Arhivski vjesnik, No. 38, 1995.
Professional paper
Forty Years of Conservation and Restoration in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb
Tatjana Mušnjak
Abstract
Central Laboratory for conservation and restoration was established on the 11th November 1954. Facts of activities and events that preceded the establishing, had never been systematicly notified or rewieved. In her paper, author begins because of that, with a short history survey on some of those activities.
Laboratory is specialized for restoration of documents recorded on paper, parchment and leather. It also has a bookbindery for older bindings. Laboratory satisfies needs, not only of the Croatian State Archives but as well, of all other owners of written documents in Croatia: regional archives, libraries, museums, religeous communities and other organizations on scientific and cultural field.
From establishment of Central Laboratory for conservation and restoration and bookbindery up to the end of 1994, there have been, in total, 538.331 items repaired and restored, 7.980 books bounden, 1.413 protective boxes made, 3.081 protective folders of various material for special forms of archival material (documents on parchment with the hanging wax- seals, very old and valuable books, etc.) and 160 passe-partout for paintings and graphics.
In 1986, Central laboratory drafted a plan of development for the conservation and restoration service on archive field by analyzing level of damage on archives of all owners in Croatia. Those analyses showed, that in the moment of investigation, cca 10.000.000 leaves demanded some kind of conservation and repair. Unfortunately, meanwhile situation became worse. During the aggression toward Croatia a great sizes of archives have been damaged. According to present estimates and knowledge, about 500.000 leaves are damaged, and that is not final result.
From the very beginning of the war, Laboratory was included in salvation and restoration of imperilled archives and those evacuated from Croatian territories under war. The priority has been given to the most valuable archives: church and civil register books, cadastre and glagolitic documents.
The Laboratory has eight employees in a very cramped quarters, and équipement is partly outdated and deficient. Its development program expects increasing of space, more experts and foundation of Laboratory for Chemistry and Microbiology which will carry scientific research on the field of preservation of archives.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
65460
URI
Publication date:
30.11.1995.
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