Every folded note and every handwritten annotation in your treasured family books hold a piece of your heritage. Discover practical, easy-to-follow techniques for caring for aging books, including ideal storage conditions, handling practices, and DIY preservation tips. We’ll also explore when expert conservation is essential—and how to avoid well-meaning mistakes that cause lasting damage.

Our speaker, Lesa Dowd, is a book and paper conservator, design binder, and educator with more than 25 years of experience preserving the physical record of history. Her career has included conservation and leadership roles at Northwestern University, the Chicago Public Library, and, most recently, as Director of Conservation Services at the Newberry Library.

In 2022, Lesa stepped away from institutional library work to found Bookish Farmgirl, LLC (bookishfarmgirl.com), where she continues her conservation and bookbinding practice while sharing her expertise through teaching and outreach. When she’s not caring for rare books and fragile documents, she can often be found tending her vegetable and flower gardens—bringing the same patience and attention to detail to the soil as she does to the page.

The Webinar will be recorded and available on the CGS website in the members only section for 30 days.

Registration is required via the Chicago Genealogical Society website under Events. Registration will close 1 hour prior to the event. The meet-up will take place virtually via ZOOM. All people registered will receive an email the morning of the event with log-in instructions and a link. This information is not to be shared. Registering for this webinar signifies you accept responsibility to either show or hide your visage, voice, or both on the webinar screen and audio for this live presentation and ergo its recording.

Note: This webinar is FREE for CGS members. Non-Members can register for the event for $10. No refunds.