Relocating America’s Legacies: The Library of Congress and The Library of Virginia
By Maxine Erlwein
The NVACC Mountain Lair
The Library of Congress (LOC) chose a renovated facility in Culpeper, Virginia, as the destination for the nation’s recorded sound and moving image collection. Once used as a reservoir for the Federal Reserve’s cash, the facility’s cool underground environment and lighting were ideal for housing the LOC’s fragile historical collection. The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NVACC) is a 415,000 square foot high-tech complex spanning four buildings, and set within mountain rock. With only the front 1,200 feet visible, the NVACC steel-framed front windows seem to be a grinning metal smile appearing from the lush green face of Mount Pony.
The Collection
The building was renovated for the consolidation and housing of the world’s largest collection of sound and picture-based media. Black and white film, 16mm and 35mm film and film masters, recorded sound, magnetic audio and videotapes – the moving image collection contains over 1,850,500 units, including 140,000 nitrocellulose films. The three and a half million item recorded sound collection includes over 500,000 LPs; 600,000 78- and 45-rpm discs; 200,000 compact discs; 175,000 tape reels; and 75,000 cassettes; and 500,000 unpublished lacquer-coated glass disks containing congressional recordings from the 1800s. From Thomas Edison’s first recording device on wax cylinder, to the first narrative film The Great Train Robbery (1903), to brass music box disks; if the LOC had it, it was going into the new facility.
The Move
The LOC had the space, now they needed to select the most qualified moving
company to entrust with this historic collection. Having already moved LOC
collections successfully into the James Madison Building, Library
Relocation Services was the company of choice to handle a project of this size and complexity. The collection was housed in nine separate locations in MD, VA, DC, PA, and OH.
This Collection Could Combust
Having hundreds of thousands of fragile and variously-sized items was certainly an initial challenge, but
Library Relocation Services has moved many unique, fragile, and oddly-sized collections. However, this collection had an even more unusual handling requirement. Until the introduction and wide use of acetate-based film in the fifties, motion picture film was nitrate-based, and therefore highly flammable. Using the same element in smokeless gun powder worked for moving pictures, but it created a challenge for
Library Relocation Services. If the films weren’t moved properly, they could combust – a potential for injury and equipment damage, as well as the loss of priceless pieces of American history.
Don’t Drop It!
Larry Chwirut, the Project Director for the LOC relocation described the moving and handling of LOC collections, “There were incredibly fragile pieces to this collection, like lacquer-coated glass disks and the wax cylinders, all of which had to have specially designed and manufactured carts for transporting. One of the most unusual aspects of this relocation was the nitrate-based film collection.” From the Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to Culpeper, the films had to be moved almost five hundred miles without a bump, spark, or rub. “The low flash point meant the films had to first be packaged in anti-static plastic bags, then placed into DOT approved 55-gallon steel drums filled with anti-static peanuts, and transported in climate-controlled and air-ride suspension trucks.”
That’s All, Folks
The project, now in the post-move stages, spanned a two and a half year period. A smooth move, and a “resounding” success, the LOC now shares with the public some of these historical collections through exhibits and audio-visual presentations.
Library of Virginia
Another highly specialized move was the Library of Virginia. Not only a massive quantity of collections had to be moved, but a special high-security document as well. In just over three months our Library Services Division Team moved 59 miles of books, journals, and manuscripts; in total over 7 million rare items including copper engraving plates, glass negatives, and writings from every president through the Civil War. An accomplishment we are especially proud of is to have devised a solution to address security concerns surrounding the move of one of the only surviving copies of the Bill of Rights. We created a “fake move,” crating and transporting a custom crate onto a diversion truck in front of the library while quietly and securely moving the real Bill of Rights through a nondescript side door.
Relocation such as the Library of Congress and the Library of Virginia demonstrate the need for experienced, trustworthy, and dedicated library moving specialists. The
Library Relocation Services takes collection stewardship to heart, and is pleased to have been entrusted with the United States' rarest, most fragile and precious historical artifacts and documents.
Library Relocation Services
www.libraryrelocationservices.com