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The conservation of the original pages of the Henry County Cohabitation Register has recently been completed.  Previously, only a poorly and confusingly microfilmed version of this register was available for researchers and was the only option to be digitized for inclusion in the cohabitation register digitization project via Virginia Memory.  Thanks to the diligent efforts of Vickie Stone Helmstutler, the Henry County Circuit Court clerk, the original register pages were located in the courthouse and sent to the Library for conservation.  The conserved pages of the register were digitized and the digitized microfilm images have been replaced with images of the conserved original document.  We hope that researchers find these images a great improvement over the others, which were dark and difficult to read.

A comparison of pictures taken before and after conservation reveals the improvements made to the damaged original document.  Library of Virginia conservator Leslie Courtois dry cleaned the paper surfaces, humidified and flattened creases and crumpled edges, then repaired tears and losses with Japanese tissue and deacidified the document.

Pre vs. Post-conservation, page 7, Henry County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons Cohabiting Together as Husband and Wife, 1866, Local Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

Pre vs. Post-conservation (microfilm), page 32, Henry County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons Cohabiting Together as Husband and Wife, 1866, Local Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

To get a better idea of what these conservation processes look like, please view the YouTube video made about conservation undertaken in 2011 on the cohabitation register from Montgomery County.  The Henry County Cohabitation Register is now in a stable and preserved state which will allow this very valuable record to exist for many years to come.

–Sarah Nerney, Senior Local Records Archivist

Sarah Nerney

Former Senior Local Records Archivist

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