Meet the expert

We are pleased to announce that Conservation intern Julie Sommerfeldt, has been offered a two year contract as a Book Conservator at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.

As well as being a great achievement for Julie, it is also a huge success for the Conservation Funded Internship programme. Supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Headley Trust, this programme offers newly qualified conservators the chance to develop their skills by spending a year working in the Library's world-class facilities, greatly enhancing their career prospects.

Julie’s new post will involve working on a project to conserve an 18th century pamphlet collection. 

Sheila Furrer joined the Library’s Conservation department in 1989.

Sheila has conserved mostly manuscripts and is learning how to work on other materials. “I enjoy learning new conservation methods and working with different colleagues allows me to work on a variety of items such as maps. I have never worked on photographs and I look forward to doing so in the future.”

Sheila Furrer with a map of Sierra Leone.

The most challenging item Sheila has worked on were the Trumbull Papers from the 16th century. The volume had a lot of mold and some of the pages were unreadable. It took Sheila, together with another conservator, six months to complete the conservation work.

“There are always new conservation methods and research surfacing and that makes the job varied and interesting.”

Frances Sanwell has been part of the Library’s Conservation department for thirty years.

Frances is currently conserving newspapers from the Burney Collection of Newspapers, the Library’s largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media spanning 700 volumes.

The process of splitting, washing, de-acidifying, repairing and binding the collection is a long-term project. The particular newspapers Frances has been working on are from July-August 1776 and will take her approximately 500 hours to conserve.

“It takes a lot of patience to be a conservator! I enjoy working with my hands-I especially enjoy sewing books, and I get great satisfaction when I finish a project.”

Frances Sanwell with the Burney Collection of Newspapers. 

Conservation is Iwona Jurkiewicz’s second career after being a primary school teacher for over ten years. She studied Conservation at Camberwell College of Arts and then earned an MA in Paper Conservation, specialising in Architectural Works.

When Iwona joined the Library in 2004, she began conserving manuscripts, later moving on to conserving loan and exhibition items, and most recently focusing on photographic and philatelic materials.

Here, Iwona gives us an insight into her current work on a collection of over 250 palm leaves.

“The palm leaves I am working on are from the 17th century and are worm eaten. A number of leaves are broken and the text is lost.”

Iwona Jurkiewicz conserving palm leaves from the 17th century.

Iwona estimates that it takes over one hour to conserve one leaf, depending on the damage. The process can be much longer, but the use of a special machine shortens the process, and the end result is a more supple, easier to handle leaf which ultimately gives better access to readers.

Support conservation at the Library now, and help world-class conservators protect our heritage.