AIC's 45th Annual Meeting

Treatment 305 was developed at Princeton University Libraries by conservators Brian Baird and Mick Letourneaux. A paper detailing this binding structure was published in volume 13 of the Book and Paper Group Annual in 1994 and is titled "Treatment 305: A Collections Conservation Approach to Rebinding”. Essentially, a tight joint binding with a natural hollow and minimal spine linings was developed that incorporated all of the positive aspects of bindings from this era with none of the negatives. The Treatment 305 structure provides an incredibly flexible and durable binding that opens very flat and places minimal strains on the book during use. At The Indiana Historical Society, a substantial portion of our printed book collection dates from the late eighteenth through to the mid nineteenth centuries. While many of these books exhibit typical damage, such as detached boards and split spines, there are a fair number of them whose bindings are either non-existent or so degraded that the books need to be rebound. We digitize a fair amount of our collection material and patrons frequently use our books for research, so a flexible, durable binding that incorporated aspects, both aesthetic and structural, of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century bindings was needed. Treatment 305 seemed like a logical solution to this dilemma, especially if a few adjustments could be made to tailor the structure, adhesives, and covering materials to a more special collections approach to rebinding. In this presentation I will detail two treatments I performed using the Treatment 305 structure adapted for special collections materials. The first book treated was a publication of pre-statehood Acts and Laws which no longer retained its original binding. The book was washed, re-sized, re-sewn, and rebound using most of the original Treatment 305 steps detailed in Baird's and Letourneaux's article. The second book treated had a strange "binding on top of a binding” structure which included a total of four boards that had completely failed as a result of previous water damage. This treatment involved much discussion with the curator and a decision was made to construct a binding that used most of the book's oldest elements in order to be sympathetic to its original appearance. The book was washed to remove staining and heavily fragmented printed cover papers were lifted from the original boards, lined, and incorporated onto the new boards. The spine piece was made from a kozo fiber paper and linen laminate and toned to match a fragment of the original leather discovered under a turn-in. The Treatment 305 structure was used for rebinding with a few modifications made to accommodate the incorporation of original elements and this book's smaller size. In both cases, the final bindings resulted in extremely flexible and aesthetically satisfying books that can easily withstand frequent use and potential future digitization on a book scanner. Treatment 305 proved to be an adaptable and expedient solution to the treatment challenges presented by our late eighteenth to mid nineteenth century printed book collection.