Conserving Dr. Rees’ Cyclopaedia

Washing “Dr. Rees’s New Cyclopaedia”Bo

Roger Williams completed an internship with the Smithsonian Libraries in the Book Conservation Lab while finishing his masters degree in Conservation of Books & Library Materials at the West Dean College in the United Kingdom (UK). During his internship, Mr. Williams was able to apply the skills and knowledge he’s learned in school in a professional environment, as well as witness the inner workings of a major conservation lab.

The majority of his time spent there was spent working on a volume of the first American edition of Dr. Rees’s New Cyclopaedia. His goal was to make the book stable and accessible while changing as little about it as possible since it had been in bad condition.

Read more on his experience at the Book Conservation Lab here.