Abstract
ABSTRACT Bookbinding and restoration serves as palimpsest of the human labor required to maintain and curate the library's stacks. The material history of library collections is therefore about more than the book itself; it is a means of revealing the largely invisible histories of the library workers who interact with them. This article examines the binding and restoration work of Hortense P. Cantlie as a case study through which to expose and document the largely invisible networks of human labor in libraries. Beyond bringing to the surface a previously “hidden collection” for study, this reconstruction of Cantlie's work simultaneously reveals the invisible labor of library workers, her impact on the material history of the books she bound, and McGill Library's collections overall. Furthermore, the work presented in this article reveals the invisible labor involved in the process of reconstructing that history.
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