Finding the Silver Lining of the Manoa Flood

October 19, 2014-April 29, 2015
Location: Moir Reading Room

The rare maps in this exhibit were saved by the quick response of Library staff and volunteers following the 2004 flash flood. Water and silt penetrated all of the map cases and left the maps lying in a bed of fine red mud. It took ten years to complete the conservation treatment to restore the maps. Various treatment protocols were used including: lifting the dirt out with crumbs made of erasers, and rinsing the large maps to remove caked mud. Treatment protocol for conservation required that the maps were photographed before and after treatment. This was a sampling of the treasures in the Library’s Map Collection exhibited with flood damage pictures to showcase the conservation treatment work executed in response to the disaster. Curated by Lynn Davis