Collections and Conservation–Mary Seol, B.Arch24

The past few weeks have been filled with lovely finds from collections. Some are simply beautiful, such as these black and white photos shot on film of suminagashi: Japanese paper marbling. They are estimated to be images from the 70s or 80s of Mr. Fukuda, possessor of an “intangible cultural property” designation. 

Some artifacts are toxic and dangerous, like paper samples we found that were pigmented with arsenic! In particular, many older artifacts used pigments or materials common during their era and regions, only for us to later realize the danger of the materials. In cases such as this, we relocated, rehoused, and labeled the artifact for safe future handling. (Below: arsenic green!)

During my time at the museum, I have learned a lot about the chemistry behind paper and the efforts it takes to preserve aging paper. Quality paper has high cellulose content, which is why certain plants and fibers (cotton, paper mulberry, hemp, etc) create better paper than others (cactus, cabbage, wood). Hydrogen bonding between cellulose joins fibers together to create strong sheets.

Most paper today is industrially made from trees, using wood pulp.

Fun fact: The idea to use trees to make paper began after French entomologist René Réaumur observed paper wasps creating their nests. These insects chew up wood into a pulp that is used to build a remarkably strong paper nest. 

The tricky thing about using trees to make paper is that wood contains only about 50% cellulose (as opposed to cotton, which is about 94% cellulose). Trees also contain lignin, which helps provide structure and stiffness for trees to grow tall and strong. For industrial paper mills, sulfur is used to remove lignin from wood pulp. However cheaper, low-quality papers often contain lignin (ex. newsprint). Notice in the artifacts below, the younger book (right) is already yellowing because it was made with wood pulp. Despite being about 300 years older, the paper in the book on the left is much higher quality and in better condition.

Because lignin increases the acidity of paper, it causes sheets to yellow and become brittle over time. Think of cheap, old paperback books with yellowing pages. In collections, we have to protect brittle sheets with acid free folders and deal with leeching from any acidic sheets. So far, it has been an amazing opportunity to learn about (paper) conservation, and I am hopeful about the museum’s plans to grow their materials library to serve as a resource for researchers and students. Currently, the materials library is mostly paper sample books and fiber samples, but as an architecture student I could easily imagine it expanding to include paper building products.

Eagerly looking forward to the future of this paper collection!