The Conservation Center is dedicated to the long-term preservation of artworks and heirlooms, and our job is to preserve and care for the art, antiques, heirlooms, and archives to allow them to have a future life. The focus of conservation is on stabilizing the current conditions of an item and ensuring its safety for the future. Often, this involves services beyond conservation treatment. Custom framing and displays, installation, storage, and handling all impact the long-term safety of art and heirlooms.
Far from Common: The Commonplace Book of Louis de Marillac
Each commonplace book is unique. They are collections of notes, proverbs, ideas, adages, poems, prayers, recipes, and facts. Commonplace books were created to document knowledge from other sources that were important or useful to the reader. The Commonplace Book of Louis de Marillac is part of the Vincentian Studies Collection of DePaul Univerisity, Chicago. Louis de Marillac (1556-1604) was a member of the French aristocracy and the legal guardian of St. Louise de Marillac, who cofounded the Daughters of Charity with St. Vincent DePaul.
The Hampton University Letterbooks
Letterbooks are filled with a staggering amount of information, indexing all the essential communication a person had during their life. Records of business arrangements, copies of letters, and other important correspondence; the letterbook was an inbox before we had inboxes, a hard drive before hard drives.



