When rummaging around the attic space of her family’s 1860s home in Titusville, Rhonda Clark looked closely at what appeared to be a pile of old window shades, but discovered one was actually a large wall map of Warren County, Pa., dating from the year 1900. The map had some water damage and brittleness but offered a wealth of potential information, such as locations of schools and railroads at the turn of the century.

Clark, a faculty member in Clarion University Department of Library Science and an active member of the Titusville Historical Society, knew the map had great historical value to the right owner. She decided that the map belonged in Warren County, if the historical society or library did not already own it. In fact, only a few copies of this map are recorded in library catalogs in the U.S., including one at the Library of Congress that eventually will be provided digitally through their site.

“These maps provide all sorts of interesting insights into the past,” Clark said. “They give us a snapshot of a region at a particular time, including the locations of landmarks and railroad lines that may no longer exist.”

Clark took the map to Clarion University Department of Library Science. Her colleague, Dr. James Maccaferri, took on the map as a preservation teaching project and oversaw student work to clean and do basic repairs on it. Maccaferri said he is always looking for projects of this kind, “since students appreciate the opportunity for authentic learning that they present and because they are such excellent vehicles for promoting the university’s programs to the community.”

Amanda Snyder, a graduate student in the MSLS program at Clarion, spent dozens of hours painstakingly piecing bits of the map that were loose and cleaning the entire surface.

Snyder reported that working on the map provided her great practical experience in preservation and increased her interest in archives.

Read more: https://clarion.edu/378185/