The Chinese Rubbings Project began at The Field Museum in 2005 and was envisioned as a multi-phase endeavor to physically stabilize the rubbings and to increase access to and awareness of the collection overall. The activities included in the project were: cataloguing the 935 previously uncatalogued rubbings; conserving both the previously uncatalogued rubbings as well as other particularly fragile rubbings in the collection; rehousing approximately 5,000 rubbings that had been in severely overcrowded storage for decades; digitally imaging the entire collection; and creating a website and associated database to make the collection more accessible to researchers and the general public.
Conservation
The conservation component of the project began with stabilizing the 935 uncatalogued rubbings. These rubbings were tightly folded into small packages and stored in the original envelopes that were used when they were collected by Bertold Laufer in the early 1900s. The poor storage conditions and inappropriate unfolding and re-folding resulted in many tears, losses and weaknesses throughout the brittle paper. Their condition and inaccessibility prohibited examination of most of these rubbings; conservation treatment was necessary to unfold, stabilize, catalogue and integrate these fragile rubbings with the rest of the collection.
The treatment of the rubbings was broken down into three general categories: reduction of surface dirt, humidification to reduce folds and creases, and repair and stabilization of tears and losses. Loose surface dirt on the back of the rubbings was reduced using soft brushes and/or dry cleaning sponges and kneaded erasers. Care was taken to identify and preserve any grit, small twigs or plant fibers that might have come from the original stone or inscription when the rubbing was made. Humidification was necessary to unfold and flatten the rubbings not only for cataloguing and study purposes, but to also improve their long-term preservation by storing them flat in conservation quality folders. The humidification and flattening of the rubbings was done judiciously in order to preserve the inherent textures and planar distortions that were created when the rubbing paper was pressed into the surface of the original inscription during manufacture. These textures and distortions are unique and characteristic to each rubbing. Unfortunately, non-original creases were also pressed into the papers over the years due to mishandling and improper storage. These creases were reduced by the introduction of humidity with Gore-Tex® and allowed to dry under blotter paper and weight.
