Midnight in the Garden of Soggy and Damp: The Newyear's Eve Disaster at the Virginia Historical Society

Abstract

On New Year's Eve 1993, a burst fire-suppression pipe flooded the Virginia Historical Society with 8,000 gallons of water. Unprocessed manuscripts, rare books, general collection materials, portraits, museum objects, and furniture were affected. The staff, assisted by the Virginia Conservation Association, Chubb Insurance personnel, and Servpro, responded quickly. The book collections were treated in various ways,including freeze-drying, air-drying, and rehousing. Some items were repaired at the historical society; others were sent to outside contractors for drying and conservation. The process of recovery and rehabilitation of the collection required 1,222.5 staff and volunteer hours and 10 months for completion. The final cost was 76,000. The article discusses recommendations and procedures learned from this experience that will benefit other institutions.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.