A Grandfather's Legacy.
Category: Preserve for the Future
Location: American Art and Portrait Gallery Library
A grandfather's legacy: containing a sketch of his life and obituary notices of some members of his family, together with letters from his friends.
When you are businessman and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran, you have a few heavy-hitters in your rolodex, including Millard Fillmore, Jefferson Davis, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, and Daniel Webster. Corcoran rubbed elbows with the well-heeled and well-connected, and was a catalyst for culture and education in Washington D.C. with the building of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and numerous donations to universities.
At age 80, Corcoran wrote and privately printed this book of letters and family history, dedicated to his orphaned grandchildren. Notably, the copy now in the collection of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives was owned by Margaret Eustis Finley, Corcoran’s great granddaughter, who was married to David Finley, the first director of the National Gallery of Art.
This volume has a late 19th century leather binding. The leather shows signs of wear and degradation, particularly along the joints. The binding is detached at the front cover (although attempts to re-attach it with tape are still visible). There is also a newspaper clipping attached to the back of the volume with tape. Conservators will remove the tape using a combination of heat and solvents. The newspaper clipping will be spray deacidified, repaired, and placed in a Mylar enclosure at the back of the book. The textblock will be consolidated and re-attached to the original binding. An acid free enclosure will be created to house the fragile binding.
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