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Manuscripts
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When Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington,
D.C., on April 14, 1865, he was carrying two pairs of spectacles
and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief,
and a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate
note and nine newspaper clippings, including several favorable
to the president and his policies.
Treatment: Conservators made a special
box for the objects, repaired the wallet using new treated
leather; and repaired the glasses case. They created a special
drop-spine box for each item, including the Confederate $5
bill and folded newspaper article. |
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Gettysburg Address
Top Treasures
[Gettysburg Address]
Manuscript Division
Seen here is the earliest known of the five drafts of what
may be the most famous American speech. Delivered by President
Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg, Pa., at the dedication of a
memorial cemetery on November 19, 1863, it is now familiarly
known as "The Gettysburg Address." Drawing inspiration from
his favorite historical document, the Declaration of Independence,
Lincoln equated the catastrophic suffering caused by the Civil
War with the efforts of the American people to live up to the
proposition that "all men are created equal." This document
is presumed to be the only working, or pre-delivery, draft
and is commonly identified as the "Nicolay Copy" because it
was once owned by John George Nicolay, Lincoln's private secretary.
The first page of this copy is on White House (then Executive
Mansion) stationery, lending strong support to the theory that
it was drafted in Washington, D.C. But the second page is on
what has been loosely described as foolscap, suggesting that
Lincoln was not fully satisfied with the final paragraph of
the Address and rewrote that passage in Gettysburg on November
18 while staying at the home of Judge David Wills.
Treatment: The Top Treasures are stored
in a cold storage vault in the Conservation Division. Each
treasure is housed in a protective enclosure. The lack of
oxygen and the cold temperature and stable humidity inside
of the vault extends the life of these documents by several
hundred years. The temperature in the vault is 50 degrees
F. The relative humidity is 50%. These are ideal conditions
for paper documents. |
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George Mason's Declaration of Rights
George Mason
[Mason's Declaration of Rights]
May 1776
Manuscript Division
A call for American independence from Britain, the Virginia
Declaration of Rights was drafted by George Mason in May 1776
and amended by Thomas Ludwell Lee and the Virginia Convention.
Thomas Jefferson drew heavily from this document when he drafted
the Declaration of Independence one month later.
Mason wrote that "all men are born equally free and independent
[sic], and have certain inherent natural rights,...among
which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means
of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining
Happiness and Safety."
This uniquely influential document was also used by James
Madison in drawing up the Bill of Rights (1789) and by the
Marquis de Lafayette in drafting the French Declaration of
the Rights of Man (1789).
Treatment: The Virginia Declaration of
Rights is one of the Library's Top Treasures and is stored
in a cold vault. Select Top Treasures are housed in sealed
enclosures with argon, an inert gas that displaces oxygen.
The lack of oxygen and the cold temperature and stable humidity
inside of the vault extends the life of these documents by
several hundred years. The temperature in the vault is 50
degrees F. The relative humidity is 50%. These conditions
are ideal for paper documents. |
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Rough Draft of Declaration
of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
[Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence]
1776
Manuscript Division
The "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence,
one of the great milestones in American history, shows the
evolution of the text from the initial "fair copy" draft by
Thomas Jefferson to the final text adopted by Congress on the
morning of July 4, 1776.
On June 11, in anticipation of the impending vote for independence
from Great Britain, the Continental Congress appointed five
men--Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger
Sherman, and Robert Livingston--to write a declaration that
would make clear to all the people why this break from their
sovereign, King George III, was both necessary and inevitable.
The committee then appointed Jefferson to draft a statement.
Jefferson produced a "fair" copy of his draft declaration,
which became the basic text of his "original Rough draught." The
text was first submitted to Adams, then Franklin, and finally
to the other two members of the committee. Before the committee
submitted the declaration to Congress on June 28, they made
forty-seven emendations to the document. During the ensuing
congressional debates of July 1-4, Congress adopted thirty-nine
further revisions to the committee draft.
The four-page "Rough draught" illustrates the numerous
additions, deletions, and corrections made at each step along
the way. Although most of these alterations are in Jefferson's
own distinctive hand--he later indicated the changes he believed
to have been made by Adams and Franklin--he opposed many
of the revisions made to his original composition.
Late in life Jefferson endorsed this document: "Independence.
Declaration of original Rough draught."
Treatment: The Rough Draft of the Declaration
of Independence has been frequently handled and exhibited
over its 224 year life span. It was treated previously on
at least 3 occasions as well. This complex past called for
a thorough technical and historical analysis of the document's
condition, carried out by the Conservation and Research and
Testing Offices in 1997. Presently the Rough Draft is housed
in a custom-built, argon-containing display case designed
to retard oxidation and acid hydrolysis. Housing the manuscript
in an inert gas environment with stable relative humidity
minimizes the aging which would occur under ambient environmental
conditions. |
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The Wolfman
Sergei Pankejeff
[The Wolfman]
Pastels. S. Freud Collection.
Manuscript Division
This drawing is by Sergius Pankejeff, one of Sigmund Freud's
most famous patients. Through Freud's analysis, Pankejeff's
wolf dreams proved to be the key to understanding his childhood
neuroses.
Treatment: Conservators mended the pastel
drawing, cleaned it and re-housed it in special sink mats
designed to protect the delicate surfaces. |
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The Tristram Saga
William Dudley Foulke
[Tristram's Saga]
Vellum fragment in Icelandic, 15th century
Manuscript Division
During the 12th-century, Norwegian kings sent scribes to France
to transcribe Charlemagne tales and other contemporary romances.
Among these was the Celtic-French Tristram or Tristan legend,
which in part told of the love between a handsome nephew and
his uncle's beautiful wife.
Translated into Old Nordic, the Tristram saga evolved into
a Scandinavian myth independent of the Celtic-French-English
one. From the Old Nordic, the saga has been preserved in
three versions, one of which was Icelandic. This vellum fragment
represents a late-fifteenth-century Icelandic version.
The Library's fragment has two leaves, of which half the
first is missing. Another fragment, in the Copenhagen University
Library, has three leaves, one of which is incomplete. Both
manuscripts measure 16.4 x 11.9 centimeters and have the
same number of lines to a side. The Library's manuscript
is known in some scholarly circles as "The Reeves Fragment" because
it was found by Icelandic scholar Arthur Middleton Reeves
(1856-1891), brother of Mrs. William Dudley Foulke, stitched
into the back of a book. The manuscript, donated to the Library
of Congress in 1965 by Reeves's grandniece Phoebe Cates of
Paris, France, was placed in the papers of his brother-in-law
William Dudley Foulke (1848-1935), a lawyer, public official,
and Progressive -era reformer. Other Reeves material in the
Foulke Papers includes the scholar's diary of his 1879 Iceland
trip.
Treatment: This item has extremely interesting
information on both sides. For this reason, it was placed
into a double side mat to allow researchers to view each
side without causing stress to the item. The item is difficult
to read, so two color photographic enlargements are included
in the double sided mat to facilitate use. |
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Margaret Mead Collection
Margaret Mead
[Margaret Mead Collection]
Manuscript Division
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was a prominent twentieth-century
educator, writer, and lecturer. An anthropologist by occupation,
she studied the lives of natives of Samoa, Indonesia, and Papua
New Guinea. Her first book, Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological
Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization (New York:
Morrow, 1928), which compared the seemingly care-free adolescent
years in Samoan culture to this stressful period of development
for American teenagers, catapulted her to instant fame. As
she went on to research and write about other cultures, she
used these anthropological studies as a framework to discuss
and analyze American society.
Mead was greatly influenced by the highly educated women
in her family, especially her grandmother and mother. In
this letter to her grandmother, Martha Ramsay Mead, written
shortly after Mead's marriage to her first husband Luther
Sheeleigh Cressman (1897-1994) in 1923, Mead mentions her
decision to keep her maiden name, a practice she followed
through three marriages. In her autobiography, Blackberry
Winter: My Earlier Years, Mead wrote that she made the decision
to retain her name based on her "mother's belief that women
should keep their own identity and not be submerged, a belief
that had made her give her daughters only one given name,
so that they would keep their surnames after marriage."
The papers of Margaret Mead were bequeathed to the Library
of Congress upon her death in 1978. The entire collection
comprises approximately five hundred thousand items and includes
thousands of photographs, more than a thousand pieces of
recorded sound tapes and cassettes, and over five hundred
reels of motion picture film. The Library of Congress is
presently working on a project to digitize and make available
over the Internet approximately thirty-two thousand photographs
and twenty thousand pages of selected field notes that document
her field expedition to study the Balinese in Indonesia and
the Iatmul people of Papua New Guinea from 1936 to 1939.
Treatment: Conservators removed the Balinese
drawings from poor quality exhibit mats, and treated them
to remove pressure-sensitive tape residue. They then re-matted
and boxed items using conservation quality materials. |
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George Patton Collection
Gen. George S. Patton
[Diaries]
March 1943
Manuscript Division
One of the military innovations of World War I was the emergence
of the armored tank. George S. Patton, Jr. (1885-1945), was
the first American officer assigned to the fledgling United
States Tank Corps in 1917. He continued to champion the tank
in years between the wars when the money-short army largely
neglected the corps. In World War II in Europe and North Africa,
however, the tank and armored warfare quickly emerged as the
most decisive means of land warfare. With this development,
Patton moved into the spotlight and soon distinguished himself
as America's most successful combat commander of armored troops.
During World War II, Patton kept a diary in which he noted
his activities and observations. It is a remarkably candid
work and an indispensable source of information not only
on Patton himself but on American ground combat operations
in North Africa and Europe from 1942 to 1945.
Treatment: Conservators flattened, encapsulated,
and post-bound the contents of eleven World War II diaries
into individual matching albums. |
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Mission to China
Caleb Cushing Papers
[George R. West]
Watercolor, 1844
Manuscript Division
The Buddhist Temple of the Goddess of Mercy, located in the
settlement of Wang-Hsia on the island of Macao, the Portuguese
colony lying off the delta of the Canton River, was the site
of the signing of the Treaty of Wang-Hsia. Caleb Cushing (1800-1879),
of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a United States representative
prior to his mission to China, successfully negotiated this
first treaty between the United States and China.
Signed on 3 July 1844, it won the same concessions that
the British had gained in the Treaty of Nanking following
the conclusion of the Opium War in 1842. Five treaty ports
were to be opened to United States trade, and the principle
of extraterritoriality was set forth, whereby United States
citizens living in China would be tried by the United States
consul in accordance with the laws of the United States.
The watercolor on paper of the Buddhist Temple at Wang-Hsia
was painted by George R. West (1811-1877), who was included
in Cushing's diplomatic entourage as an official painter.
It is one of many paintings in the Cushing Papers relating
to the 1844 mission.
Treatment: The watercolor was encapsulated
and placed in a window mat to provide support while permitting
ease of access. The mats are stored within a box specially
designed to provide a museum quality environment and the
strength needed to support the heavy matted items. |
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Steamship to Japan:
1852
Matthew Perry
[Speiden Journal]
1854
Manuscript Division
This two-volume set of journals is filled with images ranging
from hand drawn, pen-and-ink scenes of everyday life to exquisitely
colored and detailed pith paintings created for the tourist
industry. The journals were kept by William Speiden, the purser's
clerk during Matthew Perry's naval expedition to Japan in 1852-54.
In this "Journal of a Cruise in the U.S. Steam Frigate Mississippi," Speiden
provided a detailed account of the reception given to Commodore
Perry and of deliberations between Perry and representatives
of the emperor of Japan.
Treatment: Typical of volumes used for
scrapbooks, the added contents expand the thickness of the
volumes and cause the bindings to break. The pith paintings
contained in these volumes are particularly vulnerable to
damage because they are thin, brittle and unsuited to the
movable pages of the book format. Conservators preserved
the paintings by removing them from the books and storing
them in specially designed mats. They inserted facsimile
images in the book in place of the original paintings. This
solution reduced some of the extra bulk in the text block,
thereby allowing the remaining pages to be successfully rebound. |
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Alaskan Russian Orthodox Church Collection
Alaskan Russian Orthodox Church Collection
[Iconostasis of St. Michael's Cathedral]
Pencil/color wash, 1844
Manuscript Division
Sitka was the capital of Russian America and the cathedral
the center of the Alaskan Russian Orthodox Church, which directed
its efforts towards the conversion and education of the native
peoples, especially in the period prior to Alaska becoming
an American territory.
Treatment: This drawing was dry cleaned,
mended, and placed in a in window mat for support. |
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Gladstone African American History Collection
[Records of African Americans in the Military]
Manuscript Division
The William A. Gladstone Collection documents African Americans
in military service, especially in the United States Corps
d'Afrique and the United States Colored Troops, which were
organized during the Civil War. Also included are Revolutionary
War pay vouchers issued to Connecticut blacks who served in
the Continental Army.
Treatment:Conservators dry cleaned items
in the collection and deacidified them when possible. They
mended some using Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste.
They placed the collection in polyester sleeves and stored
them in acid-free folders and boxes. |
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Gold Fever
B. J. Atrim Journals
Bound volumes, 19th century
Manuscript Division
These diaries, journals, and sketchbooks provide not only a
travelogue of places visited but insight into the inspiration,
motivation, and perspiration en route to the California during
the 1849 Gold Rush.
Treatment:The three manuscript journals
and two sktechbooks, one with colored media, had all been
laminated with cellulose acetate and tissue several years
ago. Conservators delaminated all of the journals and washed
and deacidified them, with the exception of the sketchbook
with colored media. Two of the manuscripts were rebound in
cloth case bindings. The third was too brittle for such a
treatment and was put into a postbidning structure with mylar
encapsulations for the pages, covered with the same linen
cloth.
A special handmade paper mat structure was developed for
the two sketchbooks. Extended guards on the mat structure
were sewn on tapes to create the new case style bindings,
and a box housing all five volumes was constructed. |
Conserved volume
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Spanish History
Hans P. Kraus Collection
Bound volumes,
Manuscript Division
The Hans P. Kraus collection is significant not only for the
wide range of information it contains about Spanish colonial
history but for the light is sheds on the early history of
the territories now included in the United States.
Treatment: Typical of the period, this
limp vellum binding has yapp edges and fore-edge ties. The
text block is a laid handmade paper sewn on alum-tawed thongs
and end bands, which are used for lacing the text block into
the vellum cover. Treatment included the construction of
portfolios, and boxes for individual items. |
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Washington Haggadah
Joel ben Simeon
[Copied and illustrated manuscript
"Washington Haggadah"] Manuscript, 1478
African Middle
Eastern Division
This medieval Hebrew illuminated manuscript, in ink, gouache,
and gold leaf on parchment, was copied and illustrated by Joel
ben Simeon in 1478. It is known as the "Washington Haggadah" because
of its location at the Library of Congress. The vivid illuminations,
the charm and humor of the illustrations, and the beauty of
the calligraphy have made this one of the most admired of Hebrew
manuscripts.
Treatment: Conservators disbound the manuscript,
dry cleaned the leaves, reversed discoloration, consolidated
pigments and flattened leaves through humidification. They
also made minor mends and repairs. |
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Scroll of Esther
Ashkenazi Megulat
[The Book of Esther]
Scroll, 14 or 15th century
African Middle
Eastern Division
The Ashkenazi Megillat Ether (scroll of the Book of Esther),
from the Hebraic Secetion fo the Library, is notable for its
age, size, and distinguished calligraphy. It is from the 14th/15th
C. Each sheet is approximately 32 inches high, and each letter
is 3/4 of an inch. This suggests congregational use when read
communally on the festival of Purim.
Treatment: After examination, conservators
consolidated unstable ink throughout the scroll. Each parchment
sheet was dry-cleaned by brushing and vacuuming and then
gently humidified and flattened. Tears and losses were repaired
with long fibered Japanese paper. |
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One Million Sutra
Hyakumanto Dharani
[One Million Sutra]
Scrolls, 770 AD
Asian Division
The Hyakumanto Dharani are among the world's oldest extant
samples of printing, dating from 770 A.D. They are small scrolls
consisting of four dharani, passages from a Buddhist sutra
used as prayers. The Empress Shotoku, grateful for the end
of an eight-year civil war in Japan, ordered that the dharani
be printed and placed in "one million" tiny wooden pagodas
as memorials to the dead. The pagodas were distributed to 10
temples throughout Japan. There are three original prayers
and pagoda in the Library's Japanese collection.
Treatment: Conservators carefully unrolled
the paper scrolls and humidified and flattened them. The
scrolls were housed between two pieces of plexiglass spaced
with a frame of clear polypropylene. The scrolls and pagoda
are stored in specially constructed, cloth-covered boxes. |
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A Jefferson Pen Pal
J. Henley Smith
[Henley-Smith Collection]
Manuscript, 18th c.
Manuscript Division
J. Henley Smith was editor of the National Intelligencer and
a confidante of Thomas Jefferson's. The Smith Papers include
many letters written by Jefferson and other important figures
of the early 19th century.
Treatment: Conservators removed the manuscripts
from their bindings, de-laminated, de-silked, and deacidified
them. They mended tears using Japanese tissue. They used
museum-quality materials to re-house the manuscripts. |
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Codex Amoretti, Vespucci Letter.
Hans P. Kraus
[Codex Amoretti, Vespucci Letter]
Letter, ca. 1504
Manuscript Division
An undated (ca. 1504) copy of a letter written by Amerigo Vespucci
in which he narrates the much-disputed history of his four
voyages. The copy reflects the interest of the great Florentine
mercantile houses in learning more about the new regions and
possible new routes to the Orient.
Treatment: Conservators cleaned the manuscripts
and removed old repairs using methyl cellulose poultices.
They mended tears using Japanese tissue and wheat starch
paste. |
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Made in America
Women's Cottage Industry
[Ipswich Laces]
18th century
Manuscript Division
These 18th century American-designed and executed laces are
from the women's cottage industry of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Treatment: After consultation with the
Textile Museum, conservators removed the laces from old paper
supports and re-housed them in specially designed muslin-covered
mats. |
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Persian Wedding Contract
Persian Wedding Contract
[Illuminated Marriage Certificate]
Paper, 1804 A.D.
African Middle
Eastern Division
Persian wedding contracts such as this are unique in that they
are considered permanent, and they stipulate how much the groom's
family must pay the wife should she become a widow.
Treatment: Conservators de-silked the contract.
They then removed earlier paper patches by using limited
moisture with poultices. They removed any residual adhesive
and flattened the paper, working out as many wrinkles as
possible. Finally, they mended the paper using Japanese paper. |
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Designing Soldiers
Alexander Hamilton Collection
[U.S. Army Uniforms]
Manuscript
1790's
Manuscript Division
Andrew Hamilton was an aide to George Washington during the
Revolutionary War and first Secretary of the Treasury. He served
as a Major General under Washington in the 1790's during the
John Adams's administration. This design for a U.S. Army uniform
is in his collection, which resides at the Library.
Treatment: Conservators de-laminated, de-silked,
and repaired the document using both heat-set tissue and
Japanese tissue adhered with wheat starch paste. |
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Liber(ia)ate!
American Colonization Society
[Records]
Book and Paper Materials, 1822-1847
Manuscript Division
The American Colonization Society was founded in 1816 in Washington,
D.C., to promote the repatriation of free African Americans
to Africa. Accordingly, in 1822 the Society established a colony
on the west coast of Africa, which in 1847 became the Independent
Republic of Liberia.
While spanning the period 1792 to 1964, the majority of
the society's correspondence, reports, and financial and
business papers date from the years 1823 to 1912. Correspondence
covers such subjects as administrative matters, the status
of slaves and freedman in antebellum America, and the society's
role in founding and colonizing Liberia and supporting Liberian
education.
Treatment: The correspondence in the collection
was originally arranged in bound volumes. In binding the
volumes, the letters were sewn and the covers directly attached.
These old bindings were in various stages of disintegration
when the Library acquired the collection. Between 1936 and
1963 the Library rebound most of the correspondence volumes. |
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