In the spring of 2014, AU Library hired Matt Johnson, from ECS Conservation, to perform an assessment of the Artemas Martin Collection in particular the books that were published prior to 1700. He identified a number of books that would benefit from boxing or conservation treatment.

The first two works were sent to ECS Conservation in August and returned from the lab earlier this month. Here are before and after pictures of our copy of Billingsley’s 2 volume Euclid’s Elements of Geometry published in 1570:

After                               Before

Both the conservation assessment and the treatments were paid for with proceeds from AU Library’s Roger Brown Preservation Fund. In September, AU Library held a fund raising event in support of our initiative to get as many of the books on the list conserved as possible. The monies raised at our September event will be used in 2015 to cover the costs of conservation treatment of additional items from the Martin Collection. For more information on this initiative, please contact the University Archivist at archives@american.edu.