Welcome our newest staff member

Since the beginning of the project, we have been anxiously awaiting the completion of the mold room repairs so that we could hire a preservation technician. The mold room was renovated and now we are lucky enough to have the very brave and cheerful Anni Altshuler cleaning the mold from various sections of the Chew Papers. So far, she has been really helpful in getting us through our backlog of materials that have been simply awaiting her arrival.

Before donning her protective suit:


Before entering the mold world:


I continue to be amazed that she comes out of the mold room in such good spirits after being in this suit for 3 hours. Thanks for your hard work, Anni.

A little afternoon excitement

We have a few lingering leaks here in the processing room. Friday, we had a stream of water fall from the ceiling above our processing table. (Luckily, Natalie heard the dripping and we raced around to get plastic over things before anything got wet!)
Tyrone, our intrepid assistant facilities manager, went up on the roof in the rain to determine what was happening. He returned, soaked through, to report that he'd cleaned out the drains around our air handler and that we should be okay now. Everything seemed fine--no more dripping--but today, as we were working across the room, I thought I heard the pattering of rain drops. We looked over at the table to find water dripping onto boxes.

Luckily, we have a leak diverter nearby! We had never used it, and so I accidentally put it upside down and the threads were on the wrong side. We turned it over carefully, and got everything flowing in the right direction. Seems like things are okay for the moment. Here's what our processing table looks like today:

Occupational Hazards

The Chew papers demonstrate the hazards of archival work. Many of the boxes were likely stored in the basement at Cliveden for decades. As we sort through them, we face what at times may be centuries worth of dust, dirt, and sometimes mold. For archivists without allergies, wearing masks and/or gloves are important precautions to take when handling these materials. Archivists who are particularly sensitive to dust or mold should take more care to protect themselves from allergens. Because she is allergic to dust, Cathleen often wears a respirator (below) when handling documents that are covered in substantial particulate matter. We also operate air purifiers in our processing space. Along the way, we clean documents that are moldy or covered in heavy dust or dirt so that researchers will be able to safely access them in the future.



The stacks (and stacks) of papers spread across our tables at the moment are legal and estates documents. For about a week now we've been untangling all sorts of legal affairs, many related to the Chew family's land speculation ventures around the turn of the 19th century.