The Vespiary Book Binding & Book Conservation

Sorry folks: grad school = fewer posts.  I’m currently pursuing my Master’s of Information and Library Science at the University of Washington, and class resumed for me last week.  Bear with me.  It just means that you’ll likely be innundated with posts during the holidays.

During my stay in Seattle, the NYT featured an article whose lead image struck me cold.  This item from a collection of postal memorabilia and other ephemera is a gripping visual representation of the utter disrespect and atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people by the Nazis during the Holocaust.  What we see here is a section of a Biblical scroll that has been torn up and used as postal wrapping paper.  The creator of the collection, Ken Lawrence, said that scholars have told him, “it is among the most important surviving evidence of Nazi desecration.”  He has toured his collection on a small scale, at community centers and stamp collecting gatherings, but the collection has now been purchased by the Spungen Family Foundation, who will continue to develop it and tour it nationally next year.  It will even be coming to Billings, Montana, so check back for dates.

In more religiously related news, the Jewish Museum is about to reveal their Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit to the public.   My favorite passage from the article was this one, however:

It is discomfiting, too, to see photographs in which scholars — who pieced together fragments using scotch tape — smoke over them as destructive daylight streams onto tables.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find this photo, but the International Herald Tribune has a great article about the conservation team that oversees the handling of these items that are so fragile, they seem like they might fly to the four corners of the earth if you so much as looked at them slant-wise.

Lastly, if you have been under a rock for the last 2 weeks (perhaps hiding from the economic crisis), don’t miss Wired’s article about the amazing library of someone who obviously isn’t hurting for cash, Jay Walker.