Doing Science with the Mini-Lab to Analyze Rare Items

Amanda Satorius (preservation science specialist in the Library's Preservation Research and Testing Division) shows Kelsey Beeghly (2023-2024 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow) and Micherlange Hemsley (2024 Junior Fellow in PRTD) how material identification research can be used to make inferences about how items were used hundreds of years ago. PRTD's Go Team and portable mini-lab, which consists of different tools that measure properties of materials for identification, support the Library in learning more about its collection items and provide useful information to researchers that aid in interpretation of an object and contribute to historical understanding. For this project, the mini-lab was taken to the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections reading room to investigate an ink found within a 18th century artist's manual, before thought to have been stored on a shelf as a symbol of wealth, and not used by its owner. With careful measurement and analysis, Amanda and Go Team members were able to provide evidence that the red ink in the book was made using the recipe written out in that chapter, suggesting that the person in possession of the book actually did read the book and was testing out the recipe. Students can explore analytical chemistry at home or in the classroom by using a magnifying glass, small USB microscope, or mini colorimeter to investigate the properties of any object of interest, such as a pigment made from natural sources.

For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11377