2B — Thursday, February 19, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

There’s something undeniably

alluring about the past. Even in
our frenzied chase for the future —
designing computers in our base-
ments and making waves in the
stock market — we somehow still
find ourselves stumbling into vin-
tage stores, lingering over dusty
books and running our fingers
through moth-eaten velvet. Part of
it is pure nostalgia, an unshakeable
longing for the retro, the rustic, the
renaissance — but no matter if you
are a multimillionaire or a whim-
sical 20-something, there are no
flights to ancient Greece or Paris
circa 1950. Instead, we must learn
our history through the artifacts
left behind, dug up and dusted off.

If you are Bill Gates, you may

spend nearly $31 million on “The
Codex Leicester,” the most famous
of Leonardo Da Vinci’s scientific
manuscripts. Or perhaps you are
a literature fan like Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen, bidding
$6 million on an original copy of
Shakespeare’s “First Folio.” Or
maybe you are just a whimsical
20-something with an empty wal-
let and a hungry mind, reaching for
the new and finding the old — as I
did at the University’s Department
of Preservation and Conservation
at the University Library.

If it sounds like the kind of place

where old Egyptians bring their
dead to be mummified, you’re not
too far off base. Instead of preserv-
ing artifacts to be buried, however,
the University conservators are
preserving ancient texts, books and
photos to be brought back to life,
either for circulation or restricted
use in University libraries, as well
as for personal requests. They are
the
behind-the-scenes
wizards

responsible for making documents
legible under thick museum glass,
keeping aged encyclopedias from
falling apart on the Hatcher Grad-
uate Library shelf and resurrecting
panoramic photographs of Detroit
circa 1860.

“This is why we have the cool-

est job in the world,” said Shannon
Zachary, the head of the depart-
ment of preservation and conserva-
tion, smiling. “We get to do what no
one else can.”

I arranged to meet Zachary

at the department lab on a frigid
morning in early February — the
hour when the conservators were
usually the most busy. Despite its
library affiliation, the lab is fairly
far from campus, tucked behind
Elbel Field and the train tracks. As
I hopped the rusted tracks at sun-
rise, I envisioned myself on the set
of “National Treasure” — standing
in a sterile white room, snapped
into latex gloves and surrounded by
peeling yellow documents whose

secrets could be revealed only
by magniscope. These dramatic
expectations dissolved quickly as
I entered the building and wasn’t
met with a thick FBI-issued vault,
but rather a homey workshop that
hummed with the energy of an art
studio.

It was clearly still early. The

large wooden work tables were
mostly empty as I weaved around
them, making my way to Zachary’s
office in the back corner. Stretched
from floor to ceiling of the work-
shop were racks of material rolled
up like wrapping paper, waiting to
be sheared off and stitched onto
battered books. Atop the tables
were
extensive
collections
of

exacting knives and massive paper
cutters, stiff boards and spools of
thread for book spinal repair and
an expensive-looking camera with
a giant bulb. Jutting into the cen-
ter of the room were makeshift
cubicles designated to each conser-
vator, cluttered with mismatched
stacks of ragged books and grin-
ning family photos.

A flash of color from one desk

caught my eye — at least 200 plas-
tic figurines, in varying degrees of
vibrance and age, peered out from
the shelf. It was as if I had stepped
into Santa’s workshop, except the
toys were not flashy and new and
looking to be loved — rather, they
were well-worn and faded, waiting
to be shined again.

The objects that come to the

Preservation and Conservation lab
are divided into two categories:
circulation and special collections.
Falling under the circulation group
are materials sent in for mainte-
nance — specifically damage pre-
vention or damage repair — for
the primary purpose of extending
their library shelf lives. The neces-
sary repairs can vary greatly from
book to book, making the conser-
vators take them on a case-by-case
basis. Though this attention to
detail is a trademark of the depart-
ment, with only two full-time book
repairers and just eight worksta-
tions, it seems impossible to main-
tain every University book without
some North Pole magic.

“Every repair is handmade from

start to finish, so we give priority
to rare and special books, or those
with spindly and complicated
bindings,” Zachary said. She then
picked up a red encyclopedia from
the table.

“Everything else — standard-

issued books like this, with just a
little wear and tear — are shipped

to our friends at a commercial
binding company in Cleveland,
Ohio, where they usually repair
some 35,000 books a year. You can
understand why we don’t want
to send our fragile books to that
assembly line.”

Another reason to keep the book

in the lab is if there is a specific
repair requested. Jeff Gilboe, one
of the two full-time book repairers,
works primarily with circulation
materials — books needing damage
repair and prevention, to be then
put back on library shelves and into
students’ hands. He was instructed
to attach a pocket to the hard-
backed interior of a University bird
guide, slim enough to fit a book-
mark. He demonstrates his process
with expert precision: measuring
the pocket dimensions onto sturdy
paper, cutting, hinging the paper
onto the cover flap securely. The
request seemed strange to me —
were there secret bookmark pock-
ets all over University materials? I
asked what other special orders he
received.

“The library folks love to add

things to their books,” Gilboe said,
laughing. “I have replaced pages,
put in reading supplements and
refurbished bindings in leather.”

His eyes shone with the passion

of someone who has been working
for nine years, yet is still just get-
ting started.

“We have these weekly meet-

ings where new stuff is brought
in. There’ll be a really damaged
book and everyone asks, ‘Should
we commercially rebind it?’” Gil-
boe recounted. “I’ll usually just tell
them that I can do the whole book.”

The other side of Preservation

and Conservation, special collec-
tions, is much more private in com-
parison. Materials that fall under
this category are, naturally, special:
internationally treasured book col-
lections, valuable manuscripts and

scores of archival material. The
Special Collections Library does
not circulate, but some materials
can be viewed in the reading room
on the eighth floor of the Graduate
Library. And unlike the “Restricted
Section” of the Hogwarts library —
which must be snuck into under
the cover of an invisibility cloak —
all students are welcome to view
the special collections, though they
must request materials ahead of
time.

Perhaps the most fascinating

materials in special collections
are the lengthy, tangled scrolls of
papyrus, inked with ancient sym-
bols and religious scripture. The
University currently holds the
largest papyrological collection in
North America — roughly 6,500
linear feet of archival material. The
collection was first introduced to
the University in the 1920s, when
Francis Kelsey, a former profes-
sor of Latin, (for whom the Kelsey
Museum
of
Archaeology
was

named) purchased large quanti-
ties of ancient papyri from Egypt,
much of which is still being held in
a pressurized vault in the Graduate
Library. Since then, conservators
have been arduously working to
piece together the papyri — a task
so monumental, so fragile, that
I’d imagine it would be similar to
a painter unveiling a masterpiece
composed completely of pricks of
his brush.

For Leyla Lau-Lamb, the other

book repairer, conserving papyrus
is an art — and she is unquestionably
a master, albeit an unconventional
one. Upon first meeting, Lau-Lamb
struck me as an eccentric genius
in the flesh: petite and bespeckled,
long silver hair tied at the nape of
her neck, wearing an oversized
sweater emblazoned with a star
and fuzzy striped tube socks.

“I don’t wear gloves,” Lau-Lamb

said, when asked to describe her

process. “People are always sur-
prised, since these are very old and
fragile documents. But this isn’t a
visual task; it’s a feeling one. The
papyrus that comes out of the vault
doesn’t look like a scroll — it’s more
like a tangled knot of fibers, not a
document. I use my fingers to feel
my way into it, very carefully, dis-
tinguishing between fibers making
up the vertical and horizontal lay-
ers of the page.”

Lau-Lamb’s 25-year-old meth-

od, though unconventional, works
— so much so that 10 years ago
she published a papyrus conserva-
tion guideline for the Advanced
Papyrological Information Sys-
tem (known as “APIS”) that was
printed in 25 countries and is still
actively used. Lau-Lamb laments
our society’s lack of proper school-
ing in papyrological conservation,
despite the abundance of archives
to uncover.

“There are hardly any places to

study conservation, in today’s soci-
ety and especially back in my day.
Then, there were two places to go:
England’s British Library and a
conservation workshop in Berlin.
So I went to Berlin for training,”
Lau-Lamb said.

She then grinned conspiratori-

ally, “What we need is to grab the
interest of more young people like
you. Someone needs to keep resur-
recting these old documents.”

To help foster education for bud-

ding conservators, the Preserva-
tion and Conservation Department
offers the Cathleen A. Baker Fel-
lowship, an annual $10,000 award
that enables conservators of vary-
ing expertise to work in the lab and
gain hands-on experience in the
conservation of paper-based col-
lections. The department receives
applications
from
conservators

across the country, with each appli-
cant essentially pitching his or her
project — past Fellows’ projects
have included broad investigations
of new conservation techniques,
as well as the specific use of starch
paste in book bindings — with the
ultimate goal of benefitting both
the Baker Fellow and the Univer-
sity.

This year’s Fellowship was

awarded to Halaina Demba, whose
project focus is on library and
archive conservation. When we
were introduced, Demba was hold-
ing a thick, faded-blue cookbook
titled “American Frugal House-
wife,” for which she was recon-
structing a binding. As she flipped
through the aged pages to show me

where the sewing in the spine had
unraveled, I noticed that the pages
were littered with splotches. I
asked if she intended to remove the
stains, figuring that it was common
practice in paper preservation.

“Definitely not,” Demba replied,

surprisingly. “Especially in a case
like this, where the words are
still clearly legible. These stains
— mostly oil stains, it looks like —
are what give a book, particularly a
cookbook, its character. I’ve found
little bits of onion stuck to pages,
and I keep them too.”

I laughed, at once amused and

slightly disgusted.

“There’s a difference between

an exhibit and an artifact,” Demba
continued. “Documents that are
on exhibit are there to be read —
people want to know what the U.S.
Constitution says. Here, we work
with artifacts. We want them to
maintain their utility, of course, but
more importantly we want them to
maintain their integrity. When you
wash pages of their oil stains and
onion bits, you lose this integrity.”

What happens, then, if the pur-

pose of the object is to be looked at?
Senior conservator Tom Hogarth
specializes in preserving 19th cen-
tury photographs. Like Lau-Lamb,
Hogarth beats his own path —
dressing in a bright yellow Hawai-
ian shirt to offset his shock of white
hair, he introduces himself as a
“black-and-white guy.” His current
project is mounting an 1860 pan-
oramic photo of the Detroit River,
taken from the Canadian border, to
an archival board.

Like a sly magician, Hogarth

pulled back the tissue covering the
old picture for me, pointing out the
tiny names of the ships and marvel-
ing at the photographic details that
were revolutionary for the time
period.

“Back then, people didn’t have

smartphones that could take pan-
oramic photos,” Hogarth said, a
wistful tone in his voice. “They
took photos shot by shot, then past-
ed them together to make this — it
took time. It was an art. Nowadays,
my granddaughter can do it.”

What Hogarth’s granddaugh-

ter can’t do (at least not yet) is
conserve the original panora-
ma so it lasts forever. In reality,
only a handful of people in the
world can do what the staff at the
Department of Preservation and
Conservation do — preserve our
history, close the gap a tiny bit
more between the past and our
fast-paced world of fads and for-
getting.

Perhaps our fascination with

the past can be summed up by this
question, the one I can’t seem to
shake: Why does a graying pan-
oramic photograph of Detroit
bring me to tears, when a mod-
ern version of the same picture
wouldn’t get a second glance?

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

A repairer works to restore a book at the University Library.

NYFW: BADGLEY MISCHKA

Inspired by the 1941 film “Blood and Sand,”

Mark Badgley and James Mischka attempted to
bring old Hollywood glamour to New York Fash-
ion Week. Beehives and cat eyes walked down the
runway doused in a varied combination of baroque
ornamentation and clean silhouettes. Embellished
details covered half of the line, while bare minimum
covered the other. The collection was held together
by a thin thread of inspiration, but fell apart through
execution.

Despite the overarching “muchness” of the col-

lection, the outerwear pieces shined through. The
loose red capes and structured tweed coats that
adorned few of the models’ shoulders were a signifi-
cant highlight, pointing to potential outerwear piec-
es in future collections. A floor-length cream gown
sparingly decorated with turquoise lace ornament-
ed sleeves stood out as the most successful combina-
tion of minimal and adorned in the entire line. Other
highlights included an ornate tank top and pant
combo and a “Mad Men”-style peplum tweed dress.

The idea that a collection could provide more

than one inspired style is compelling, and with more
attention to subtle differences rather than overt dis-
parities, the concept could work. Badgley Mischka
is on to something new, which is exciting and fun to
see on a runway where taking risks can be precari-
ous (see Kanye West’s Adidas line). Here’s an A-for-
effort on this collection and an encouraging nod in
the hopes that the duo continues to pursue bold con-
cepts in future collections.

-KATIE CAMPBELL

BADGLEY MISCHKA

NYFW: THOM BROWNE

The Council of Fashion Designers of Ameri-

ca (CFDA) called Thom Browne the Menswear
Designer of the Year in 2006, arguably the Oscar or
Palme d’Or of fashion. Then, in 2008, GQ agreed.
And just in 2013, CFDA decided to throw him
another. If history should teach us anything, it’s that
once your accolades need their own room in your
atelier, you are permitted to take risks – weird ones,
during Fashion Week. This year, for his F15 Collec-
tion, Browne gave us less a show and more a fune-
real future, one where the living don black and the
dead white.

In one of the Week’s stranger exhibitions, with

Nicki Minaj agape in the front row, Browne sent
his models down the runway with gender-neutral
black veils over their Burtonesque top hats, tran-
scending the dark into the sinister. High-rise lapels
barely give the loosened ties breathing room, but
it allowed for higher flaps and luxe ticket pockets
that often accentuates a well-crafted suit. With the
pockets so high (elbows and above), that leaves the
remaining fabric to drape down uninterrupted to
near-knee level. If families of Civil War casualties

had the means — and the Satanism — at that time,
they might occupy funerals with F15 Browne swag.

And, now, for the weird shit. Breeches, stock-

ings, Chelsea boots, rail-thin umbrellas, no pants at
all, tapered driving gloves, ankle-length dresses —
all black and all worn by men. There’s gall in what
Browne is doing here, yet his nuanced eye erases any
imagined disrespect he may hold for the dead. Even
if he manages to upset the departed, they’re still
dead, and we’re still looking.

-ANDREW MCCLURE

THOM BROWNE

NYFW: BAND OF OUTSIDERS

Scott Sternberg grew up a cinephile, snapping

pictures and kicking off his professional career as an
assistant at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles.
After becoming an agent and spending time in fash-
ion circles, namely with J.Crew founder Emily Scott,
in 2003 he founded Band of Outsiders (the name-
sake taken from Godard’s 1964 film). Not unlike the
French New Wave cinema that inspires his work,
Sternberg has found a liminal sweet-spot between
classics and sex appeal. Peep at his Polaroid cam-
paign with, say, Marisa Tomei, if you want to know
what I mean — less is more as she reveals almost no
skin yet exudes allure via Sternberg’s sharp cuts and
calculated draping.

In January we saw his hardware store-themed

menswear line, including hunting jackets, slim-cut
flannels and, uncharacteristic to the designer, denim
— a denim jumpsuit. This week, for his women’s line,
he also ventured a bit from his elongating, tapering
silhouettes, opting for high-slit maxis, oversized-
buttoned cardigans and Pilgrim-belted overcoats.
He’s not trying to redefine the contours of his ideal
consumer — nine-feet tall — but more interested in

well-aged classics spruced up with contemporary,
if not subtly abstract, detailing. A puffy all-denim
parka with a coyote fur hood could thrive in the Alps
or on Fifth Ave., its brighter indigo hue an unequivo-
cal nod to Levi’s before they shacked up with depart-
ment stores.

The best summary piece was a soft-sheen, deep-

navy bustier with matching fine-cut trousers —
Sternberg’s auto-chic tidiness that expresses what
everyone wants but with the humility to admit his
derivations.

-ANDREW MCCLURE

BAND OF OUTSIDERS

NYFW: J. CREW

The typical sequins and party dresses appeared

in J.Crew’s 2015 ready-to-wear collection, along-
side the less expected tailored onesies and wide
leg trousers that also came down the runway dur-
ing Tuesday’s show. The J.Crew collection is only
sold at select stores around the country, so what’s
shown at Fashion Week is not necessarily what
you may see at your typical mall.

For the autumn/winter show, though, womens-

wear designer Tom Mora created voluminous wool
trousers and multi-colored feather minis for a line
that differs from the traditionally preppy collections
in the past. However, the clothes are better fit for
creative director Jenna Lyons rather than an over-
achieving college student.

Bright yellows and blush pinks showed up in

random pops of fur and luxurious turtlenecks. Geo-
metric designs and stripes in navy and white com-
plemented structured groutfit. Even the denim and
sequins were revamped into maxi skirts and uncon-
ventional blazers. The coats and jackets were the
highlight of the show, ranging from dramatic furs to
patterned double-breasted classics.

Of course, navy sweaters over button-down

dresses were spread throughout and a clean camel
coat also popped up. But even the classic pumps and
sandals featured cheetah print or eye-popping yel-
low tassels.

The collection was not a total standout, but the

deliberate choice to include dramatic silhouettes
and unexpected colors was an important move for
J.Crew. The classic turtleneck has never looked so
cool.

-MARA MACLEAN

J. CREW

PRESERVATION
From Page 1B

“Every repair is

handmade.”

“Here, we work
with artifacts.”