I had heard that Jack Kerouac typed an early draft of his novel On the Road as a scroll in 1951 so he could write in a continuous stream of consciousness without pausing to insert more paper. In 2008, I had the opportunity to see this scroll in person when it was displayed at The New York Public Library's exhibition Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On the Road.

I had no idea Kerouac had typed additional manuscripts as scrolls until recently, when two scrolls from the Jack Kerouac papers in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature came to the conservation lab for treatment and rehousing.  

The first, Blonde in Car (Dharma Bums reject), is a scene that was cut during the editing of the manuscript of The Dharma Bums. It is on a continuous piece of paper the width of typewriter paper, but 51.5 inches long.

The other scroll is Kerouac's translation of a Buddist Sutra, The Diamond Vow of God’s Wisdom—and it is 120.75 inches long! We are very lucky to have large enough work benches in the Goldsmith Conservation Lab to accommodate it.

 

Both scrolls had been stored together, rolled, in a document box. Tears in the paper had been repaired with tape, possibly dating back to Kerouac's lifetime, judging by how brown the tape has become.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When tape has been on paper for a long time, the adhesive begins to seep into and around the paper fibers. It fills up the air pockets between paper fibers, which leads to the paper becoming darker and more transparent. As the adhesive moves into the paper and away from the strip (called a "carrier") the adhesive was originally attached to, the strip will eventually fall off. The loss of the carrier exposes the adhesive to oxygen, which causes it to crosslink and become browner, and more bonded to the paper fibers. 

Conservation Treatment and Housing

My first step was to lightly clean any surface dirt and debris from the surfaces. Next, I removed tape carriers and any adhesive on the surface using an electric spatula; when connected to a rheostat, the spatula gets warm enough to melt the plastic adhesive, but not burn the paper. It is one of my favorite tools. 

To remove tape staining that is entrenched within the paper fiber matrix, it is necessary to use solvents. I positioned the affected areas of the paper over a suction plate and applied a solvent mixture by dropper until the adhesive staining gradually wicked out the back of the scroll onto blotter paper placed behind it. This took many hours because it is a slow process and I had to treat multiple locations. 

The yellow, acidic discoloration is soluble in water and much easier to remove. I placed the scrolls on damp blotter paper and lightly sprayed water on the front. The blotter paper absorbed some of the discoloration, leaving the papers brighter and less brittle. For objects of this length, handling while damp requires a second pair of hands, and I found a willing partner in fellow conservator Grace Owen-Wiess.

To repair tears, and support the scrolls through future rolling and unrolling, I lined the backs of the scrolls with a thin, strong-fibered Japanese tissue paper transparent enough to show some pen markings on the backs that may have been made by the author. After lining, I placed the scrolls between dry blotters and under weights for a few weeks, to dry thoroughly and flatten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also created custom Mylar sleeves welded along one short side of the scrolls. This will support and protect them during rolling, unrolling, and handling. Each scroll was rolled around an archival tube, and both were placed in a custom box, along with a third tube onto which the outer end of the scroll can be fed for viewing. This allows different sections to be seen even if the researcher does not have enough table space to lay an entire scroll flat.