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Film, Video Doing Science with the Mini-Lab to Analyze Rare Items

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Doing Science with the Mini-Lab to Analyze Rare Items

Summary

  • Amanda Satorius (preservation science specialist in the Library’s Preservation Research and Testing Division) shows Kelsey Beeghly (2023-2024 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow) and Micherlange Hemsley (2024 Junior Fellow in PRTD) how material identification research can be used to make inferences about how items were used hundreds of years ago. PRTD’s Go Team and portable mini-lab, which consists of different tools that measure properties of materials for identification, support the Library in learning more about its collection items and provide useful information to researchers that aid in interpretation of an object and contribute to historical understanding. For this project, the mini-lab was taken to the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections reading room to investigate an ink found within a 18th century artist’s manual, before thought to have been stored on a shelf as a symbol of wealth, and not used by its owner. With careful measurement and analysis, Amanda and Go Team members were able to provide evidence that the red ink in the book was made using the recipe written out in that chapter, suggesting that the person in possession of the book actually did read the book and was testing out the recipe. Students can explore analytical chemistry at home or in the classroom by using a magnifying glass, small USB microscope, or mini colorimeter to investigate the properties of any object of interest, such as a pigment made from natural sources.

Event Date

  • Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Running Time

  • 3 minutes, 31 seconds

Online Format

  • image
  • online text
  • video

Rights & Access

While the Library of Congress created most of the videos in this collection, they include copyrighted materials that the Library has permission from rightsholders to present.  Rights assessment is your responsibility.  The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may also be content that is protected under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.  Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or complete.

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Doing Science with the Mini-Lab to Analyze Rare Items. 2024. Video. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/video-10038/.

APA citation style:

(2024) Doing Science with the Mini-Lab to Analyze Rare Items. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/video-10038/.

MLA citation style:

Doing Science with the Mini-Lab to Analyze Rare Items. 2024. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/video-10038/>.