Poison Book Project

It was started in 2019 when Winterthur staff members Melissa Tedone and Rosie Grayburn identified a book containing Paris green in the institution's collection.

[2] In 2019, whilst conserving one of the library's books, the 1857 Rustic Adornments for Homes and Taste, she noticed through a microscope that fragments of the green pigment-dyed starch used to strengthen the bookcloth were flaking away.

[4] Paris green bookcloths are unlikely to be a risk to the general public, but they might cause arsenic poisoning in those who handle the books frequently, such as librarians and researchers.

[5] Shortly after starting the project Tedone and Grayburn identified nine further books from the Winterthur collection that contained arsenic.

[2] The project attempts to identify individual editions of historic books that contain hazardous materials such as arsenic.

[2] The project advertises itself with bookmarks showing examples of books containing Paris green; these have been sent to libraries in 49 US states and 19 countries abroad.

The cover of an old book title "THE CRYSTAL PALACE" showing in yellow or gold the Crystal Palace surrounded by allegorical figures. The background is dark green.
This edition of Tallis's history and description of the Crystal palace, and the Exhibition of the world's industry in 1851 has been identified as having arsenical material in the bookcloth . [ 1 ]