A Milestone in Conservation: The First Guide to Treating Varnished Wall Maps

We are thrilled to announce a major milestone in the field of conservation—a landmark publication that represents over five years of collaborative research, and a project that our team at CCAHA was proud to help shape from its very beginning. The Conservation of Varnished Wall Maps: A Special Issue of the Book and Paper Group Annual is now available as a digital publication, with the print edition open for pre-order through the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). This comprehensive volume is the first publication ever dedicated specifically to the complex issues surrounding the treatment of varnished maps. 

The Challenge of Varnished Wall Maps 

Varnished wall maps present some of the most complex challenges in paper conservation. Often oversize and mounted on a cloth backing, these historical artifacts suffer from a unique combination of problems: flaking varnish surfaces, discoloration, and structural instability that develops over time as layers of paper, cloth, and varnish interact. 

For decades, conservators have worked largely in isolation to address these issues, each developing their own approaches to treatment. This publication changes that by providing the field's first comprehensive guide to treating these artifacts. 

A Collaborative Journey 

The origins of this publication go back to August 2019, when Seth Irwin, Conservator at the Indiana State Library, brought together a cohort of colleagues with experience treating varnished wall maps. Among the founding members was CCAHA Director of Conservation Jessica Silverman, who remained deeply involved from the project’s earliest days. 

Although the group’s planned presentation for the 2020 AIC Annual Meeting was postponed by the pandemic, their collaboration pressed on. By May 2022, they were ready to share their work publicly for the first time at AIC’s annual conference in Los Angeles. There, the cohort presented a panel discussion, supplemented by individual talks—including Jessica’s Varnished Wall Maps: Treatment & Housing Choices. 

Momentum continued that fall with a pivotal hands-on symposium hosted by the New York Public Library in September 2022. Both Jessica and CCAHA Senior Conservation Assistant Jilliann Herrick Wilcox attended. The event gave conservators the opportunity to share treatment approaches with one another and a wider audience, with Jilliann presenting a hands-on demo on loss compensation. Importantly, the symposium also expanded the conversation beyond the conservation community, bringing in historians and representatives from collecting institutions to add new perspectives and expertise to the project. 

The following spring, the cohort reconvened at the 2023 AIC Annual Meeting in Jacksonville for a second session, The Preservation and Conservation Issues of 19th Century Varnished Wall Maps, Part Two. Jessica again contributed as a presenter, sharing new insights from the group’s evolving research. 

In 2024, at the AIC Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, CCAHA Senior Paper Conservator Heather Hendry presented A Medley of Map Treatments in the Book and Paper Group session. Though not formally part of the varnished wall maps initiative, her talk drew on years of related casework and experimentation at CCAHA, highlighting creative approaches to treating both varnished and unvarnished wall maps. 

Following her presentation, Heather was invited to contribute an article to the forthcoming Special Issue of the Book and Paper Group Annual. Her piece, Varnished Maps Treatment Protocol at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, distills CCAHA’s experience into practical, step-by-step guidance for stabilizing these fragile artifacts. 

Landmark for the Field 

The Conservation of Varnished Wall Maps: A Special Issue of the Book and Paper unites years of research into a single, essential resource — reflecting the persistence of the cohort and the diverse, expert perspectives of conservators, historians, and collections specialists who helped shape it. By demonstrating the power of collaboration across institutions and disciplines in addressing complex conservation challenges, it serves as both an inspiration and a roadmap. 

We are proud of the contributions of Jessica, Jilliann, and Heather, and we look forward to seeing how this publication will guide the future of conservation treatments. 

Get your copy today: Download the e-publication or pre-order the print edition through AIC.