-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        laminated wall map
Date:   Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:41:41 -0400
From:   Karen L. Dabney <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]



Dear Ms. Cope,

Your question was shared with me by a librarian colleague since I am not
a subscriber to MAPS-L. She thought I could offer you advice since I am
a professional paper conservator.

Your friend's best option for the conservation of her wall maps is to
contact the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic
Works (AIC), in Washington DC; http://www.aic-faic.org; (202) 452-9545.
They have a free referral service to help people find conservators who
are qualified to work on valuable art, artifacts, documents, etc. The
type of map your friend has is not the sort of item every paper
conservator is willing to work on, so she will need to ask for a
conservator who does treat those oversize maps. I can't warn strongly
enough about avoiding self-trained "restorers" who might cause more
damage than good. It's important to get a highly trained and qualified
professional conservator so she can be sure the maps will truly be
stabilized and not just "prettied up" or restored in such a way that they
will actually deteriorate faster.

The treatments will be expensive, so she may want to have her collection
appraised first to determine which maps are more rare and valuable. This
information, along with their condition, can help her to decide how to
determine which maps to have conserved first. Conservators can also give
her advice on care and preservation of her maps so she can keep them in
the best possible condition in the future. (A very good website that has
on-line preservation information leaflets is www.nedcc.org.) If she
lived in the Mid Atlantic region, I'd make specific suggestions, but I
don't know personally any West Coast paper conservators who could assist
her. AIC is her best bet for conservator referrals.

I wish your friend success with her project.

All the best,
Karen Dabney

Karen Dabney
Conservator
The Pennsylvania State University
W402 Pattee Library
University Park, PA  16802-1805

Phone: (814) 865-0046
Fax:  (814) 865-8769
Email:  [log in to unmask]