george washington's last will and testament: the manuscript and a pioneering restoration

Maney Publishing

George Washington's Last will and Testament: The Manuscript and a Pioneering RestorationAuthor(s): Christine SmithSource: Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Spring, 2007), pp.1-14Published by: Maney Publishing on behalf of The American Institute for Conservation of Historic &Artistic WorksStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40026531 .

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GEORGE WASHINGTON'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: THE MANUSCRIPT AND A PIONEERING RESTORATION

CHRISTINE SMITH

ABSTRACT- George Washington's Last Will and Testament is considered a national treasure. The 44- page holographic manuscript, in the custody of the county clerk, was kept in the Fairfax, Virginia courthouse until early in the Civil War, when it was removed for safekeeping. By war's end, it had suffered considerably, and subsequent display led to further damage, followed by crude preservation. Between 1909 and 1916, manuscript restorer William Berwick performed a state-of-the-art treatment, which preserved the will for nearly a century. Berwick's treatment techniques also influenced the conservation of manuscripts well into the 20th century.

TITRE - Le testament de George Washington: le manuscrit et sa restauration RESUME - Le testament de George Washington est considere comme un tresor national parce que ce manuscrit holographique de quarante-quatre pages est le dernier message "du pere de son pays" a ses concitoyens. Le document a ete preserve au palais de justice de Fairfax en Virginie jusqu'au debut de la guerre de Secession lorsqu'il fut place ailleurs pour sa sauvegarde. A la fin de la guerre, il avait considerablement souffert, et les expositions subsequentes engendrerent d'autres dommages et des restaurations assez grossieres. Entre 1909 et 1916, le restaurateur de manuscrits William Berwick executa un traitement avant-garde pour l'epoque qui preserva le testament pendant presque un siecle. Berwick etait internationalement renomme et ses techniques de traitement influencerent la conservation des documents manuscrits pendant une bonne partie du 20eme siecle.

TITULO - El testamento y ultima voluntad de George Washington: El manuscrito y una restauracion pionera RESUMEN - El testamento y ultima voluntad de George Washington es considerado un tesoro nacional porque este manuscrito holografico de 44 paginas es el mensaje final del "padre de la patria" a sus ciudadanos. El documentos fue guardado en la corte de Fairfax, Virginia hasta principios de la Guerra Civil de los E.E. U.U. cuando fue removido por su seguridad. Hacia el final de la guerra el documento habia sufrido considerablemente, y exhibi- ciones subsecuentes le infringieron mayor dafio y una preservacion pobre. Entre 1909 y 1916 William Berwick, restaurador del manuscrito, realizo un tratamiento de conservacion de alta tecnologia el cual preservo el documento por casi un siglo. Por ser internacionalmente renombrado, las tecnicas utilizadas en el tratamiento de Berwick influenciaron

los tratamientos de conservacion realizados durante buena parte del siglo XX.

TITULO - O Testamento de George Washington: o manuscrito e uma restauracao pioneira RESUMO - O Testamento de George Washington e considerado um tesouro nacional porque o manuscrito holografico de 44 paginas e a ultima mensagem do "pai da Patria" a seus cidadaos. O documento foi mantido no Tribunal de Justica de Fairfax, Virginia, ate o inicio da Guerra Civil, quando foi removido por questoes de seguranca. Ao fim da guerra ele havia sido consideravelmente danificado, e exposicoes posteriores intensificaram esses danos, grosseiramente preservados. Entre 1909 e 1916 o restaurador de manuscritos William Berwick realizou um tratamento segundo os parametros mais modernos da epoca, o que preservou o testamento por quase de um seculo. Gracas a seu reconhecimento internacional, as tecnicas utilizadas por Berwick no tratamento, influenciaram a conservacao de manuscritos por muitos anos no seculo XX.

1. INTRODUCTION

Although not in poor health on July 9, 1799, when he wrote what would be the final version of his will, 67-year-old General George Washington had lived longer than many of his contemporaries; his real property, investments, material goods, and slaves required careful distribution. Without legal counsel, he wrote that in addition to gifts for friends and family, his assets be used to free, educate, and support his slaves, and to establish schools for orphans, the poor, and "youth of fortune and talents from all parts" (fig. l).The projects were to be financed by selling stock, livestock, and land that stretched from New York down through Virginia and west into Ohio and Kentucky, all described in the schedule of property that he appended.

In January, 1800, the will was presented by the executors to the Fairfax County Court, in whose custody it remains. Because Washington had been venerated for decades, the nation was keen to know his final wishes. A transcription was printed for public distribution just days after probate and has remained in print ever since (Abbot 1989, 1999; Henriques 1999).

Six decades later, during the Civil War, the will was spirited through enemy lines, buried under coal, and taken to the capital of the Confederacy. After the war, it was returned to Fairfax Courthouse, and put on permanent, open display. "It was freely

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Fig. 1 . Page 1 after recent treatment. Courtesy of John T. Frey, Clerk of Fairfax County Circuit Court

handled... until the edges became frayed, great holes appeared, and almost every sheet split in the creases" (Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1917) Crude attempts were made to repair the damage, but expert attention was needed.

William Berwick, restorer of manuscripts at the nearby Library of Congress, was contracted to restore the will in 1909. Berwick was skilled and conscien- tious, and his work protected the will for nearly a century. Because he was internationally renowned and instructed staff at institutions across the country, his treatment techniques influenced the conservation of manuscripts well into the 20th century.

In this article, the term "preservation" encom- passes all attempts to save the will. "Restoration" is sometimes used to refer to William Berwick's work, since his title was "Restorer" and he thought of his work as "repair" or "restoration." However, his work set the standard for his time, and even by today's stan- dards is recognized to be skillful and knowledgeable; therefore, it is considered to be "conservation," that is, work based on serious study, committed practice, and full engagement with the various factors bearing on preservation of a certain body of artifacts.

2. THE WILL'S EARLY HISTORY

In iron gall ink script that is confident, energetic, and clear, Washington wrote over both sides of 22 small sheets of fine quality stationery. (The entire manuscript consists of 29 pages of will, a blank page, a 13-page schedule of property, and a page with inscriptions from the probate court.) Fate dictated that five months later, on December 13, 1799, he was overcome by what is believed to have been a rare throat infection, and a day later he knew he was dying (Wallenborn 1999). Washington directed his wife to retrieve two wills from his desk and selected one for her to burn. On December 14th, his struggle ended.

The will was probated on January 20, 1800, at the Fairfax County Courthouse, then located in the city of Alexandria. The court had described the building as "unfit to transact business in" and moved opera- tions to a space over the city market, so the will may have been stored over the market or entrusted to the clerk or a justice until a new building, westward in the expanding county, was completed two months later (Sweig 2001).

In 1853, the Virginia General Assembly author- ized the county clerk to take the will "beyond the limits of this Commonwealth" so a facsimile could be made. (Records are unclear whether this was to have been an engraving or lithograph.) At the same time he was "ordered" to have the will "suitably bound and the edge of each leaf thereof separately encased in silver leaf or other binding, and a case made for the same - all of a character suited to so valuable an auto- graph." (May Court 1853). The binding was probably never made because eight years later, the will sustained damage that is unlikely to have occurred to bound, cased sheets. At some point, all the sheets were trimmed, so any edge gilding would have been lost.

While it is unclear whether or not the will was exhibited before the Civil War, several early 20th century newspapers described the will's exhibition in similar terms: "

Through all of a century he who ran so far as Fairfax... might read at his leisure and with his own hands manipulate the original document and at his pleasure thumb and fumble it, with only a court attendant near to see that the will was not carried away... One of the pages... bears mute testimony to the success of some unknown enthusiastic relic hunter who tore off and carried away one corner" (New York Sun 1916; italics added). Actually, every sheet lost at least a corner, though the reason may not

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always have been theft, and whether these old accounts accurately report the time period in ques- tion is uncertain. The article continued, "Its custodi- ans with the best intentions, added to its peril of early and complete obliteration by persistently folding it lengthwise, following the original fold of the clerk of 1800. . . "

3. THE CIVIL WAR

The Fairfax Courthouse area, which generally sympathized with the Confederacy, was contested throughout the war, and both sides wanted to claim George Washington as one of their own. Union troops raided the Courthouse on June 1, 1861 and again on July 17, 1861 during the march that culmi- nated in the battle of First Manassas (Bull Run). Either before those raids or before Confederate General Pierre Beauregard withdrew protective forces from the area late that year (Meyer 1997), the same clerk, Alfred Moss, who was to have had the will bound, removed it from the Courthouse, intending to deliver it to Confederate authorities for safekeeping (Bible; Breegle 1995).

War dangers prevented him from taking the will directly to Richmond. Accounts differ as to whether he or his wife moved it to their daughter's home two counties and approximately twenty-nine miles away (Willis 1932; Workers of the Writers' Program 1940; Templeman and Netherton 1966; Evans and Moyer 1991; Hunton 1994). Whenever she received it, the wife "sewed [the will] into a pocket made in a volu- minous underskirt" (Bible). The will was put into a chest with the family silver; buried in the outdoor, subterranean wine cellar; and covered with coal for approximately fifteen months (Willis 1932; Evans and Moyer 1991; Hunton 1994). As late as 1952, "Evergreen Hollow" in Fauquier County had a large dirt mound which people called "the secret cellar" (Pierce and Pierce 2002). Historical cartographer Eugene Scheel believes a stone over-structure would have given the will some protection from the weather (Scheel 2002), but it was almost certainly during this time that the water and severe mold damage and asso- ciated disintegration of parts of the outer sheaf occurred: there is no other time in the object's history when it is as likely to have been exposed to such high humidity.

After Union troops raised their flag over the Fairfax Courthouse, the clerk served under Generals Beauregard and Ewell, was a war prisoner for about

three months (Alexandria Gazette 1862a, 1862b), and was exchanged for a Union prisoner in October 1862. He moved the will to the Confederate courthouse in Richmond and died of typhoid fever a few days later.

"A few days" before August 15, 1865 the Fairfax County Court sent someone to retrieve the will (Alexandria Gazette 1865; Fairfax County Records 1865). Back in its proper home, the document was exhibited in a glass-covered wood case (Washington, D. C. Sunday Star 1910) but remained within reach. Its mishandling and the damage inflicted by souvenir hunters was later described in numerous newspapers.

4. THE WILL AS AN OBJECT

4.1 STATIONERY

The cream-colored stationery sheets are all from the same source. None bears a complete watermark since the antique laid paper was cut from larger sheets before use, but all carry part of the same main mark. A composite image includes the initials LVG at the bottom, a post horn in a shield above the initials, signifying writing/post paper, and a crown atop the shield (fig. 2). The generic post horn indicates that the paper could have been purchased by anyone with sufficient funds. Originally "LVG" was used by the Lubertus van Geerevink family, which made paper at

Fig. 2. Composite main watermark, traced from sections of several sheets. Some portion of the center of the mark has been trimmed from all sheets, so the rendering is approximate. Courtesy of John T. Frey, Clerk of Fairfax County Circuit Court

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locations in the Netherlands from at least 1694 to well into the 19th century. However, the initials came to be used throughout Europe to signify quality writing paper, and American papermakers used European marks to suggest the prestige of imported paper. No sheet of the will carries any of the counter- water- mark, which would have identified the mill where the paper was made. In 1776, Thomas Jefferson had used LVG-marked paper, 19.7 x 32.4 cm, which Dard Hunter (1947) described as "no doubt" Dutch; a Dutch firm gave President Washington a letter copy- ing press as a gift (Fitzpatrick 1931). According to John Krill (1999), the will stationery is almost certainly British or Dutch.

This watermark is not in Catalogue of American Watermarks 1690-1835 and is not, as prominent Washington biographers have repeatedly described it, Washington's personal watermark "indicative of the man, as it was the draped figure of the goddess of agriculture... surmounted with the Liberty Cap."1 Washington did have stationery customized with that design, which is illustrated and discussed in the Catalogue. Where it was made is unknown (Hunter, 1947;Gravell et al. 2002).

Fiber samples analyzed with a Leitz SM-Pol polarizing light microscope reveal that the paper was made from linen fibers (Goodway 1987; Smith 2003). A large amount of debris (fiber fragments); numerous clumps; fibers that were short, sometimes torn open, and usually broken at both ends in sharp, ragged breaks; and numerous, prominent transverse markings suggest that the fibers were recycled rather than taken directly from a plant (McCrone et al. 1993, app.20).

At present the trimmed sheets measure approximately 22.2 x 17.0 cm. Considering the horizontal chain lines, the partial post horn watermarks, and the size of the sheets, they may have been cut as quarters from "large post" paper, a size that was about 53.3 x 41.9 cm.

4.2 RULING LINES

Over Washington's 43 pages of writing, the manuscript is laid out precisely both horizontally and vertically, without any evidence of horizontal ruling lines. In 1925, Washington scholar John Fitzpatrick asserted that Washington used a ruled guide beneath his pages, referring to "frequent examples of his pen running off the outer edge of the small diary page, and whole words written on the ruled guide-sheet beneath" (Fitzpatrick 1925, l:x; Jackson and Twohig

1976, l:xlii). Unfortunately, today the Library of Congress collections where Fitzpatrick worked do not seem to include any of these guides, and other current institutional collectors and scholars have never seen such sheets (Chase 2003; Coover 2003; Gawalt 2003; McMillan 2003).

In addition to the possibility that Washington used ruled guides, it is not inconceivable that he laid a ruler along the base of each line, wrote, and then went back to make the letter tails, thus setting both his side margins and unwavering text lines. As labori- ous as that would have been, Washington was suffi- ciently concerned with the appearance of his writing to have rewritten many of his documents (Twohig 1999; Nickell 2003). In The American Instructor, or, Young Man's Best Companion (published in many editions throughout the 18th century by Benjamin Franklin), George Fisher (1753) lists among the necessary writing implements "a flat Ruler for Sureness, and a round one for Dispatch, with a Lead Plummet or Pencil to rule Lines."

The side margins on some pages are delineated by variably faint graphite lines, but these cannot be attributed definitively to Washington. He was so conscious of the impression made by his writing that if he had made these marks, one would expect them to have been erased from so important a document; furthermore, he was so organized that if he ruled some pages, one would expect all to have been ruled. There are occasional graphite marks over the manuscript, apparently from early restoration attempts, but these tend to be much heavier than the ruling lines.

4.3 PEN

Washington's round, legible writing was sometimes credited to a gold-nibbed pen, but Fitzpatrick noted that the chronology of pen manufacture disal- lows that "exalted tradition" (1931, vol. 1: Introductory notes). Quill nibs were sometimes coated with gold to preserve their points, and a patent for their manufacture was taken in 1818. Solid metal nibs were mentioned sporadically from antiquity, but not made with frequency until ca. 1780. Solid gold nibs were manufactured beginning ca. 1810 (Nickell 2003). Such devices could certainly have been available prior to patents; but as metal nibs press into paper, more ink deposits along stroke edges, and magnified five times, these strokes are evenly colored across their width. The will was written with the tool used almost universally in 1799, a bird quill (Smith 2004).

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Washington's handwriting is very plain compared to the "round hand" style that prevailed in 18th- century North America, with its elegant patterns of thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes. Although Fisher (1753) wrote that it was essential to master the hand, doing so required considerable practice and then more writing time than evident in Washington's unembell- ished strokes of fairly uniform width. Overall the width of his strokes does vary from page to page, perhaps indicating different degrees of hand pressure, or that he recut or used several quills to complete the manuscript.

4.4 INK

The iron gall ink with which the will was written might have been imported from England, purchased from a stationer in Alexandria, or prepared on one of Washington's five farms.2 It appears to be unusually stable, remaining dark brown and corroding the paper in only a few, small areas. In 1977, the color impressed conservators, who wrote they had never seen a similar ink among Washington manuscripts in the Library of Congress collections and wondered whether a second ink had been applied over the original (Waters 1977b). However, by 1977 the will had been silked, and paste and aging by-products had somewhat darkened both ink and paper. (Silking is a method of reinforcing weak sheets by pasting very sheer silk, crepeline, over both sides of the sheet.) After the silk and paste layers had been removed during a recent conservation treatment, the ink and paper appeared noticeably lighter. Nevertheless the entire manuscript was examined through a head loupe at 3.5x and no evidence of a second layer of writing was observed.

The quality and stability of iron gall inks vary with the ingredients, their proportions, and the method of preparation. Often the inks were imper- fectly formulated and age to a barely legible tan, or destroy the paper beneath and around them due to interrelated oxidation and hydrolysis reactions. The limited degree of ink deterioration observed in the will might be partially explained by migration of iron (II) ions to the silks (Banik 1995), or by ligneous interleaves in the album that housed the will between 1916 and 1977 that acted as sacrificial oxidants to coincidentally protect the paper (Schmidt et al. 1995; Grattan 2000; Neevel and Reissland n.d.). However, the ink had interacted with the paper for a century prior to silking, and the silks were not visibly degraded in a pattern corresponding to the ink. The

ink did not appear to have needed a chemical sink. After washing during recent conservation, the ink

on every sheet was tested with colorimetric paper for the presence of free iron (II) and (III) ions3 (Smith 2003) . Test results overwhelmingly indicated that the will and schedule are not at risk of iron (Il)-catalyzed oxidation, but the probate ink tested strongly positive for iron (II). (Of 26 tests on the will and schedule, 2 gave faintly positive reactions. Of 3 tests on probate ink, 2 were strongly positive. Regarding free iron (III), Washington's ink tested faintly positive in 8 of 21 test areas. Of 3 tests on probate ink, 1 was positive.) Although destructive ions may exist below the test surfaces, the combined lack of visual evidence of degradation and the test results suggest that Washington's ink is unusually stable for its type.

4.5 SEALS

Immediately after the General's large signature at the end of the will is the core of a paper wafer seal (fig. 3) . With cursory examination, it appears that the crossing stroke in the signature's "t" continues onto the core, but the wafer was adhered on top of the silked page during the 1909-1916 restoration. A series of pale brown ink lines runs perpendicular to the apparent crossing stroke, and all strokes on the seal remnant are lighter than the signature ink. A spot of thinned paper an inch lower than the core corre- sponds to its size and bears traces of orange-red color, revealing the original position of the seal.

The paper directly beneath the core now is a roughly circular insert, ca. 2.5 cm in diameter and noticeably darker than the will paper, although chain and laid lines on the insert align with the surrounding sheet. On the facing page, at a spot corresponding

Fig. 3. Signature and seal area. Courtesy of John T. Frey, Clerk of Fairfax County Circuit Court

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to the insert, is an orange-brown stain, slightly larger than 2 cm in diameter and crisscrossed by darker, fracture-like lines (fig. 4). The stain bleeds to the other side of that sheet, but is not matched by a corresponding stain on the insert paper or the page behind it.

This accumulation of evidence indicates that a seal about the size of the stain once existed where the paper insert now is. That seal was on the will long enough to create the stain where the facing page lay against it and more intense discoloration where cracks exposed the seal's interior. (After recent conservation the stain remained approximately ten times as acidic as surrounding paper areas, pH 5 vs. 6.) The ink lines on the core were added to make the wafer appear related to the signature. Whether both seals were Washington's or one was added at the probate court is undetermined.

5. PRESERVATION ATTEMPTS

How worn the will had become before the Civil War is unknown, and whether it sustained direct damage as a result of its moves and burial cannot be proved. Thus, whether there was reason to repair it before the end of the war or immediately thereafter is also unknown. Numerous news accounts reported at least two attempts to preserve it in the decades after its return to the court house. From the New York Sun (1916):

In time, after much opening and folding, the pages cracked and divided along the lines of the creasing. Then some past and gone official... undertook to repair the damage and prevent expansion of it. Bits of glued paper and court plaster were put across the torn creases. As the months and years went by these patches

Fig. 4. Stain on the page facing the signature. Courtesy of John T. Frey, Clerk of Fairfax County Circuit Court

themselves split, leaving the pages again to fall apart through the centre. Court authorities after anxious consultations decided that the broken parts should be sewn together and so fastened as securely as possible.

From the 1910 Washington, D.C. Sunday Star (see fig. 5):

As a result of handling... the pinning together of the twenty-three pages and the wear... loving hands... not only took large stitches, but in an effort to effectually reunite the fragments made the stitches especially numerous in the vicinity of Washington's signature and other important parts of the document. To riddle the precious sheets with needle holes was, of course, bad enough, but the sequel was even more serious, for with handling the binds cut their way through the paper, and the result was a number of great gaping wounds that gave the will the appearance of being literally in tatters. All the while the document was on exhibition... in an ordinary wooden box, which not only offered scant protection from all sorts of destructive agents, but by reason of a glass cover permitted the will to be constantly exposed to the action of light.

Transmitted light reveals lines of closely spaced pricks on numerous pages, sometimes on both sides of the vertical split, sometimes around losses at the top or bottom of a page. Although the sewing was removed during an early 20th-century restoration,

Fig. 5. Detail of third page when received for treatment by William Berwick. Photograph by him, as reproduced from the New York Sun, October 22, 1916

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several bits of thread remain lodged in the stationery.

6. A PIONEERING TREATMENT

Exactly how William Berwick, restorer of manuscripts at the nearby Library of Congress, came to save the will is unclear. Several newspapers reported that a group of concerned preservationists initiated a professional restoration. Others said that the Librarian of Congress asked to have the will photographed and court officials replied that it was "in such hopelessly fragmentary condition that photographs were impossible. [The Librarian] personally assured himself that this was only too true and, much concerned and vitally interested, [he] offered to put his expert restorer, William Berwick, at the almost superhuman task."(Tighe 1923). Initially, State Department restor- ers, who had treated the Declaration of Independence in a workshop predating that at the Library of Congress, were to perform the treatment; but admin- istrative obstacles made that impossible. (NewYork Sun 1916; Washington, D.C. Star 1917)

William W. Berwick (fig. 6) was born in London in 1848 and entered the field of manuscript restoration at 18 (Berwick 1916). After his death, a daughter said that he had been self-taught, but she and other reports also stated that he trained at the British Museum (Woman's World ca. 1916; Palmer 1961; Berwick 1964). At age 19, he emigrated to Canada where he worked in Montreal, and possibly at or for the Toronto Public Library (Spawn 1999, 2001).

Between 1882 and 1884, he moved to Lansing, Michigan, where he worked for approximately 15 years as a bookbinder and map- and chart-maker (Berwick 1900b; Census 1900, 1910; Palmer 1962). "The firm by whom he had been employed... went out of business suddenly, with a thirty minutes' notice of discontinuance of service to the employees. After this serious blow my father decided to take the Civil Service Exam for a position in the Bindery Div. of the Government Printing Office. But his heart was still in the document restoration field." (Berwick 1964).

An 1897 appointment as bookbinder in the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. moved him closer to his desire to work at the Library of Congress. "Out of a clear sky one day three gentle- men walking thro' the GPO, stopped near him and my father was asked if he had ever done any MSS repairing! He never understood how they happened to pick him out of the 3,000 employees there. When he replied in the affirmative he was directed to report at

Fig. 6. William Berwick, age unknown. Courtesy of Robert Menhinick and Mary Larkin

the Library of Congress in the MSS Dept." (Berwick 1962). In February 1899 he was assigned to the Library's Department of Manuscripts and from November of that year, at the latest, until literally the moment of his death in 1920, Mr. Berwick directed preservation of the Library's manuscripts.

By the time he was called to preserve George Washington's will in October 1909, Mr. Berwick had an international reputation. The British Museum had recommended him for an especially difficult treatment that was described in The New York Times, and he was known as the foremost expert in the silking technique. He trained assistants not only at the Library, but at institutions across the country, including the NewYork State Library, the North Carolina State Historical Commission, the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and Stanford University. His methods and teaching influenced the preservation of American manuscript collections into the 1970s, so the techniques that he used on the will are interest- ing and important not only for their effect in preserv- ing that document, but also because they are precursors to modern conservation practice (NewYork Times 1907).

Court authorities would not allow the will to be

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moved for treatment, so the Library shipped equipment and supplies, including a heavy letterpress and metal tank, to the courthouse approximately 19 miles away (New York Sun 1916; Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1917). Although newspapers reported that he made daily trips to work on the will, Mr. Berwick wrote, "I go down there now & then when work at the Library permits." (Berwick 1909; Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1910, 1917)

First he photographed every page. "This was done both as a photographic exhibit of the depths to which the document had been reduced and also to assist Mr. Berwick with his work" (Tighe 1923). Then "The first step toward restoration after he had photographed. . .was setting the ink. This was done by a liquid process or bath designed to prevent further fading." (Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1910, 1917). To date, no information has been found about what that process involved. Mr. Berwick, his colleagues in the manuscripts department, and the Librarian of Congress were all concerned, cautious, and thought- ful about the long-term effects of conservation procedures, so he may have hesitated to, for example, apply tannic acid to the sheets in order to cause any excess ferrous sulfate to react - a common method for regenerating faded iron gall inks at that time.

Well aware that iron gall ink manuscripts are often destroyed by inherent acids, and alert to the possibility of water-sensitive inks, Berwick had admonished that any manuscript with the slightest tendency to run must never be moistened, but that if the manuscript could safely be exposed to water, it could be treated as follows (1916, 156):

Before any real repair work is done upon manuscripts they should be cleaned and pressed; that is, all the wrinkles removed and the smudgings of dirt lessened, as patching can not be done properly unless the sheet of paper is perfectly smooth. To accomplish this, if the manuscript is much begrimed but the paper still retains its life, it should be immersed in warm (not hot) water. . .and rocked gently for a time. This is a perfectly safe proceeding for any manuscript dating before the year 1800 that is not mildewed or brittle.

After bathing, the sheets may have been resized to offer some protection from the wheat flour paste that would be brushed over both sides during the silking procedure; Mr. Berwick's correspondence indicates that he resized when he thought the procedure was

needed. The prefect at the Vatican Library, with whom Mr. Berwick and his supervisor corresponded, favored fish gelatin with formaldehyde added to render it insensitive to temperature changes (Nicholson 1898; Berwick 1900a, 1902a).

"It can be laid down, as a general rule, that a manuscript that has been moistened should never be allowed to dry out except under pressure." (Berwick 1916, 155). Dampened leaves were placed between sheets of "smooth white, unglazed pulpboard" and stacked in a letterpress for about ten hours. "At the end of that time the manuscripts are dried out perfectly and present a marvelously better appearance." (Berwick 1916, 156).

It was probably after flattening that he removed the sewn repairs and any patches that had not released in the water baths. He is unlikely to have trimmed the ragged page edges, since years earlier he had repeatedly assured another client that he took pains to retain all edges of severely damaged objects (Berwick 1902b, 1903, 1905).

He tacked the splits, small tears, and very small losses with bits of transparent flax-fiber paper (Smith 2003) , intending the later silking step to secure all the breaks. In the United States, thin paper had been used to repair paper artifacts since at least 1837, although terms like tissue, Japanese paper, and tracing paper, were used inaccurately and interchangeably (Marwick 1964, 49-56). Until about 1899, the Library of Congress had used a French tracing paper as an overall reinforcement method, (Friedenwald 1898, 1899) so it would not be surprising if Mr. Berwick continued to use that paper for local repairs.

Throughout his career, Mr. Berwick was unremitting in searching for the perfect filling paper for each object. When he received a volume or collection of papers that included a blank sheet, he asked to use it to fill losses in the other objects. He constantly reminded clients to be on the look-out for old paper, and before he traveled, whether to US cities or through Europe, he researched the shops, dealers, and individuals who might point him toward a cache or even just a few sheets.

Pieces should be selected as near as possible the color, thickness, and weight of the manuscript to be repaired. Some attention must be paid to this point, for it should be remembered that after the patches are put on they become a part of the original manuscript, and so share in all the influences that work upon it... If there is considerable difference

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between the manuscript and the patch, moisture of the paste, etc., will cause uneven pull when the document is drying out of the press, with results that are oftentimes disappointing and always unsatisfac- tory (Berwick 1916, 157).

When it came to grafting new material into the old manuscript... the great problem lay in rinding new material that would match in texture and color that upon which the will was written. Mr. Berwick was in despair as to where to find paper for the patches which would make the will look as good as new, when by a lucky chance in a second-hand book store in Washington a number of the blank sheets of the writing paper which George Washington had made especially for his personal use were discov- ered. (Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1917)

For the heavily mold-damaged sheets at the beginning and end of the will, he carved large, intri- cate shapes with bevelled edges that overlap the manuscript just enough for secure adhesion. He bevelled edges on the object only in unwritten areas. Some fills extend 18 x 21 cm at their largest dimen- sions on sheets measuring about 18 x 23 cm. Making these fills from new paper would challenge most conservators, but working aged paper with possibly hidden inconsistencies is even more impressive. He applied wheat flour paste around the edge of a loss and laid on the fill. Then he placed clean paper over the repair, rubbed with a bone folder, put the sheet between boards, and pressed tightly for three to four hours. If the dried object had a thick joint, he scraped lightly with a steel eraser, a drafting tool for scraping away mistakes (Berwick 1916, 157). "Now, unless one holds the sheets of the restored will in such a position that the bright light will shine through them, there is no way of telling where the old part, or rather the original part, leaves off and the grafted sections begin" (Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1917).

After rejoining the sheets and filling losses, Mr. Berwick made paper frames for the sheets, sanding the inner edges of the inlay openings to achieve smooth joints (1916, 160):

Documents may be mounted [on] sheets of uniform size and of a good quality of paper dependent upon expenditure permitted. Good quality white linen ledger is excellent, and it should be cut so that the manuscript can be mounted thereon with the grain of the paper, the

grain of the mounting sheet running vertically to insure flexibility in opening after binding... A good quality rope-manila paper is cheaper, is the strongest of papers, and, in lighter weights, possesses great flexibility. Its color, under some circumstances, may be considered an objectionable feature, and manuscripts mounted on this paper never are as pleasing to the eye as when white paper is used. . . The mounting sheet should allow at least a full inch and a half on the left beyond the established size of the page desired [for binding] and the established size of the page depends upon the average size of the manuscript to be bound.

He inked a thin black border just beyond the stationery; and after a sheet was pasted into its frame, both were silked (1916, 157):

Put a thin coat of paste on the manuscript with the brush, and carefully lay the crepeline on; then place between sheets of paraffin paper, put between boards, and put in a press for 15 minutes; then remove from the press, take off the paraffin paper, and again place between sheets of pulp board, under very slight pressure, until dry. One side of the manuscript must not be crepelined unless the other is also, for the resultant unequal strain will curl it with a curl that no amount of pressure can ever reduce.

Just as he always searched for the ideal fill and mounting papers, he also looked for the best crepeline for each object. His choices varied in color, weave density, and quality, depending on his judg- ment about what an object needed and what he or his clients could procure. Collections including the Archives of the Library of Congress and the American Philosophical Society hold numerous samples of fresh-looking crepeline and vendors' invoices. A later newspaper article reported, "This gauze... is extremely flimsy to look at and demands the most delicate handling, but once applied over and beneath a page of writing or printing it renders it practically untearable. Properly laid on it becomes so absorbed in the paper that it is hardly visible except under a magnifying glass" (Tighe 1923).

Mr. Berwick believed, "The advantages of binding collections of papers are too obvious to enlarge upon." (1916, 160), so once the inlaid pages were dry and flat he hinged them to binding guards and then into a tooled and gilded leather album. Although he

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had done binding work in Lansing, it does not seem as if he made the elegant leather volumes in which his more important projects were placed. His correspondence with the Librarian at the American Philosophical Society indicates that manuscripts he returned after treatment were bound in Philadelphia, and he gives no indication of any direct involvement. This particular album is stamped "ZICHTL & Co. Wash, D.C." inside the cover, referring to a commer- cial bindery. "I will finish by advising that all bound volumes of manuscripts should be given the protection of a slide box"(Berwick 1916, 161). If the will was given a protective case, it has been misplaced.

After restoration, the will went back on exhibition at the courthouse (fig. 7). "The will may be seen through the glass side of the vault in which it is deposited, before which hang heavy green curtains to exclude the light" (Washington, D.C. Sunday Star 1917).

7. SUMMARY TREATMENT EVALUATION

Mr. Berwick's care kept the will intact for nearly a century. In 1977, Library of Congress conservators examined it and concluded, "The manuscript, as a whole, appears to be in sound condition." On a few pages, they did find incipient silk breakage at the juncture of paper frames and manuscript sheets. "This slight fracturing... was the only visible evidence that the silking may now be in a state of deterioration" (Waters 1977a). "The craftsmanship of the last restoration is of a very high order... combining a mastery of the silking tech-

Fig. 7. The same area as shown in Fig. 5, after treatment by William Berwick (Photograph by him, as reproduced from the New York Sun, October 22, 1916)

nique with an obvious appreciation for aesthetics which places [the will] among the finest examples of the state of the art of manuscript restoration in 1910" (Waters 1977b).

After 20 more years of exhibition and use without adequate light or climate control, the silks were breaking along the split lines, and manuscript fragments were becoming exposed (fig. 8). Although Mr. Berwick's belief in binding manuscripts does collate sheets and help to prevent loss and careless handling, the vertical splits through this object had stressed the silk as pages were turned. By 1998, low waves of planar distortion extended from the paper frames into the will pages. The silks and paste had darkened, creating a discomforting haze between viewer and object. Finally some might object that the book format, its size, and the ornate style had altered the character of a sheaf of unadorned writing on small sheets of stationery.

When the will was conserved between 1998 and 2003, it became evident that Mr. Berwick's work was almost entirely reversible. The paper does remain impressed with the silk weave even after water baths (Smith 2003), so one could conclude that silking preserved the sheets but altered their character. With a slight shift of perspective, one could also conclude

Fig. 8. The third page after treatment by William Berwick, as it appeared in 1998 (Courtesy of John T. Frey, Clerk of Fairfax County Circuit Court)

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that silking altered the paper surfaces but preserved a severely damaged national treasure.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people made significant contributions to this project. Space does not permit description of their specific expertise and assistance, but the author is grateful to: Sylvia Albro, Dorothea Burns, Kathryn Carey, Philander Chase, Tom Conroy, Chris Coover, Ruth Ann Coski, Margaret Cowan, Robert Cox, Stephen di Girolamo, Don Etherington, Gary Eyler, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Maren Folsom, John Frey, Gerard Gawalt, Joanne Hackett, John Hoffman, James R. Hunton, Norvell Jones, John Krill, Holly Krueger, Mary Larkin, Kathy Ludwig, Valerie-Anne Lutz, Claire Marwick, Barbara McMillan, Robert Menhinick, Michael Miller, Johan Neevel, Josephus Nelson, Mary Nolan, Walton Owen, John and Bettie Pierce, Roberta Pilette, Sandra Rathbun, Birgit Reissland, Eugene Scheel, Matilda Smith, Willman Spawn, Denise Spencer, Linda Stiber, the late Peter Waters, and Carole Zimmermann. A Larry Hackman Research Residency at the New York State Archives and an FAIC Professional Development Scholarship facilitated research.

NOTES

1. The first edition of Fitzpatrick seems to be the source for subsequent republications of the same incor- rect information; editions 1-6 contain this erroneous description of the watermark (Fitzpatrick 1939-1992). J. A. Carroll and M.W. Ashworth (1957) cite Fitzpatrick (1925, 584), and other historians, such as J. T. Flexner (1974, 395), repeat the erroneous description.

2. The Library of Congress holds a volume of Washington papers into which a label from a British ink manufacturer was silked. There is no explanation for its inclusion, but its presence suggests that at least some of the General's papers were written with "Walkden's Fine British Ink Powder for Records Sold by most Stationers, Booksellers Haberdashers in London and other Principal City's andTonns in Great Britain." The text repeats in French, suggesting that it was intended for export (George Washington Papers, ser.4,vol. 1 (1697-1755)).

3. Bathophenanthroline-impregnated Indicator Paper for Iron Ions was used as recommended by the

Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, which developed the test to detect iron (II) and (III) (Instituut Collectie Nederland 2001). To test for free water-soluble iron (II) ions, manuscript sheets were laid on clean polyester film (Mylar, Type D). Indicator paper approximately 3 x 10 mm was dipped in distilled water, blotted, and placed on an ink area. The test strip was covered with a second piece of film and pressed into light contact with the ink for 30 seconds. The strip was removed, laid to dry on a clean blotter, and the color examined with a head loupe at 3.5x after 5 minutes. To test for water-soluble iron (III) ions, a fresh 1% aqueous solution of ascorbic acid (w/v) was dropped on each strip after the iron (II) test. The acid reduces iron (III) to iron (II), enhancing or producing a positive magenta color. Strips were examined with a head loupe at 3.5x after 5 minutes.

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SOURCES OF MATERIALS

Indicator Paper for Iron Ions Preservation Equipment Ltd Vinces Road Diss, Norfolk England IP22 4HQ +44 0 1379 647400 fax: +44 0 1379 650582 www.preservationequipment. com

CHRISTINE SMITH is president of Conservation of Art on Paper Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia. She received an AB in art history from Vassar College in 1972 and an MS in art conservation from the Winterthur Museum, University of Delaware in 1978. She served as the paper conservator at the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Analytical Laboratory and National Portrait Gallery before establishing CAPI in 1984. Address: CAPI, 6044 Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 22310; [email protected]

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