In an exhibition review at The Henry Ford, it was noted that the mount for Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, was causing strain. Removed from the exhibit for a week, the project included minor conservation work on where the sharp edge of the plastic strips had damaged the paper and creating a new mount that would support the book pages, along with the damaged tail edge.
Common Sense, 1776
The book on its mount before re-installation
The new mount consists of one large flat piece of archival mountboard with six additional layers of mountboard glued together with archival PVA, added onto the left side in order to account for the opening to the first page
Left side of the mount
The right side of the mount with the majority of the book
Top view of the mount
A black lip was added to the left side of the board to account for the roughness of the tail edge on the right, allowing the book to rest on the lip, and avoid the pages resting on the ledge
The tissue around the lip was colored black to blend in
Minor repairs done with a thin repair tissue and paste where mylar strips cut the paper at the edge
The book as it is being re-installed
The book and its new mount back in the exhibit's case, with its glass covering