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closeSaturday, Nov. 07, 2009
Walla Walla conservators give paper treasures new life
By Andy Porter, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
WALLA WALLA -- Time takes its toll on everything, and treasured books and documents are no exception.
But there are ways to halt and possibly even turn back time's ravages -- page by page and sometimes piece by piece.
That's the task Kim O'Donnell takes on daily in a workroom at The HF Group bindery on Avery Street in Walla Walla. As a rare book conservator with Etherington Conservation Services, she uses skills and materials from both past and present to restore texts that often look like candidates for the trash heap.
The path to becoming a book conservator isn't always a straight and narrow one. "It's not an easy thing to get into," said company President Don Etherington.
In O'Donnell's case, it started with a five-year apprenticeship to learn the art of fine book binding and restoration, followed in later years by working with conservators such as Peter Geraty and Etherington. Mixed in along the way has been work as diverse as writing computer programs for motion controllers and as a research assistant charged with organizing and maintaining archived collections at a southeastern university.
O'Donnell and ECS Conservation Services have been in Walla Walla since April, after moving the operation from Hayward, Calif. She and Etherington refrain from using the term "restoration" when describing what they do, preferring the term "conservator." As Etherington explained, in restoration "the principle was to make it look like it hadn't been touched," which often involved using modern materials and techniques that are not always true to the original. In conservation, "the aim is to make it as historically accurate as possible."
Among the works O'Donnell has rejuvenated while with ECS are a 1763 edict from Francis Fauquier, who was then governor of the colony of Virginia, and family Bibles dating from the 19th century, one of which looked "like they wadded it up and threw it in a corner of their garage for a hundred years."
Restoration work can range from a simple rebinding to trying to salvage "documents that have been Scotch-taped together," Etherington said.
The aim is not only to preserve an old and treasured document or book, but also make it so it can be handled and read as the authors intended.
"Our role is to make those rare and historical materials usable," he said.
Etherington Conservation Services is at 121 Avery St. in Walla Walla. It
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