A Case for a New Case Paper: From Farm to Table to Desk to Bench

Submitter: Eric Benson

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/126075 Copy

Description

Title

A Case for a New Case Paper: From Farm to Table to Desk to Bench

Contributor(s)

• Benson, Eric
• Ferris, Quinn Morgan
• Teper , Jennifer Hain
• Vetter, Anneka

Issue Date

2019

Keyword(s)

• Book Conservation
• Hand Papermaking
• Sustainability

Date of Ingest

2025-02-28T20:50:52-06:00

Abstract

In March 2018, two library conservators from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign brought a class of information science graduate students on a field trip to the Fresh Press Agricultural Fiber Papermaking Laboratory. The field trip was part of the curriculum for their course, titled “IS 590PC: Preservation and Conservation for Special Collections Care.” The scope of this class was to introduce burgeoning library and archives professionals to the material and technical underpinnings of the objects that they even-tually will be stewarding in their collections. Considering that a good portion of the syllabus for 590PC is organized around a foundation in the history of papermaking and book binding, it was fortunate to find that there was a papermak-ing studio just up the street from the conservation laboratory, where the students could experience pulling their very own sheets of paper. As the students got elbow deep in paper pulp and experienced the challenges of building a post (fig. 1), Eric Benson, the co-founder of Fresh Press, discussed the studio’s mission while passing around finished papers made from a variety of agricultural fibers (agri-fiber). Handling the papers as they circulated, the conservators thought that the color, weight, and overall feel of the agri-fiber paper was reminiscent of another material that many book conservators know and love—University of Iowa Center for the Book (UICB) PC4 flax case paper. At the conclusion of their visit, the conservators were struck by an idea—what if a cross-collaboration between the Fresh Press and Library Conservation could yield a new source of sustainable, locally sourced paper for conservation use?

Publisher

ook and Paper Group (BPG), a specialty group of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC)

Series/Report Name or Number

The Book and Paper Group Annual 38

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

conference paper

Language

eng

Copyright and License Information

• Eric Benson
• Quinn Morgan Ferris
• Jennifer Hain Teper
• Anneka Vetter

Owning Collections