Olivia DrakeMichaelle Biddle, collections conservator and head of Preservation Services in Olin Library, is the author of "Inks in the Islamic Manuscripts of Northern Nigeria - Old Recipes, Modern Analysis and Medicine," published in the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 2 in July 2011. The study is online here. This study is concerned with what specific materials were used in fabricating the inks used in the surviving, largely undated Northern Nigerian manuscripts written in Arabic script. These manuscripts belong to the West African tradition of Islamic culture and scholarship, of which Timbuktu, Mali, was a key center. Technical materials analysis, recipes from ethno-cultural studies,…
Corrina KerrMichaelle Biddle, head of preservation services, has returned from a five-week sabbatical to Nigeria, where she conducted a survey of Islamic manuscripts and related materials in northern Nigeria under the auspices of the Arewa House, Centre for Historical Documentation and Research, Ahmadu Bello University. Biddle was there working on preserving documents and taught conservation workshops to preserve documents in Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto and Maiduguri and teach archivists and conservationists how to best preserve paper documents in accordance with international conservation standards. The program Biddle taught was entitled “Conservation in a Box” and was funded by the U.S. Ambassador's Cultural Preservation Program.…