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Photos available for download
Preservation Education Curriculum Image Library

Images have been provided to assist you in illustrating most of the lessons. This collection should not be considered the definitive source for preservation images. Rather, use it to enhance your presentations and perhaps update some of your existing images. NEDCC is grateful to the many vendors and institutions—libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies—that were willing to share their photographs for this project.

These photographs are available as 72 dpi JPEG files, which can be downloaded for multimedia presentations in the classroom. You can view the caption and copyright notice for each photograph when you view the enlarged image. These images are to be used for educational purposes only and should not be published without permission from the copyright holder.

Click on the classes (left) to view image thumbnails.
Click on a thumbnail to enlarge the image.

1727 petition to Governor Dummer of Massachusetts, before treatment. A well-meaning but misguided person applied self-adhesive tape to both sides of the document in an attempt to mend tears and stabilize it overall. Self-adhesive tapes should never be applied to materials of lasting value. 727 Petition to Governor Dummer, after treatment. Treatment: Self-adhesive tapes were removed in a series of solvent baths. The document was washed, alkalized, mended, and backed with very thin Japanese paper.
 
  This photographic portrait, a crayon enlargement, was mutilated by vandals. It was extensively torn with areas missing, and had been previously stained from light exposure. Crayon enlargement portrait after treatment. Treatment: The photograph was washed in a bath of filtered water. Staining was reduced by controlled exposure to artificial light. Tears were mended on the reverse, and remaining paper losses were filled using a leaf caster. It was then backed with Japanese paper and dried and flattened. Losses were inpainted with dry pigments and watercolor. Japanese decorative fans, before treatment. Eighteen Japanese decorative fan paintings had been mounted on the ceiling of the Japanese Room of the Longfellow House in the late 19th century, when coal-fired furnaces were in use.
 
  Japanese decorative fans, after treatment. Treatment: Heavy layers of dirt and soot were removed, as were old ceiling paper backings. Breaks and tears were mended, and the fans were relined. No water was used in this treatment. View of the City of Lawrence, Mass., before treatment. This lithograph was adhered to a thick tan cardboard backing. The perimeter of the print had been trimmed, and there were small losses to the top left corner. It had large, dark water stains and was discolored and weakened overall due to oxidation. A 9-inch-long complex tear extending horizontally had been retouched. View of the City of Lawrence, Mass., after treatment. Treatment: The object was surface cleaned and then separated from its cardboard backing. After determining that the medium would permit washing, the object was immersed in a water bath, deacidified, and backed with Japanese paper. Finally it was flattened and dried on a drying screen. Staining was reduced by controlled exposure to artificial light. Abraham Lincoln portrait by J. G. Chandler (1865), before treatment. This varnished oil painting on paper was lined with decayed fabric, which was stretched over an oval wooden stretcher and secured with rusted iron tacks. Distortion and numerous paint losses were a result of exposure to moisture. Abraham Lincoln portrait by J. G. Chandler (1865), after treatment. Treatment: The fabric was removed. The paper support was backed with Japanese paper. After flattening, paint losses were retouched.