Arsenic and Old Books

The NRM's collection of possibly poisonous books.

    In 1820 Archibald Leighton, a bookbinder, and William Pickering, a book publisher, developed a method of coating fabric with starch, making it stiffer – this was the first commercial book cloth and it became a sensation. As cloth bound books became popular in the later 1800s, bookbinders started to take advantage of the wide array of colors they now had at their disposal. This resulted in books being published in a veritable rainbow of shades. Depending on how much money you had, you could order books bound in specific colors to match your personal library. A book could be a fashionable accessory if you could afford to make it so. Emerald green was one of the more vibrant hues a book (or dress, or hat) could come in, but emerald green items came with a concerning caveat – they were poisonous.

    There are two ways to color a cloth bound book, dyes and pigments (these sound like they’re synonyms but there’s actually a difference). Dyes will chemically bond with the material they are applied to, whereas a pigment is something spread on top of a material. The greens used on book-cloth fall into the latter category, they’re pigments. There are a shocking amount of arsenical greens, the first of which being Scheele’s Green which arrived on the scene in 1775, when it was invented ‘almost on accident’ by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Scheele’s green was incredibly vibrant, so the color quickly replaced the less than brilliant green pigments that were on the market. And then came Schweinfurt Green, created in 1814, by a paint and dye company in Schweinfurt Germany, and grew in popularity so fast that “By 1860, these many varieties of Schweinfurt Green were being produced to the extent of 700 tons per year in Britain alone, and still more was imported from the continent” (The Arsenic Century, James C. Whorton). So far, the Poison Book Project (run by the Winterthur Museum) has identified around 88 books confirmed (by chemical testing) to contain toxic green pigment. And Green wasn’t the only toxic color on the market. Carbonated lead was famously used as pigment in things like makeup, lead and yes, books. When the Melbourne Museum in Australia tested 120 books from their Rare Book Collection for heavy metals and toxic pigments, “just four in the museum’s collection contained arsenic while 10 had high levels of lead.” (Museums Victoria). Lead could be mixed with various other pigments to create colors like red and even a vibrant yellow (which can be found in many of Van Gogh’s paintings). Mercury, another heavy metal was used to create Vermillion, a beautiful shade of red for years. Vermillion can often be found in the marbled end papers of older books.

"The Arsenic Waltz" a cartoon featured in British comedy magazine
"Punch" is dedicated to those who made the poisonous gowns

 Toxic shades of green weren’t only found in books, quite the opposite in fact. Scheele and Schweinfurt greens could be found in everything from candy and medicine to wallpaper (it’s actually thought that Scheele Green wallpaper was partially responsible for the death of Napoleon!). Gowns dyed with the greens were particularly striking, but they were also incredibly dangerous to the wearer. Victorian gowns were made with incredible amounts of fabric (according to historicalsewing.com, up to 10 yards of fabric could be used for one gown!). “On a dry fabric, this might not cause too many problems,” says Ali Bodley, senior curator at York Castle Museum in an interview with Museums of the World, “but as soon as the wearer started to perspire, the arsenic could be absorbed into the blood stream.” where the chemical could do serious and long-lasting damage.     Now these books don’t contain enough arsenic to harm someone badly, but experts still recommend that if you find a book or item you suspect contains arsenic, you should take care to handle it with gloves and clean the surfaces it came in contact with. In a National Geographic article on Emerald Green books and their possible dangers, Michael Gladle the director of environmental health and safety at the University of Delaware talks about if handling the books is dangerous or not “Arsenic is a heavy metal and does have some toxicity associated with it, principally, either inhalation or ingestion,” he says. The relative risk of emerald green book cloth “depends on frequency,” Gladle says, and is really only a concern “for those that are in the business of preservation.” (Justin Brower, Michael Gladle, National Geographic). The same goes for books with lead or mercury pigments, yes, the chemicals are detrimental to your health in large quantities or throughout prolonged exposures (factory workers who handled emerald green by the gallon would suffer skin lesions and in extreme cases even cancer), but they amount used in books will rarely make someone sick.

Illustrated plate from a French medical book showing
arsenic injuries to the hands

    For more information on arsenical books, how to identify them, and to see a list of confirmed toxic books, visit the Winterthur Poison Book Projects website (http://wiki.winterthur.org/PoisonBookProject/). The Winterthur Conservationists are the leading researchers when it comes to poisonous books. If you think you have a book with arsenical green book cloth, you can even request that they send you a bookmark with full color swatches of the various shades so you can identify them. The Northwest Railway Museum recently requested a batch of these bookmarks so that we can take the proper measures when it comes to handling our own collection of books, some of which may be arsenic or emerald green.

Another shot of the museum's own possibly toxic books

Take this box and shelve it!

The Railway Education Center in January.

The Railway Education Center is located on the Northwest Railway Museum campus on Stone Quarry Road in Snoqualmie, Washington.  The building is designed to appear like a train station, but was built to provide museum functions including a library, reading room, collection processing, classroom, and restrooms.  

Rolling carriages are the
heart of a SpaceSaver
shelving system.

The library collection is housed in a vault that features special environmental controls to tightly control temperature and humidity.  This room is designed specifically for storing and accessing the paper-based collection, which includes photographs, books, leaflets, engineering records, and more.  This installation opened in early 2017 with just five rolling shelves, but will ultimately incorporate more than one linear mile of shelving.  

Registrar Cristy L. demos
how the rolling shelving
moves along the black
tracks set into the floor.

In just three years, those five shelving units are almost completely filled with books and other materials.  It quickly became apparent that the Museum had to add another shelving unit to allow continued processing of the collection backlog.  

Thanks to a major grant from the King County 4Culture cultural equipment program, and additional support from individual donors, a new 32 inch shelving carriage has been added to the vault.  SpaceSaver made this rolling unit with attached shelving and completed the installation through their representatives at Southwest Solutions.  

Cristy L. shows off the library's new set
of wheels: 10' high, 11' long, 32" wide

The SpaceSaver shelving arrived in large crates and assembled much like a giant Erector or Meccano set.  It was ready to load with boxes after just four or five hours of effort by the Southwest Solutions crew.  Already many important documents including all the chapel car 5 research, and exciting tomes published by the Association of American Railroads have found a new home on this brand new mobile storage structure.

The Northwest Railway Museum staff, trustees and patrons send a huge "Thank You" to King County 4Culture, and the more than dozen individual donors who made this new shelving financially possible.

First books in the vault

January 2017 has been an eventful month at the Northwest Railway Museum. Not only has staff moved into the new Railway Education Center, but the first books were cataloged and placed in the new archival vault.

Meet Tom and Teena Kracht, long-time members and volunteers at the Northwest Railway Museum.  This month, just shy of the Museum's 60th anniversary, Tom and Teena symbolically placed three volumes of Kirkman's Science of Railways on the new library shelving. 

Readers of this Blog will probably be surprised to learn that it was Teena Kracht who first shaped the image of the new library and archives.  "A few short years ago" as a library science student at a local community college, Teena brought fellow students to the Museum to help catalog books.  As the needs of the collection were discussed, the idea of a vault took shape.  Later, a formal needs assessment funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and written by Randy Silverman articulated the details of exactly what would be required to "do it right."  And then Tom and Teena were the first donors to support the new vault.  Thank you Teena, and thank you to Tom, too, for the many publications you have helped catalog, and for your support in creating today's archival vault!

Scenes from the Education Center dedication

Saturday, October 8, 2016 was dedication day for the Railway Education Center ("REC"), the third phase in the development of the Railway History Center campus in Snoqualmie. While some work remains to be completed, the building is enclosed, the heat is on, the restrooms work, and at the dedication everyone could tour the building!  

The event was modest and straight-forward.  It included a special train ride; dedication speeches by Washington State Representative Chad Magendanz, Snoqualmie Mayor pro tem Bob Jeans, Museum Board President Dennis Snook and Museum Executive Director Richard Anderson; and refreshments consisting of hot cider, cake, and cookies.  During the event, many of the more than 200 guests posed along the front of the Railway Education Center for a group photo.

Museum staff and a number of guests added a special touch: period clothing. Even Deputy Director Jessie Cunningham and Executive Director Richard Anderson participated, each wearing their own representation of early 20th or late 19th Century attire! (Usually only Registrar Cristy Lake and Marketing Manager Peggy Barchi participate.)

Highlighting some of the important points concerning this latest phase, Executive Director Anderson said, "This third phase of the Railway History Center is actually critical mass for the Museum.   This latest facility allows the Museum to operate exhibits independent of train operation, and allows extended visits with train operation.  With this new facility, the Museum will be able to expand the size of audience and significantly increase the length of visit.  These factors are important not only to the success of the Museum, but increase its economic impact in the community."

He continued, "The Museum has been developing what came to be known as the Railway History Center for most of its history.  The more concerted effort has taken place over the last fifteen years, with active construction beginning about 11 years ago.  This latest effort called the Railway Education Center, is the third phase, and actually completes the original museum scope envisioned 60 years ago. And What makes this project and the museum successful?  It certainly isn’t one or two people, it is a diverse team and includes trustees, staff and volunteers.  So whether it is a trustee who makes a substantial financial contribution, a volunteer who contributes material to the library, or a staff member who fills out a grant application, all of the team members are vital to the project success.  But there is another important element: community.  The City of Snoqualmie and its current and former mayors and council, it is the community members, it’s the county, and the State.

"And what makes this project and the museum successful?  It certainly isn’t one or two people, it is a diverse team and includes trustees, staff and volunteers.  So whether it is a trustee who makes a substantial financial contribution, a volunteer who contributes material to the library, or a staff member who fills out a grant application, all of the team members are vital to the project success.  But there is another important element: community.  The City of Snoqualmie and its current and former mayors and council, it is the community members, it’s the county, and the State."

Anderson added, "I have personally been working on museum development for the Northwest Railway Museum since I accepted this job almost 22 years ago.  I believed in the Museum’s mission then, and I continue to believe in it now.  It encompasses a vision that is not a library or an exhibit hall, not a steam train or a railroad bridge, it isn’t a book or a locomotive, and it is neither a short experience nor a long one.  It is all of these things that together present a cohesive and compelling story about how the railroad shaped settlement and development in the Pacific Northwest.  Thank you for being here today to help us celebrate this achievement, and welcome to the Railway Education Center."

Railway Education Center nearing completion

Cladding is being applied to the exterior

The new Railway Education Center at the Northwest Railway Museum is rapidly approaching completion. Just in the last few weeks, crews have been completing the electrical work, installing heating and air conditioning duct work, applying gypsum board, and applying steel cladding to the exterior. The building dedication is set for October 8 so the pressure is on!

Scaffolding allows workers to install
the special air handling system in the
vault. 

Special air handling is being installed in the archival vault. It will maintain relative humidity around 40% and the temperature at between 60 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The vault incorporates approximately 800 square feet and will feature extended height compact rolling shelving along with a very high floor load rating. An enormous volume of material will be accommodated in this purpose-built space that is being protected with a "clean agent" FM-200 non-aqueous fire suppression system.

The women's restroom will feature seven
stalls.  Hopefully, no one will ever have
to wait.

Another notable feature of the new Railway Education Center is the restroom. The combined total of "receptacles" is 14, exceeding the Snoqualmie Depot count of just eight. This will improve the visitor experience during major events that may be held at the new museum campus and ensure - or so Spike sincerely hopes - that families with young children are comfortable visiting for longer periods of time.

The classroom is really taking shape!

A primary feature of the new center is a classroom to accommodate school groups, lecture series, rules instruction, traveling exhibits, and more.  Adjacent storage rooms will allow for maximum flexibility so the room configuration can be almost infinitely modified. An adjacent kitchen will provide support for larger and longer events too, as well as support for Halloween and Santa Train!

Attic storage.  Note fire suppression
piping to the right.

Up in the attic a clever feature is being installed. With the building's massive foundation and structure to allow a library and archival vault, the attic area is receiving a special records storage unit. Important museum records that are not part of the archival collection will be stored in fireproof file cabinets located in the attic area and accessed with a retractable ladder. (The fireproof file cabinets are further protected with a fire suppression system.) Most business records are kept for not longer than 7 years so the room has been set up to allow the easy removal and disposal of materials once their life cycle has been completed.

The "front" elevation of the Railway
Education Center.

During some construction days there are more than 20 workers on the site making for rather congested working conditions. Substantial completion is scheduled for October, small and punch list items will be worked on in November and December, and the "move in" time horizon remains in early 2017. Meanwhile, fundraising continues and your contribution to help assure completion of this important new facility and the programs it will allow will be acknowledged on a donor board in the new foyer.

Railway Education Center framing

Construction of the Railway Education Center is continuing, and its objective of improving preservation and access will soon be achieved.  This new facility will incorporate 5,000 square feet and features an archival vault, public restrooms, a classroom, admissions and program offices.  An elevator will assure accessibility in this two-story structure. 

Since the last update, building framing has begun and is now well underway.  The structure is being "built to last" so it is more likely to survive potential natural disasters, and many decades of public use.  The Snoqualmie Depot was built with similar ideas and last year celebrated its 125th anniversary!  Check out these recent images that illustrate progress on the new Railway Education Center:

Framing began in mid June 2016 with the boarding plat-

form and the outer walls.

 

Boarding platform close up.



By late June, the second floor began to appear.  The

building is being clad with plywood to minimize off-

gassing that occurs with many modern materials such

as Oriented Strand Board (OSB).



The staircase takes shape.

Floor joists are massive - the archival collection is being

located on the second floor high above the flood plain.







The end walls were fabricated horizontally and then

tilted up into position.

 

In early July the basic exterior walls were complete and

sheathed with plywood.  Work has now shifted to interior

walls and the roof.

 

Archive construction begins

An excavator clears away brush and

organic soil in preparation for GeoPier

piles.

On an unremarkable and cloudy day in March 2016, an excavator was delivered to the Railway History Center on Stone Quarry Road in Snoqualmie.  It attracted little notice from Mt. Si high school students, who sped along Stone Quarry Road in the parent's cars at their usual speeds, which rivaled those attained by Amtrak Cascades.  Yet the excavator was soon meaningfully changing the way the Northwest Railway Museum will operate in the future.  The excavator was on site to begin building a public parking lot, and to clear and grade the footprint for the new Railway Education Center ("REC"), the third building on the Railway History Center campus.

Railway Education Center rendering

developed by Miller|Hull.

The REC will be a modern building designed to appear similar to a train station, but using a modern architectural flavor developed by designers at the Miller|Hull Partnership. It is a project valued at nearly $3 million, and is moving to construction after a lengthy permitting process, and the time required to secure construction financing.  The general contractor is Kirtley-Cole, who is experienced in the construction of institutional buildings of this size. Construction began in earnest in mid March, and will hit its peak in early summer.  The project is scheduled to reach substantial completion in early fall 2016, but many uncontrollable factors including weather could affect the completion date.

Parking lot construction adjacent to

Stone Quarry Road begins to take

shape.

Fundamentally, it will be a tool to expand public access and improve preservation.  It will house essential facilities and services including public restrooms, admissions, and a small gift shop, but it will also incorporate an environmentally-controlled archival vault to preserve the Museum's irreplaceable collection of photographs, documents, and books that illustrate, interpret and document the railway history of the Pacific Northwest.  A reading room will be provided to allow students and other researchers to access the collection.  The collection lab will be used to process and conserve small objects and paper-based materials.  A classroom will provide for lectures, presentations, tours, and school groups to congregate and learn about regional railway history. 

First floor layout.  Library and archives

will be located on the second floor.

The REC is a facility that addresses needs first identified when the Museum was founded in 1957.  Its design has been under development for more than seven years; it is being constructed between the Conservation and Restoration Center (2007) and the Train Shed (2011). After completion, this new facility will allow the Railway History Campus to open to the public when there are no trains operating, which will allow the Museum to serve a broader and more diverse audience.  A lack of public restrooms, parking, and program offices are just three factors that have limited the Museum's ability to expand public access, but which this new facility addresses.

Major funding has been awarded for the REC by 4Culture, the Washington State Historical Society's Capital Heritage Fund, the Schwab Fund, major corporations including Puget Sound Energy and the BNSF Railway, and hundreds of individuals.  The Museum has additional support opportunities including the upcoming May 3rd Give BIg event (click on the link at www.trainmuseum.org), and  a live donate now link here.  Your support will help expand public access and improve preservation.
 

The Railway Education Center

This Miller|Hull illustration superimposes the new Railway Education Center

design rendering adjacent to the existing Train Shed and main track at the

Railway History Center.  (Click on the illustration to view a larger version.)

The Northwest Railway Museum is preparing for construction of the third building on the Railway History Center campus in Snoqualmie.  The Railway Education Center ("REC") will incorporate 4,940 square feet and include a library with archival vault, classroom, and public restrooms.  It will be located directly adjacent to the Train Shed exhibit building to provide for year 'round public visitation.

 

The REC is more than a library, classroom, and restrooms.  It will incorporate office and work space for collections staff.  It will include a reading room for researchers.  A small gift shop will provide an outlet for published rail-themed books.  There will be a ticket office where visitors will be able to purchase train tickets and admission tickets for the Train Shed tours.

The distinctly Northwest design was developed by the award-winning Miller|Hull Partnership. A sampling of sustainable design features include the use of primarily locally-sourced materials, high R values for insulation, LED lighting, windows to take advantage of natural light to the greatest extent possible, and a heat pump to provide heating and cooling.  Construction is planned for spring 2015 and will take up to 12 months.

 

The Railway History Center is located approximate one rail mile east of the Snoqualmie Depot.  The campus design was developed in 2007 by a design consortium including the Miller|Hull Partnership, Outdoor Studio, KPFF Consulting Engineers.  Funding sources include individual contributions, private foundations, the Washington State Historical Society Heritage Capital Projects Fund, and 4Culture. Your contribution can make a huge impact!  Please consider supporting construction of the Railway Education Center with a contribution using the Museum's online donation page here.