The Alaska State Library will offer a free presentation on how documents were restored for the state’s sesquicentennial exhibit.
On Saturday, July 8, at 2 p.m. in the lecture hall at the Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff State Library, Archives, and Museum at 395 Whittier St., paper conservator Seth Irwin will join us via Online With Libraries videoconference to share his process of preparing 150-year old Treaty of Cession maps, certificates, and manuscripts for the exhibit at the Alaska State Museum, which will be opening this fall.
Irwin recently spent six weeks stabilizing and repairing historic documents in the facility’s new purpose-built paper conservation lab, and will share before and after photographs of the stained, torn and deteriorated items that he treated. He will also answer questions about how to care for your own personal papers and photographs.
Irwin earned his master’s degree in Art Conservation from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada in 2009 and spent fourteen months as a traveling conservator in Alaska, working with museums and historical societies in Kodiak, Homer, Anchorage, Wasilla, Kenai, Eagle, Petersburg and Valdez. He served as the staff paper conservator at the University of Hawaii from 2012 to 2016 and recently returned to private practice in Boston. His work for the Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums was partially funded by a Treaty of Cession project grant from the Alaska Historical Commission.
This presentation is part of the Alaska State Library’s Summer Lecture Series. In August, Professor Saankaláxt’ Ernestine Hayes will talk about history and heroes and in September, Jackson Polys (aka Stephen Jackson and Stron Softi) will give an artist talk about his work on the Seward shame pole that was raised in Saxman Totem Park in April.
The Alaska State Library provides research services for state employees, assists historical researchers and the public, manages Talking Book services for Alaskans with visual impairments, and collects Alaska-related books, photographs, manuscripts, newspapers, government documents, and periodicals. Hours at the Alaska State Library are Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or Mondays by arrangement. For more information about the Library and its services, visit http://library.alaska.gov/.
