Training and Supplies for the Queens College Rare Book Collection

FAIN: PG-266653-19

CUNY Research Foundation, Queens College (Flushing, NY 11367-1575)
Annie Tummino (Project Director: January 2019 to May 2022)

The purchase of supplies and on-site training for staff to create custom enclosures for 500 rare books, representing the most fragile items from the college’s 2,600 volumes used to support research and teaching in the history of print culture in Europe and the United States.  Particular strengths of the collection include nineteenth-century expedition reports from the American West, late nineteenth-century American dime novels and juvenile fiction, and first editions of the works of Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, and D. H. Lawrence.  The custom enclosures would preserve the books and allow for renewed access to the material after they have been remediated for mold, as identified by a previous assessment.

Queens College's Department of Special Collections and Archives is home to a rare book collection (over 2,500 volumes) that demonstrates the history of print culture over the past 600 years. The collection has significant potential as an educational resource for a diverse range of students, faculty, and researchers. The NEH grant will support purchase of supplies to better preserve the collection, as well as hiring consultants to conduct on-site trainings for staff and graduate students. Goals of the project include placing 500 fragile volumes in protective boxes, increasing the knowledge and skills of staff who manage the rare book collection, and offering a unique professional development opportunity for graduate students interested in preservation.