From rag to wood going through cereal: technological revolution among the school maps in the archives of the University of Granada (Spain)

Abstract

School maps emerged as new type of document as a result of a series of technological and educational advances spanning the 18th to the 20th century. These maps originally played strictly functional and didactic roles. The passage of time has endowed them with an indisputable historical, documentary, scientific and even artistic character. Those currently housed in archives are generally poorly preserved due to issues related to their manufacture and general lack of concern for their safeguard after losing their original function. This study aims to characterise the materials serving to manufacture them by sampling a series housed in the Archives of the University of Granada, a task that is complicated by their multilayered nature (cloth, paper, printing inks and protective varnish). Preliminary identification of the fibrous elements reinforcing the papers and textiles by means of micro-invasive analytical techniques enables to subsequently define appropriate conservation and restoration protocols.