Volume 24, Number 6
Apr 2001

People

• Fausta Gallo, the Grand Old Lady of paper conservation research, passed away on the fifth of August 2000. She was born in 1931 in Rome, the daughter of Alfonso Gallo, founder of the Istituto Centrale per la Patologia del Libro. She studied natural sciences in Rome, did her thesis on paper-infesting insects, and worked in prevention of biodeterioration throughout her career, including the rescue of artifacts after the Florence Flood.
• Stella Patri, whose long and accomplished life began in 1896, died March 29 at her son's home in Sonoma, CA. She worked as a bookbinder and paper conservator, having studied in Italy and taken part in the flood rescue in 1966, but also had careers as an expert milliner, a welder, and a bookseller. Her obituary will run in the next Abbey Newsletter.
• Karen Muller, ALCTS director, has resigned to take a new position as the ALA Librarian and Knowledge Manager. [Wonderful title. -Ed.]
• Olivia Primanis, senior conservator at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Austin, TX, attended the 10th congress of ABRACOR (Brazil's association of conservators) in São Paulo last November, and gave a slide lecture on conservation treatment techniques most frequently used to repair damaged books at the Center.
• Irene Brückle, associate professor at Buffalo State College, received a fellowship to complete her manuscript for a book entitled Water in Paper Conservation, which will be written with Dr. Gerhard Banik. It will have two parts: one on cellulose-water interactions, and one on conservation treatments calling for minimal applications of water.
• Cheryl Porter, an independent researcher and lecturer on medieval ink and pigment conservation, was invited to lead a week-long symposium at Harvard University last October. Book, paper and object conservators, technicians, faculty members, and students from many institutions at Harvard came to hear her lectures, and a smaller number of conservators attended the hands-on workshop sessions. (A fuller report is in the Harvard University Library Notes #1300 (March 2001).
• Christine Ward has been appointed Director of Operations at the New York State Archives. She joined the NYSA in 1981 as Preservation Administrator, and most recently held the post of Chief Archivist (1991-2000).