Published on Historical Society of Pennsylvania (https://hsp.org)


General Meade's Correspondence Books

One of the larger collections in the DCA Project is the Meade collection.  The collection contains a number of volumes, nearly twenty of  which are the General's  correspondence books dated from the early 1860s through the late 1860s.  The books are all of the same make and appear to be all the same state of disrepair.

This is an image of four letter books in a document box.

Letter books in their old housing



Broken spine

This is an image of loose folios.

Loose folios

The volumes had been housed together in Hollinger boxes. The spines of each are broken, folios are loose, and the books have collected their fair share of dust and dirt over the years. After vacuuming and dry cleaning the pages fully, the text block is removed from the case. Each outer folio of a signature is guarded and the text block is sewn together again.

This is an image of sewing the signatures of the book.

Sewing

This is an image that shows lining a spine with Japanese paper.

Lining the spine with Japanese papers.

Since the cases are in fairly good condition, the newly sewn text block is set back into its case. Each volume receives its own custom-made multi-use box.

This is an image that shows a finished rebound book.

Rebound!

This is an image that shows the rehoused volumes on the shelf.

Rehoused volumes