Found a 1912 book in the attic that was bound with arsenic green cloth

I was cleaning out my grandma's place in Albany and found this old poetry book. The bright green cover looked cool, but I did some reading at the library... turns out a lot of cloth from that time used arsenic dye to get that color. I had been handling it with my bare hands for a week. Has anyone else run into old books with dangerous materials? How do you deal with them?

3 comments

3 Comments

ross.jessica1mo ago

My uncle had a whole set of those emerald green Victorian encyclopedias. I bought a box of nitrile gloves from the hardware store and a pack of zip-lock bags. I wiped each cover down with a dry microfiber cloth while wearing the gloves, then sealed them individually. They're fine on the shelf now, just don't touch them.

green.jenny1mo ago

That's basically creating a time capsule for books.

simon_chen8d ago

Ever notice how we're all becoming little museum curators for our own stuff? My grandma's old photo albums live in acid-free boxes now, and I caught myself putting my concert tickets in plastic sleeves. We're not just keeping things, we're building tiny archives in our closets.