March 18, 2010, Filed Under: Art, ConservationBefore and After: Repairing a poster A poster in the Ransom Center’s Harry Houdini collection arrived just like Houdini would’ve wanted: folded up to an eighth of its size. Stephanie Watkins, Head of Paper Conservation, and her team faced a daunting project: the brittle paper couldn’t easily be unfolded without causing damage to the item. Once they successfully opened the poster, they had to remove dirt, acid, and discoloration, and restore missing pieces. Please click the thumbnails below to view full-size images. L’Eclair poster before treatment School of Information student Laura Bedford washes the poster on the vacuum-suction table. Bedford sprays a water-alkaline solution on the poster as part of washing process to remove acidity. Colored sheets of Japanese paper dry that later will be used to fill in missing sections of the poster. Volunteer Nani Lew cuts and prepares strips of Japanese paper for attachment to the poster. Head of Paper Conservation Stephanie Watkins aligns the poster before attaching the backing paper. Watkins continues to align the poster from the back. The colored Japanese paper is inserted into the parts of the poster with missing pieces. Lew and Watkins place a large sheet of Japanese paper on the table before it is applied to the poster. Watkins applies adhesive to the Japanese paper before adhering it to the poster. Bedford and Watkins position the poster on the Japanese backing paper. Bedford and Watkins brush out the poster onto the Japanese backing paper while the poster is attached to a sheet of Mylar. Once the poster has been aligned, Watkins and Bedford remove the Mylar cover. The treated poster is left to dry.
