A Busy and Dusty Docent Saturday

By Dr. Leland Whitson, Trustee & Docent Director

Some eighteen Leather Apron Docent Guild members, three staff, and three youngsters helped dust, wipe, clean, vacuum and polish all the equipment and displays in the Mail Gallery at the International Printing Museum after installation of new floor covering.

Early last week the old carpet was removed leaving a surface with carpet glue all over the concrete floor. This proved difficult to remove but was finally accomplished. Before applying the new Epoxy covering, the surface had to be ground down producing a fine dust that literally left a grey-white film over everything!

When I walked thru the back door, I was very happy to see the Epoxy floor covering completed. It is a brownish color with multicolored confetti like speckles and a course finish. It looks good and sturdy. As I approached the Main Gallery, I could see Luis Garcia busy cleaning the two Linotypes. Gary Miller was finishing up with the large gears on the newspaper press. His two compadres from San Diego, John Robinson and Al Rodríguez were hard at work on the Country Printer exhibit.

All of the components in the Colonial Shop were being individually cleaned by Phil Soinski, Marjorie Wilser and new Docent Wendy Emery. Even the plank wood floor had to be scrubbed. When completed, that display was as good as new.

Peter Small, who usually does the tours, was hard at work vacuuming, cleaning and dusting display items from the Gift Shop.

Dwight Antioch had come up with a good idea and was handing out dry paint brushes to use in dusting, especially in tight areas.  

High above the floor on top of the Webendorfer Offset press the three kids, Reuben and Noah Barbour and their friend Zach Smith, were crawling all over the frame cleaning each piece of the press. They were being supervised by Docent Tim Gould who was also on top of this behemoth press.

Dwight Antioch and Curator/Director Mark Barbour had moved his desk back into the office. Dwight was cleaning the desk with vinegar and water then applied a coat of Scott’s Liquid Gold with a beautiful result.

As others arrived, efforts were directed at completing cleaning every item many of which had been placed in the Heritage Theater filling it to the walls. Inspite of being isolated from the gallery, everything was still covered with the grey white dust. Marjorie, Wendy and Donna Colmby cleaned all the glass on over 10 display cases in additon to dusting numerous desks, storage cabinets, type cabinets, etc. All of the Benjamin Franklin props also required careful cleaning.

“Out back” in the Book Arts Institute, Dan Snelen was hard at work installing a new sink into a cabinet top. He had to drill and cut out the drain board top for the new sink, then attach the plumbing.

Also “out back,” Phil Lewis completed an inventory of his donated type case collection labeling each case. Mark has plans to display this fine collection on walls in the Book Arts Institute. I enjoyed visiting with Phil about the various case figurations and how the floor of the case can give a hint as to it's age. This unique collection is a valuable contribution to the Museum’s holdings.

Ray Ballash spent time on the Ludlow casting some unique matrices which need to be returned to their owner. It was Ray’s 40th wedding anniversary. He and wife Pat were going out to celebrate that night. As such he did have to leave a little early.

Board Member Jim Thompson assisted with numerous tasks in both the Main Gallery and the Book Arts Institute.

John Beth delivered two of his hand made bookcases for the library reading room. These cases are works of art having glass doors and wonderfully finished. There will be a number of others delivered next week. These bookcases match the wonderful large reading table he previously fashioned.  

After walking in with a bouquet of flowers, just to brighten our busy day, Colin Browne lent a hand wherever needed. His first assignment to to clean the Gutenberg Press. Colin will be attending an academic meeting in Washington, DC, soon and will be speaking about our Museum. I was honored he asked me to do a recorded interviewed for material about our Docent program to be included in his presentation. Colin is a masters degree graduate graphic artist who has been instrumental in teaching letterpress courses as well as papermaking to students and visitors.  

After our tasty “catered” lunch from Togo’s, Mike Mische demonstrated how to remove rust from a composing stick using electrolysis in a baking soda solution with electrodes from a 6 volt battery charger. It worked! In explaining the process, Mike told of how the technique is used in car restorations by dunking an entire car frame in a huge tank. Jim West, our neighbor, pointed out how it is also used in making fine metal parts for armament.

Also in the afternoon, their work completed in the Main Gallery, Marjorie, Donna and Wendy set about to print some additional Docent ID name tags using Ludlow set type on the Parlor Press. Dr. Charles Mohr was most helpful in setting extra names on the Ludlow.

John, Al, Noah, Gary, Tim and Colin did some difficult metal rack assembly on the THIRD LEVEL of pallet racks in the warehouse, a dangerous and tricky job, for sure.

Luis found time in the afternoon to set some corrections on the Linotype for a book he has been working on for Gary.

Near the end of the day it was amazing to see the Main Gallery almost ready for visitors with most of the equipment and displays in place. Mark expects all to be ready by end of the day on Monday.

The new floor covering looks great giving a brighter appearance to the gallery and all the antique equipment from the Lindner Collection.

At the end of the day, Mark agreed with my statement, “The Docents have done it again!”

“Couldn’t have done it with out the Docents. Thanks again,” Mark added.

Indeed, we got ’er done.