[MSN] A rescue mission at Redwood Library. Conservators flock to Newport to help the library evaluate its books damaged by water in a storage facility.

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A rescue mission at Redwood Library
Conservators flock to Newport to help the library evaluate its books damaged
by water in a storage facility.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, June 19, 2006
BY RICHARD SALIT
Journal Staff Writer
 

Tara Elliott, of Newport, measures a book at the Redwood Library to check
for water damage.

NEWPORT -- It was nothing but smoke, soot, sogginess and sadness for Redwood
Library when disaster struck six months ago. Some of the institution's rare
books and artifacts were badly water-damaged when fire struck next door to
the Massachusetts facility where they were being temporarily stored during a
renovation.

But on Friday, the nation's oldest lending library brimmed with cheerfulness
as expert conservators from around the country gathered inside the restored
building for a relief mission: To help assess the damage to Redwood's
collection of rare books.

The group had come to Rhode Island for the annual meeting of the American
Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, held this
year in Providence. Of the 1,000 expected to attend, 17 responded to a call
to come to Redwood's aid instead of participating in the first day of the
conference.

On Friday, they donned red smocks to protect their clothing from dirt and
stains and sat down at several tables with pencils and rulers and piles of
forms. After special-collections librarian Lisa Long began carting in books
individually wrapped in protective tissue paper, they began delicately
opening the covers and turning the pages. Then they recorded their
observations.

Dana Melcher, who will soon take a conservator's position at the Victoria &
Albert Museum in London -- and who grew up in Middletown -- studied a volume
from 1770 on British taxes whose title began "A Survey of the British
Customs Containing the Rates of Merchandise . . .".

"You can see these tide marks," she said, analyzing the book with Leslie
Long, of the Library of Congress; it was one of four that they studied in 2
1/2 hours. "And you can see the cockling on the pages. It's not smooth
anymore."

We all know a water-damaged book when we see one. But many of the experts
who descended on Redwood have special knowledge of the type of paper used
hundreds of years ago, their qualities and how they must be treated.

Elizabeth Morse, a conservator from Cohasset, Mass., removed bubble wrap
from a particularly large and rare volume of illustrations of mammals by
John James Audubon, famous for his work on birds. As she flipped past
vibrantly colored images of the Townsend's Rocky Mountain hare, the Carolina
gray squirrel and the common American wildcat, she pointed out areas that
might have been damaged. She described her concerns to an adjuster for
Redwood's insurer and recommended that the library get proposals from the
best book conservators on how to deal with the 164-year-old volume. A
spectrum analysis might be necessary to determine what chemicals from the
fire might have penetrated the book's binding.

The fire in December broke out while Redwood was undergoing a $6-million
renovation and its collections were being stored at Artex Fine Art Service,
in Dedham. The blaze erupted in a building next door, but water doused the
storage facility.

Many of Redwood's most valuable items had just been returned to Newport and
some that remained behind escaped damage.

But many books were not so lucky. About 3,000 to 4,000 volumes were trucked
out of state to be freeze-dried at a special facility. The process dries wet
books while preventing them from becoming mildewed or infested by
paper-loving bugs.

Most of the volumes have been returned to Redwood. The next step is to gauge
which ones need further repair. That's where Friday's Angels Project came
in. Whenever the American Institute for Conservation holds it annual
meeting, it seeks to dispatch its members on missions to help museums or
historic institutions in their host regions.

Morse said she heard about Redwood's disaster almost immediately and quickly
realized that the five-day conference would be at the Westin this year. It
continues through Tuesday.

"I said we ought to assemble an Angels Project," she recalled, realizing
that it would be far more rewarding than some of the usual projects, which
involve more mundane maintenance.

Redwood readily agreed, and Morse made it happen.

"It was her brilliant idea," said Long.

Cheryl Helms, Redwood's executive director, said it would be quite difficult
to bring in so many talented people -- and expensive, too. Conservators can
bill $120 to $170 an hour for their expertise, she said. And that's just for
one of them.

While there's much hope, there is still reality.

Helms reflected on the map of the Battle of Rhode Island drawn by a French
lieutenant.

"It's a shadow of itself. It isn't what it was," she said, mourning the loss
of color. For many of the damaged works, "It's just never the same."

Long said that the books the conservators were poring over were each being
professionally photographed and given a ranking of 1 (high priority for
treatment) to four (perfectly good and needing no treatment).

"We know the majority are going to be one 1's and 2's," she said. "The idea
is to survey as many books as we can today. That will give us a snapshot."

The information, she said, will help Redwood seek bids on getting the
damaged books treated.

"There is no other group that could do this with the same gift and
knowledge," Morse said.

rsalit at projo.com / (401) 277-7467

JOURNAL PHOTOS / BILL MURPHY

Sophie Hammond-Hagman, left, of Chicago, and Crystal Stevenson, of Eagan,
Minn., examine a book at the Redwood Library, in Newport, to determine
whether it has sustained water damage needing repair.

Roberta Pilotte, of Yale University, examines a rare volume of Dante that
dates to 1629.