Michele Hamill

Our new cart for transporting posters, architectural drawings, photographs and maps arrived this week. We have long struggled to transport oversize collection materials safely between the Conservation Lab and the Rare and Manuscripts Collections (RMC). It was 2-person job to navigate through 6 doorways (all different widths), tight turns and 2 elevators with standard flat beds. It wasn’t good for the collections or for our backs!

Thanks to our wonderful colleague Wendy McPhee, conservator for the Toronto Public Library, who alerted us to G.S. Manufacturing in Canada, we now have a custom-built transport cart that safely supports 36” x 48” (and larger) folders in the “U” of the cart, full size cartons on the bottom shelf or additional flat materials, and has a removable lid which can also serve as a work surface.

We have been treating and rehousing several poster collections in the Conservation Lab recently which will now be able to be safely and efficiently returned to RMC with the new cart. WWI and WWII propaganda posters were a visually appealing public campaign to mobilize citizens to the needs of war, unify support, and motivate patriotism. Subjects for the posters included conservation and rationing, recruiting, war bonds, and the perils of careless talk, among others.

The WWII posters arrived in the lab in a tight, flattened bundle. In this state, they were not able to be used by researchers, processed by RMC staff, or safely housed.

With conservation treatment, these oversize posters (3’ x 4’ and larger) are transformed into a spectacular resource.

Unlike the WWI and WWII propaganda posters which were meant for display in public, WWII Newsmaps, produced weekly during the war years, were created for display in military installations to inform and update troops with recent war developments.

The Newsmaps, like the posters, were inaccessible due to being tightly rolled for decades. The Newsmaps on the outside of the roll were badly damaged with numerous tears. As you can imagine, the paper used for weekly Newsmaps in a time of war, was not high-grade and is now brittle and easily torn.

After cleaning, humidification and flattening, and tear and loss stabilization, the Newsmaps are ready for return to RMC to be made available to researchers.

With 2 more rolls of Newsmaps to treat and rehouse, we’ll look forward to many happy returns to RMC with our new transport cart that fits through all doorways and elevators and drives like a dream!