Inside the Library of Congress’s Artificial-Aging Lab

At the Library of Congress, a team of scientists is working hard to make objects age as fast as possible. That may seem counter to the usual goals of a library, but the purpose is ultimately preservation: The institution’s accelerated-aging lab is studying ways to keep materials intact longer. Using freezers, climate-controlled chambers, and ultraviolet-light lamps, the team is looking for methods to better preserve things like paper, photographs, and compact discs. Staff can then make good decisions about how to preserve artifacts without waiting hundreds of years.

Recently, Andrew Davis, a chemist in the library’s Preservation Research and Testing Division, showed us how it works. The lab tests materials commonly found in the collections, such as glass, cardboard, and even barcodes, to make sure they won’t have detrimental effects on the artifacts. By subjecting the objects to extreme conditions like high heat and humidity, Davis says, scientists can simulate decades of wear in just months. This helps the library determine the minimal conditions needed to preserve certain artifacts. The goal isn’t to keep them in pristine condition but to slow their natural deterioration.

Accelerated-aging labs aren’t uncommon in museums and galleries, but the Library of Congress’s facility stands out for its size and advanced equipment. The lab often collaborates with other archives and libraries that store historic and rare collections, including the National Archives and Howard University. “The way you think about a painting that’s on a wall that no one touches is very different from a document that can be handled by anyone who requests it in a reading room,” Davis says.

An ongoing issue for the lab is digital media, such as CDs and DVDs. Once believed to be permanent, these objects are already degrading, causing the information to disappear. The short-term solution, which has been to transfer the information to more modern digital-storage methods, isn’t so straightforward. Digital storage, such as data centers and hard drives, may pose another set of preservation challenges down the road. “Techniques will have to continue to evolve to keep up with the complexity of new media,” Davis says. “Maybe it needs a new piece of equipment that the lab doesn’t have or a new approach to a method that hasn’t been used before. As there are new things, we are always going to need to adapt.”

This article appears in the January 2025 issue of Washingtonian.

Damare Baker

Research Editor

Before becoming Research Editor, Damare Baker was an Editorial Fellow and Assistant Editor for Washingtonian. She has previously written for Voice of America and The Hill. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied international relations, Korean, and journalism.