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Schlefer (standing) speaks to one of her students at
the Antorchas Foundation in Buenos Aires.
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Schlefer presented a course, "Fundamentals of Book and Paper
Conservation," to 16 Argentine professional librarians and
archive specialists at the Antorchas Foundation in Buenos Aires
from June 5 to August 18, 2000. The scholar was one of three 1999-2000
grantees to support the work of the Antorchas Foundation in the
preventive conservation of Argentina's cultural and historical
patrimony.
I received a Fulbright visiting lectureship award in June 2000.
My assignment was to teach a nine-week course in Buenos Aires
in basic book and paper conservation techniques to a class of
sixteen people who work in libraries, museums or archives.
The class and I were very compatible, and often the students
would invite me to take part in weekend activities.
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Schlefer (seated with glasses) poses with her class
of librarians and archive specialists at the Antorchas Foundation
in Buenos Aires.
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One Saturday, three of my students took me with them in a van
to the town of Lujan, one of the first European settlements in
Argentina. It was built around a central square, with a basilica
on one side and colonial buildings on the other three. Most of
the buildings have been ingeniously converted into mini-museums
of Argentine history. We visited the basilica, then had lunch.
Graciela, the van owner, told us about a family on a ranch outside
town who owned the largest private book collection in Argentina.
They had not been allowing visitors lately, because they do not
have proper security. Graciela, who is very persuasive, took out
her cell phone and called the ranch, telling the woman she had
a "famous scholar" (that was me) from the U.S. with
her who would love to see her collection.
The woman agreed to let us come to visit. The public road to
the farm was horrible, full of ruts and potholes, but Graciela
was good at swerving from one side of the road to the other to
avoid the worst of them. Then we came to the "road"
to the ranch. It was really just a cattle track, far worse than
the road, and a herd of 9 or 10 young bulls frolicked around the
van, challenging it at times, so that we could move only at what
seemed like about 1 km. an hour. When we finally arrived at the
farmhouse, the van was quickly surrounded by enormous, snarling
black German Shepherds. The ranchers came out and rescued us,
then gave us a tour of their house, built in 1820, and still containing
all the original 18th century furniture from Europe. There was
even vintage clothing in the wardrobe. They told us several museum
curators had asked to buy the furniture, but they had declined
to sell it, since they were still using it.
The farm is situated on the bank of the Lujan River, and it was
extremely damp in the house. It was also very cold. I was wearing
two wool ponchos and leather gloves, and still I was shivering.
There was no glass in the windows, just heavy wooden shutters,
open all day and shut at dusk. When they showed us the library,
I was amazed - there was no smell of mildew, and the books were
the cleanest I've ever seen in any library. They were in such
perfect condition I at first thought they had been rebound recently,
but, looking more closely, I could see that they were in their
original bindings. There were six rooms with eleven or twelve-foot
ceilings, all filled with shelves of books--about 50,000 in all,
they told us. The books were on many subjects, but principally
European and Argentine history and literature. They also had all
the original ranch archives, and many runs of Argentine newspapers,
some of them very old, but in excellent condition.
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A small portion of the Lujan ranch's 50,000-book collection,
the largest in Argentina.
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The last room they showed us was dedicated to books from the
17th century and earlier. I had taught a little about the history
of the book, using a book of illustrations, but here, they let
me take books off the shelves to demonstrate the different kind
of structures and materials in the earliest European books.
I asked how they kept the books in such pristine condition, and
they explained that every day, they removed a shelf full of books,
cleaned the shelf and took the books outside, where they brushed
every page of every book with a soft brush, then reshelved them.
When they finished the 50,000, they began all over again. They
said they loved the books, which had been collected by the woman's
father, and they were happy to care for them.
Thinking about all the advice I had given the students about
storage conditions, especially about the need to keep the relative
humidity below 50 percent to prevent mold and mildew, I realized
that sometimes love could work as well as science.
When we returned with them to the farmhouse, the rest of the
family was gathered in the kitchen in front of a huge old-fashioned
iron wood-burning stove, used both for heating the house and for
cooking. We signed their guest book and thanked them profusely.
By then it was fully dark, and they escorted us back to the van,
making sure we had all our feet inside before they unleashed the
dogs. We bumped and bounced back down the cattle trail, horn blasting
and lights off (because they would attract the bulls). The bulls
cavorted back and forth across the road, playing a little game
where they alternated in a criss-cross pattern in front of the
van. At the gate, they hung around, seeming to challenge us to
get out and open it. Finally, though, they got tired of the game
and let us go.
On the drive back to B.A., one of the girls said, "Elaine,
you're so quiet. Are you tired? "No, I'm not tired,"
I replied, "I'm just stunned."
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