Whitney Baker, Preserving Artifacts of Free Speech: Caring for Political Memorabilia (Harvard Library Preservation Services)

Harvard Library Preservation Services invites you to attend the brown bag presentation!

Connecting to Collections Care presented a recent webinar on caring for political memorabilia, such as broadsides, posters, banners, buttons, pins, bumper stickers, decals, and plaques. Many political materials are ephemeral, made out of poor-quality materials and not meant to last more than a few months. Baker discussed real-life examples of political memorabilia and solutions for their preservation. Suggested materials and supplies focused on a cost-effective and simple collections care approach.

Whitney Baker is the Head of Conservation Services at the University of Kansas Libraries, where she oversees conservation treatment, program-level preservation projects, environmental monitoring, audiovisual preservation, and disaster preparedness and response. In addition, she has taught the preventive conservation class in the graduate program in Museum Studies at the University of Kansas since 2004. She holds an MLIS and Advanced Certificate in Library and Archives Conservation from the University of Texas at Austin. She has published and presented on various conservation topics, from standard book conservation practices, to disaster planning and response, to bumper stickers, and is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation.

Feel free to bring your lunch. If you do not have a Harvard ID, RSVP to preserve_wpc@harvard.edu to be added to the guest list.