The San Diego Natural History Museum is exhibiting the Dead Sea Scrolls and related historical documents from June - December 2007. Art & Framing Solutions was approached by the person in charge of the Russian manuscripts being brought over from the Firkovitch Collection in St. Petersburg. The Leningrad Codex, written around 1010 C.E. is the oldest complete Hebrew Bible still preserved and is considered one of the best examples of the Masoretic text. The Russian National Library and government have allowed a portion of one leather Torah (the five books of Moses) and ten codex pages from hand-written and hand-bound ancient books, dated between 929 and 1018 CE, to be shown during the six-month-long Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. Art & Framing Solutions was asked to arrange for acid-free mats to be cut freehand to fit each of the different pages, and for UV or UV non-glare glass for each piece.

The first step was to trace the outline of each piece onto tracing paper. The tracing was then transferred onto the matboard. Using a special mat cutter which allows for freehand cutting, framer Craig Ballen cut out each mat. This was the most difficult part of the job and it took many hours of practice to achieve a perfect cut.

Once all the matboards had been cut, they were placed over a mounted copy of the document. The glass was cut to the same size, and the edges of the glass smoothed to prevent any possible damage. To ensure that all fitted properly, we placed the items in the sample frame. When it comes time to exhibit the pages from the Firkovitch Collection, a staff member at the museum will replace the document copy with the original.

Firkovitch Collection - Framed copy using acid-free matboard and UV non-glare glass	Framed original fragment (Jordan)               Dead Sea Scroll

Conservation framing

Effective conservation of works on paper presents an increasingly serious problem for responsible institutions. Of major concern to museums when exhibiting is the potential for causing damage to precious documents. Whatever is done to a manuscript during framing needs to be fully reversible without causing any harm or alteration to the manuscript. The influence of detrimental external factors such as ultraviolet (UV) light and acid from mounts and backings should be minimized.  

UV rays damage artwork in two ways. Color may be faded by strong fluorescent lighting or direct sunlight. Paper also tends to absorb high energy photons which cause a chemical reaction in the paper, breaking it down and causing it to turn brittle. The effects of light on materials can be reduced by the use of glazing that filters out harmful ultraviolet rays. Conservation quality glass is specially formulated to filter out up to 99% of UV light.

Conservation framing is done in a manner that prevents the artwork from coming into contact with any material that would have a long-term adverse effect. The aim is to use proven materials which protect and maintain the art in as close to its original condition as possible. To prevent acid damage, all materials used are acid-free and lignin-free as acidic substances act in a corrosive manner and cause irreversible damage. It is essential to employ this method of framing for valuable or rare art pieces that comprise an investment.

A preventive philosophy is far less costly, both in terms of expense and of sustaining the integrity of the art or artifact, than calling for help after the damage has already been done. Because Les has expertise in all aspects of conservation framing as well as an eye for aesthetic presentation, the San Diego museum approached him to help with this fascinating part of their exhibition.