stops crooked accountants from removing and replacing pages, because the marbling can't be reproduced after the fact.  

We saw a 1649 dictionary that had been rebacked (which is when the cover has been replaced or repaired) using a combination of original and new leather.  The conservator had also resewn the binding, added new boards, but left the inner manuscript notes.  The conservators do not use rice paper, only Japanese tissue to reinforce where they sew.  They use different weights of tissue paper, each costing approximately 6-7 pound per sheet.

Then we went to the Finishing Department, where two more guides told us about the process for gold finishing on leather or cloth bindings.  We got to see the tools involved, hear about the steps necessary, and even touch some gold leaf, ourselves.  Gold finishing is a very precise process, and there are very few people on staff who have reached expert-level.

I have the "golden touch"

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Tonight, we headed to the Warner Brothers Studio Harry Potter Tour, which was A-Mazing!  Here are pictures from the tour:

Chess Pieces

Flying Ford Anglia

Harry's Cupboard Under the Stairs

Dining Hall Table (Looks just like Christ Church College)

Hagrid, Filch, and the House Points

The Proclamations from Umbridge's Era

Gryffindor Boys' Common Room

Mirror of Erised

Invisibility Cloak

Entrance to Dumbledore's Office

Pensieve

Potions Classroom, Complete with a Self-stirring Pot and Snape

Horcruxes

Dumbledore's Office

Sword of Gryffindor

Hagrid's Hut and Fang

Magicked Knitting Needles at the Burrow

Ministry of Magic Statue

Ministry of Magic

Ministry of Magic--Floo Network

Daily Prophet

Black Family Tapestry

Knight Bus

Sirius/Hagrid's Motorcycle with Sidecar

Ford Anglia

Dursley Residence

Tom Riddle's Grave

Buckbeak the Hippogriff

The Potters' House

Covered Bridge at Hogwarts

Diagon Alley

Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes Puking Pastilles Display

Hogwarts Model (1:24 scale)

Hogwarts Model

Independence Day in the British Library

Day 7:

Independence Day started off like any normal American holiday when you're in London...at Platform 9 3/4!  We headed to King's Cross station early to make sure we had time to take photos and visit the Harry Potter shop there at the station.  We took our own pictures, visited the shop, and then waited for the shop's professional photographer to take a group shot with props.

On my way to Hogwarts

Platform 9 3/4

Once we had finished our photo-ops, we set off for the British Library, which is located nearby.  The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is a copyright library.  This means that it automatically receives a copy of all publications (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.) from the UK and Ireland.  In addition, their collection covers all languages and items from around the world.  As of right now, they have more than 21 million items, and if you were to use 5 items per day it would take you 80,000 years to get through it all.  They add enough material each month to require an additional 1km of shelving. 

British Library entrance

The library is relatively young--only 40 years old, and it has only been at its current location since 1997.  Much of the library's collection came from the British Museum, which is why the library's collection is so much older than the library itself.  They maintain an extensive electronic collection, especially of material that is out of copyright.  The copyright laws in Britain allow copyright to remain intact for 70 years after an author's death.  After that time, the material is part of public domain. 

Fun facts about the British Library:
~More of the library is underground than above ground.
~They have 11 reading rooms available to users.
~ Most of their users (approximately 65%) are there for academic purposes--either students or teachers.
 ~There are 4 "Founding Fathers" whose busts are on the wall:  Sir Rob Cotton, Sir Joseph Banks, Thomas Greenville, and Sir Hans Sloane.
~Sir Hans Sloane was reputed to have invented milk chocolate.
~Christian Bale and Johnny Depp have reading cards and use the library.
~The busiest time for the library is near Easter.
~No writing utensils except pencils are allowed near the materials.
~5,000-6,000 items are delivered each day via the 3km of conveyor belts that comprise the Mechanical Book Handling System (MBHS). 

In the center of the library is the King's Library tower.  It is King George III's private library.  It contains 85,000 volumes dating from 1460s to 1820, which would have been contemporary times for him.  The books are classical literature, books about languages, contemporary literature, etc.  George III was an avid book collector, and when he died his son George IV did not want his father's library.  George IV decided to donate the entire collection to the British Museum with three conditions: 1) It needed to stay on permanent display. 2) It must be displayed separately from the rest of the collection. 3) It must be available for anyone to use.  The British Museum agreed to these conditions and followed them, and the British Library has continued to abide by these requirements.  The tower consists of six floors of books.  "Founder" Thomas Greenville's library is housed inside the King's Library.  Readers can check out books from King George's library and use them in the rare books room.

The King's Library Entrance

View of the King's Library from above

Six floors of rare books available for use

King George III's library

After seeing the King's Library, we relaxed on the rooftop terrace for a few minutes.  This area is available for staff and readers who want a quiet place to read or study.  It is not heavily publicized and the entrance is not widely advertised, so not every user knows about it.   It was lovely to be able to sit in such a nice, well-maintained greenspace so far above the city.  I could imagine that studying out there would be extremely relaxing and useful.

Rooftop Terrace

 Next, we went to see the Klencke Atlas, which is the second largest known atlas and was once used as a coffee table or end table by Charles II.  If you look closely at the picture of the enormous atlas, you may be able to see the ring that comes from Charles's cup or mug.

Klencke Atlas

Close-up of atlas with cup/mug ring

Our final stop before Nigel, our guide, dropped us off in the "Treasure Room" was Scholar's Leap, which is a pedestal standing area on the top of the elevator.  It offers a beautiful view of the cafe' and the King's Library.

View of the Cafe' from Scholar's Leap

My trip to the Treasure Room after our tour gave me chills on multiple occasions.  I walked in and saw a case containing a First Folio by William Shakespeare, and then I turned to see a copy of Beowulf that had been charred on its edges in a fire.  I also was able to see Jane Austen's writing desk, handwritten Beatles lyrics, illuminated manuscripts, letters from Winston Churchill, original musical scores from Beethoven, the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, and many more things.