Arts & Culture

When bad things happen to good books

Students examine books from a teaching collection, as Book Conservator Katherine Beaty shows the different ways that books can be damaged over time. Photos by Scott Murry

Tenzin Dickie

Harvard Library Communications

December 15, 2025

3 min read

GenEd class takes students to Weissman Preservation Center to see what they do about it

Sent through the laundry. Torn by paper-clips. Eaten by insects. Bitten by a dog. Dog-eared to death. These are just some of the ways that books can be damaged, as seen on a recent afternoon at the Weissman Preservation Center.

Students in “Texts in Transition,” a GenEd class taught by Professors Ann Blair and Leah Whittington, were visiting the Weissman Preservation Center to witness textual preservation firsthand. Their course explores how written works are transmitted through time, posing the question: How can we make sure that what we write today will survive into the future?

Conservators play a vital role in this process. Their work — repairing torn manuscripts, mending broken spines, mitigating insect damage, and so on — ensures the survival of texts from antiquity to the present.

“At the Weissman Preservation Center, students learn what happens behind the scenes when conservators step in to keep materials usable and preserve them for the future,” said Whittington, professor of English and director of undergraduate studies in the English Department.

Book Conservator Amanda Hegarty shows how a sewing frame works when binding or repairing book spines.

Weissman Preservation Center staff prepared a display of various kinds of paper and parchment from their teaching collection, so students can see, and touch, the materiality of the texts.

Senior Paper Conservator Eliza Spauling asks students to guess the three sources of ink, which the students get right: minerals, plants, and insects.

“Harvard Library not only has remarkable materials gathered over generations but also expert staff who allow students to experience these treasures up close and from new perspectives,” added Blair, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor in the History Department.

As students handled the papers, parchments, and pigments before them, they investigated the clues manuscripts offer researchers and the complexities of preservation. “What happens when the original material is no longer available?” one student asked.

“Any intervention we make must be stable and compatible with the object,” explained Eliza Spaulding, Helen H. Glaser Senior Paper Conservator. “We always respect the integrity of the materials and only make changes that can be reversed. The principle of reversibility is central to our conservation ethics.”

The class concluded with a close-looking exercise. Using raking lights, pocket microscopes, and loupes, students examined manuscripts on the table, marveling at iridescent inks and the fine fibers of the pages.

One student, enthusiastic about her discoveries, set up her phone to photograph the vibrant colors and magnified text. Turning to senior rare book conservator Jody Beenk, she declared, “I think I have found my career.”