Conservation: The Clarkson Stanfield Album

Churchyard with people seated on ground and castle in background — Dating to 1620, the churchyard of Greyfriars Kirk is the oldest cemetery in Edinburgh and a frequent setting for Hill & Adamson’s photographs.

by ANDREA KNOWLTON

Photographic albums are complex book structures with unique weaknesses and vulnerabilities. To make the Clarkson Stanfield Album, the photographs were adhered to individual leaves of paper, which were then hinged and nested together into sections that could be sewn together into a traditional book structure. Even with proper support and the most careful handling, numerous points in a binding of this kind can be susceptible to stress, weakening, and breakage as the album is opened and the pages are turned. The joints where the covers meet the spine flex each time the book is opened and closed, stressing the thin goatskin leather covering this area. Over time, threads that bind the sections together can gradually weaken and break. By 2017, the thin leather material of the Clarkson Stanfield Album had split along the front joint, and the sewing had broken in numerous places, causing the album leaves to separate from the binding. Curator Jessica S. McDonald and the Ransom Center’s book conservators examined the album and determined that conservation treatment should be undertaken to restore function to the album structure.

Album cover — D. O. Hill once described this album as “somewhat extravagant.” Robert Adamson’s superb salted paper prints were mounted one per page, in the style of other fine art portfolios published in the 1840s. The leaves were bound in rich purple leather with intricate gold tooling.

Treatment of the album commenced with the removal of broken sewing threads and the disassembly of the album sections to prepare the album leaves for resewing. The edges of each leaf were carefully cleaned to remove hardened adhesive from the binding process. They were then mended to strengthen the thin strips of fabric that hold the album leaves together. It is at this point in the treatment, with leaves separated, that we have the unique opportunity to exhibit individual images from the album.

After the close of the brief exhibition, conservation treatment will continue. The album leaves will be reassembled into sections. The album will then be resewn using a traditional method in which a thin linen thread passes through each section, wrapping around cord supports. Once resewn, the binding structure will be repaired so the album can be reattached to the binding covers, ultimately re-creating the experience of the album as imagined by Hill & Adamson in 1845.

CREDITS

Hill & Adamson (Scottish, active 1843–1847), Edinburgh Castle from the Greyfriars, 1843–1845. Salted paper print, 11.6 x 15.9 cm. Gernsheim Collection, 964:0048:0056.

Hill & Adamson (Scottish, active 1843–1847), 100 Calotypes by D. O. Hill, R.S.A., and R. Adamson (Edinburgh, 1845), front cover. Gernsheim Collection, f TR 395 H553 HRC-P (964:0048:0001–0109.