Interesting Conservation Projects

I was recently asked to conserve an 1864 copy of The Latter-Day Saint’s Selection of Hymns from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The book was in rough shape and the pages were stained throughout. However, the sewing in the textblock was sound and I didn’t want to disrupt that to wash the paper.

Six hats belonging to the Laraine Day Collection (MSS 2351) have recently come through our Conservation Lab. Laraine Day was a Utah-born actress who became prominent in Hollywood and on television from the late 1930s into the mid-1980s. She starred alongside big names such as Lana Turner, Cary Grant and John Wayne. When the Library acquired her papers, the collection also included some clothing items, including these hats.