The Weissman Center at work

The Weissman Preservation Center, an arm of Harvard Library that recently hosted a group of Russian conservators for training, celebrated its first decade last year. A glimpse of the center’s conservation work during 2009-10:

• More than 2,000 rare books were treated, including a bound volume of Emily Dickinson’s favorite sheet music.
• More than 6,000 paper objects were treated, including 407 large-format drawings by Harvard College undergraduates from 1782 to 1839.
• Approximately 1,500 rare photographs were treated; another 17,000 were assessed; and more than 29,500 were “rehoused” using archival materials.
• More than 3,500 daguerreotypes were included in a new online collection launched last December, “Daguerreotypes at Harvard.” Included are some of the earliest photographs of the moon, portraits of Africa-born American slaves, 19th century Harvard class albums, and vintage pictures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others.
• More than 3,000 audiovisual items were documented using a new survey tool. A third were flagged for preservation reformatting.