Understanding of materials evolves, and sometimes procedures that were intended to preserve collection objects must be undone. In this photograph, a layer of silk adhered to the back of a page of the manuscript of A Christmas Carol is being carefully removed by a paper conservator in the Thaw Conservation Center. In the early twentieth century, “silking” was believed to strengthen paper. It is now known that silk and the adhesive used to attach it can become brittle, interfering with the natural robustness of handmade paper. “Desilking” the paper leaves it more flexible and more likely to endure for many years to come.
Conservator desilking a sheet from Charles Dickens (1812–1870), A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, autograph manuscript, December 1843. MA 97. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–-1913) before 1900.