Tuesday 17 June 2025, 12pm to 1pm
Online
Conserving a century-old animated picture book
In this lunchtime talk, Laura Mirebeau will outline the work done to conserve the Dorothy Neal White collection — a research collection of children’s books enjoyed by young New Zealanders before 1940. The collection includes many moving parts books including pop-ups, flip books, or transformation books including the The Motograph Moving Picture Book
Laura will delve into the history and conservation treatment of The Motograph Moving Picture Book. What can a conservator do to make sure both the book itself and its transparency are returned to a functional state for future generations of users?
The Motograph Moving Picture Book
The Motograph Moving Picture Book was published in 1898 by Bliss, Sands & Co in London. The illustrations are by F. J. Vernay, and the cover design is by H. de Toulouse Lautrec. There is a transparent screen for viewing the pictures in a pocket. The book was digitised by the Library in 2025.
About the speaker
Laura Mirebeau is a Book and Paper Conservator working in the Collection Care team at the National Library of New Zealand. She holds a Master in Conservation of Cultural Materials, specialising in Books and Paper, from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris. She particularly enjoys working with pop-up books, papyrus and Ethiopian manuscripts.
The Dorothy Neal White Collection
The Dorothy Neal White Collection is a research collection of children’s books that were enjoyed by young New Zealanders before 1940. The Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection support the work of this, and other children’s literature collections held in the National Library of New Zealand.
More information can be found here.