USC laboratory helps preserve S.C. history

A set of 18th and early-19th century journals about plantation life in South Carolina is being preserved thanks to The Arthur E.Holman Jr. Conservation Laboratory at the University of South Carolina.

The eight books were a bit of mystery as they were given to the university at some unknown date in the past 100 years and only recently rediscovered. They turned out to be daily records of James Kershaw from 1791 to 1825.

The State reports on how the university's conservation laboratory founded in 2002 has had a chance to shine, and they also talk about the laboratory's mix of high- and low-tech:
One portion of the room is dominated by a plastic-domed device that looks like a giant incubator, used to add moisture to, or remove it from, materials. A few feet away a cabinet is filled with 19th-century bookbinding tools with well-worn wooden handles.

It's an interesting read and they also have some good tidbits of daily life back then. My favorite is the entry that said, simply: "Declaration of war."

Go read it.

And, not to be outdone, Clemson has its own restorative efforts.

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