Our Mission

The mission of Etherington Conservation Services is to offer high quality, economical, and timely preservation and conservation services for libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other collection holding institutions, as well as for individuals and private collectors. Our goal is to provide professional conservation treatment of books, documents, art on paper, and photographs from single items to large collections.

Services

• Conservation, restoration and period rebinding of books. Treatments range from minimal intervention to complex conservation including aqueous treatment.
• Conservation of works of art on paper, vellum and parchment documents and photographs.
• Conservation matting and framing.
• Deacidification and polyester film encapsulation.
• Custom designed enclosures (clamshell boxes, phase boxes, display cases, and other types of protective enclosures).
• Disaster recovery including fire, water, mold and insect damaged materials.
• Consultations, collection surveys and training.
• Archival photocopying and brittle book replacement.
• Scanning and digital reformatting including digital restoration of photographs.
• Custom fine binding and edition binding.

Clients and Recent Projects

• American University of Cairo: Survey and restoration of Hassan Fathy Collection of architectural drawings.
• Arizona State University: Conservation of architectural drawings, photographs and other special collection materials, including custom housing for compact discs and cassettes from the music collection.
• Biltmore House: Conservation treatment and reframing of works of art on paper and restoration of rare books.
• Czech Republic: Conservation survey of the Lobkowicz Collection of medieval manuscripts, incunabula and rare books.
• Library of Virginia: Conservation of rare books, archival and manuscripts collections, and cartographic materials. Treatment and rehousing of Virginia’s Bill of Rights, 1791; The Surrender of Gen. Cornwallis, 1789; Schedel’s Nuremburg Chronicle, 1493. Staffing of LVA's on-site paper conservation lab.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Restoration of oversized art and architectural books from the 18th and 19th Centuries.
• National Archives: Consultation on rehousing and display of the Charters of Freedom which include the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
• North Carolina Museum of Art and University of Pittsburgh: Conservation and rehousing of plates from Audubon’s double elephant folio, Birds of America, 1831-1834.
• Ohio State University: conservation and restoration of 15th and 16th century books.
• United States Supreme Court: Archival photocopy reproduction and rebinding of law books.
• Yale University: Restoration of rare books from Special Collections and from the collections of the Elizabethan Club.