Princeton University Library (PUL) Special Collections is home to no shortage of unusually shaped or strangely sized items. Between unfurling photographs and preserving death masks, Special Collections faces the challenge of determining how best to store its various items to ensure their availability to scholars and students for years to come. 

So, when a patron requested access to “Vale’s improved globe and celestial sphere,” members of PUL’s Preservation and Conservation lab knew that the box it was being housed in wasn’t the right fit. 

“Eli [Boyne] was the one who looked at it initially and determined that it needed better housing for long-term storage,” said Conservation Technician Martyna Gryko. “Instead of doing any sort of treatment on it we just wanted to house it better.”

The item, which was featured in the September 10, 1846 edition of Scientific American, illustrates the earth’s relative positions to the equator, ecliptic, tropics, and meridians. Then available for schools to purchase for just $24, the globe also features removable parts meant to symbolize the sun, moon, and planets. 

“So, I knew that I needed to build a mount so that the globe had a base to sit into,” explained Gryko, noting the importance of scholars being able to view and handle the globe from various angles. 

“I started off planning, making some drawings,” Gryko said. “Brian [George] and I came up with a convoluted plan for how to make this work.” 

Eventually, she settled on a simpler idea — cutting some Ethafoam for the globe’s metal cage. 

“Then, I put the globe in and it sat there perfectly,” said Gryko. “It didn’t wiggle at all. I was like, ‘oh my goodness, you did it!’”

From there, she prototyped the full housing at a smaller scale. Once the prototype was finished she used Ethafoam, ⅛” Volara foam, cotton batting, corrugated board, and twill ties to build the full casing. 

“It took a few weeks of research and looking at how different universities house items to come up with this,” Gryko said. It was probably a month or two from when the globe came to the lab of doing the research and building the housing. 

Defining and Solving Problems

Problem-solving is a key component of Gryko’s work in the Preservation Lab. Though she is limited by how much time she can realistically spend on any given item, she’s been supported by her colleagues to dedicate time to things that need inventive solutions. 

A graduate of the College for Creative Studies with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Gryko continued on to North Bennet Street School. Initially taken by bookbinding, she broadened her focus into the conservation and book repair field. 

“After graduating from North Bennet, I freelanced and did some mount making for MIT,” Gryko said, adding that she worked on a pair of MIT’s exhibitions. She also completed a fellowship at the Boston Athenaeum, where she learned more about custom housing and conservation. 

“We’d order prefab boxes that I altered to better fit the books,” Gryko said. These projects rely on an understanding of geometry — accounting for spatial nuances, like how an object needs to be viewed or handled by a researcher — to ensure both accessibility and long-term care. 

“Ultimately, the patron was excited to see the globe,” Gryko said. “I don’t know what made it special, but I’m glad she could do the work she needed to do.”