AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

General Order # 3 is an original document of the United States government that bears witness to the events of June 19, 1865. This day is commemorated as Juneteenth and since 2021 is celebrated as a federal holiday. The Order was issued by U.S. Army General Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas. It fulfilled the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed by President Lincoln two and a half years earlier.

This presentation describes the journey of discovery of the original Order in the stacks of the US National Archives that served as context for decisions on the conservation and exhibition of the historic government ledger. The story of this conservation treatment is a lesson in treating a bound volume containing a document of monumental significance as a whole object in order to retain meaningful historicity and to ensure the physical stability of the displayed pages.

For the thousands of people including US Citizens and international visitors who see the Juneteenth order exhibited along with the Emancipation Proclamation, the conservation treatment outcome informs the viewer on the role of archives to preserve the written record in original formats when possible and practical. The presentation describes the debate on whether to disbind or retain the ledger format, the treatment itself, and some observations on the details of the complex treatment, including an unexpected detail in the midst of the project.