Peter Waters
Encyclopedia
Peter Waters former Conservation Officer at the Library of Congress
in Washington, DC, USA, worked in the areas of disaster recovery and preparedness, and the salvage of water-damaged paper goods. His published works, specifically "Procedures for Salvage of Water Damaged Library Materials", are considered the standard for this area of conservation.
, Surrey
, England
, Peter Waters began his formal education in 1945 at the Guildford College of Art, Surrey, where he studied bookbinding
under the instruction of William Matthews. He then went on to study at the Royal College of Art
in 1949 and eventually teach at the Farnham School of Art and the Royal College of Art
.
While at the Royal College of Art, Waters became a close friend and associate of his tutor Roger Powell
, a well known preservationist and bookbinder whose work includes the 1953 restoration of The Book of Kells. At the RCA, Waters also met his future wife, Sheila, who was soon to become one of the foremost calligraphers and map designers in the world. In 1957 Peter Waters and Roger Powell formed a professional partnership in book binding and conservation at the bindery in Hampshire
. They produced many acclaimed designer bindings for museums and collectors, often aided by Sheila who made many drawings and designs for stamping engravings. Powell and Waters were called upon to restore many rare books, including The Book of Durrow
, the Books of Dimma and Armagh, and the Lichfield Gospels
. Waters eventually took over Powell's position at the Royal College of Art and remained there until he and his family moved to the United States in 1971. A DVD entitled "Peter Waters, Master Bookbinder" has been produced featuring his early bindings from student days to the mid 1960s, prior to the Florence
flood.
In 1971, Waters was appointed the Conservation Officer and Chief of the Conservation Division at the United States Library of Congress
in Washington, DC. Under Waters' supervision, a new conservation lab was created so as to allow for the restoration of many of the items found in the Library of Congress's huge collection of library materials, artifacts and cultural archives.
Waters remained at the Library of Congress until 1995 when he retired, although he remained an active member of the conservation community and served on the National Archives Preservation Committee and was a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
Waters died on June 26 of mesothelioma
-related heart failure. It is believed that he developed this form of cancer, which is strongly linked with exposure to asbestos
, while working on preservation efforts throughout his life.
and Palatina were among the more valuable.5 Waters lead a preservation effort, with the support of the Council on Library Resources and James Lewis of Imperial College, London, to preserve the BNCF's materials that included a multi-phase restoration effort to clean, dry and re-bind some of the library's valuable and rare books. Waters was also in charge of training and managing over 120 volunteers, referred to as "mud angels", during the duration of his stay, and he designed all the work stations which were used by the conservation staff over many years following the flood.2
, who was also protégé of the distinguished type designer Hermann Zapf
. 2
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in Washington, DC, USA, worked in the areas of disaster recovery and preparedness, and the salvage of water-damaged paper goods. His published works, specifically "Procedures for Salvage of Water Damaged Library Materials", are considered the standard for this area of conservation.
Biography
Born in 1930 in WokingWoking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Peter Waters began his formal education in 1945 at the Guildford College of Art, Surrey, where he studied bookbinding
Bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block.-Origins of the book:...
under the instruction of William Matthews. He then went on to study at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
in 1949 and eventually teach at the Farnham School of Art and the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
.
While at the Royal College of Art, Waters became a close friend and associate of his tutor Roger Powell
Roger Powell (bookbinder)
Roger Powell OBE was an English bookbinder.Powell was born in London. He was educated at Bedales School, of which his father was co-founder. He served as a signals officer in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and then became a poultry farmer. In 1930 he began training as a bookbinder at the...
, a well known preservationist and bookbinder whose work includes the 1953 restoration of The Book of Kells. At the RCA, Waters also met his future wife, Sheila, who was soon to become one of the foremost calligraphers and map designers in the world. In 1957 Peter Waters and Roger Powell formed a professional partnership in book binding and conservation at the bindery in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. They produced many acclaimed designer bindings for museums and collectors, often aided by Sheila who made many drawings and designs for stamping engravings. Powell and Waters were called upon to restore many rare books, including The Book of Durrow
Book of Durrow
The Book of Durrow is a 7th-century illuminated manuscript gospel book in the Insular style. It was probably created between 650 and 700, in Northumbria in Northern England, where Lindisfarne or Durham would be the likely candidates, or on the island of Iona in the Scottish Inner Hebrides...
, the Books of Dimma and Armagh, and the Lichfield Gospels
Lichfield Gospels
The Lichfield Gospels is an eighth century Insular Gospel Book housed in Lichfield Cathedral. There are 236 surviving folios, eight of which are illuminated. Another four contain framed text...
. Waters eventually took over Powell's position at the Royal College of Art and remained there until he and his family moved to the United States in 1971. A DVD entitled "Peter Waters, Master Bookbinder" has been produced featuring his early bindings from student days to the mid 1960s, prior to the Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
flood.
In 1971, Waters was appointed the Conservation Officer and Chief of the Conservation Division at the United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in Washington, DC. Under Waters' supervision, a new conservation lab was created so as to allow for the restoration of many of the items found in the Library of Congress's huge collection of library materials, artifacts and cultural archives.
Waters remained at the Library of Congress until 1995 when he retired, although he remained an active member of the conservation community and served on the National Archives Preservation Committee and was a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
Waters died on June 26 of mesothelioma
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma, more precisely malignant mesothelioma, is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, the mesothelium...
-related heart failure. It is believed that he developed this form of cancer, which is strongly linked with exposure to asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
, while working on preservation efforts throughout his life.
Significance to preservation
From the beginning of his conservation career, Peter Waters' work was both ground breaking and sought after by libraries all over the world. Dealing primarily with disaster preparedness, Waters was instrumental in developing recovery plans for large natural disasters affecting libraries and archives, most notably "Procedures for Salvage of Water Damaged Library Materials"1, which was originally published in 1975 and revised in 1993. Of all of Waters' conservation efforts, his work with the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze after the Arno River Flood in Florence, Italy in November 1966, and the Library of Congress as Conservation Officer are the most well known.Arno River Flood, 1966
In the aftermath of the Arno River Flood, thousands of books housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze (BNCF) were left damaged by water, dirt and oil. Because of its location, the BNCF experienced some of the worst damage in Florence and materials were literally shoveled into trucks to be dried out in tobacco kilns before being returned to the BNCF for further preservation.4 Of the collections, the MagliabechianaAntonio Magliabechi
Antonio Magliabechi was an Italian librarian, scholar and bibliophile.-Biography:He was born at Florence, the son of a burgher named Marco Magliabechi, and Ginevra Baldorietta....
and Palatina were among the more valuable.5 Waters lead a preservation effort, with the support of the Council on Library Resources and James Lewis of Imperial College, London, to preserve the BNCF's materials that included a multi-phase restoration effort to clean, dry and re-bind some of the library's valuable and rare books. Waters was also in charge of training and managing over 120 volunteers, referred to as "mud angels", during the duration of his stay, and he designed all the work stations which were used by the conservation staff over many years following the flood.2
Library of Congress
Appointed the Conservation Officer and Chief of the Conservation Division at the Library of Congress in 1971, Waters began a long and illustrious career aiding the United States' largest library in its conservation efforts and has been dubbed the "father of American Library Conservation."7 Within a few years of his placement, Waters had developed new conservation programs including the point system, "whereby the Library's custodial divisions were assigned a budget of treatment hours in a given year, which were reasonably committed through ongoing liaison with senior conservators on his staff2", and the popular "phased preservation" technique. Hailed as the most effective and non-invasive treatment of large collections of deteriorating materials, phased preservation, "emphasizes actions that have the greatest impact on the preservation of collections as a whole, rather than concentrating on treating individual items and includes surveys to establish priorities, disaster planning, environmental controls, and holdings maintenance."6 Waters is also credited with inspiring his son Michael Waters and daughter-in-law Carmen Waters, to develop computerized box-making machinery and software to produce archival custom boxes. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=6245004&OS=6245004&RS=6245004 Peter and Sheila Waters' other sons are Chris Waters, owner of Multimedia solutions, Maryland: and Julian Waters (calligrapher)Julian Waters (calligrapher)
Julian Waters is a calligrapher, type designer and teacher. He was born in Hampshire, England and is the son of calligrapher Sheila Waters and book binder/conservator Peter Waters....
, who was also protégé of the distinguished type designer Hermann Zapf
Hermann Zapf
Hermann Zapf is a German typeface designer who lives in Darmstadt, Germany. He is married to calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse....
. 2
See also
- Preservation: Library and Archival Science
- Library and Information ScienceLibrary and information scienceLibrary and information science is a merging of the two fields library science and information science...
- Archival scienceArchival scienceArchival science is the theory and study of storing, cataloguing, and retrieving documents and items. Archival science evolved from mankind's need to classify the world around them...
- Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze
- Flood of the River Arno in Florence
- Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...