10 Years, 10 Treatments: An exhibit of conservation treatments from the Duke University Libraries Conservation Laboratory

Whitman papers before treatment

This collection of 142 letters from Louisa Whitman to her son Walt Whitman were written between 1860 and 1873. In them Mrs. Whitman chats with her son, telling him of her daily routine, family news and other similar matters. The letters were bound into beautiful leather bindings by the famous English bookbinders Sangorski and Sutcliffe.

Some of the letters are very brittle and had damage to the folds and to the text where acidic ink ate through the pages. Conservation repaired the letters so they could be digitized by the Digital Production Center as part of a grant-funded project.