Last summer I began spending Wednesdays learning and practicing book conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mindell Dubansky and her colleagues were nice enough to take me under their collective wing and thanks to their generosity and kindness I have begun learning the art of book conservation.

I started working on books in the Watson Library's collection and in January began assisting a conservator with the Italian architecture books belonging to the Drawings and Prints Department. It has been an honor and a thrill to work with such beautiful old books, many dating to the Renaissance. I'm learning names like Vitruvius and Scamozzi.

In the photo above, taken last summer for a presentation my colleages have been preparing, I am repairing broken hinges. If memory serves they were travel books from the Watson Library's collection on their way to offsite storage.

The book I worked on yesterday, pictured below, is full of the most amazing engraved prints of equally amazing Baroque architectural spaces designed by Guiseppe Galli Bibiena.

I was cleaning the pages using, alternately, eraser crumbs and a sponge.