Scotch Tape - the curse of every conservator

Sticky tape was first invented in the mid-19th century, and it’s been making conservators’ lives hell ever since.

“Tape is the bane of the conservator’s existence,” says Margaret Holben Ellis, a professor of paper conservation at New York University. The problem is simply that tape works too well. Removing it can easily take off a layer of paper, and adhesives from old tape can sink into paper, staining it an unsightly yellow or brown.
You can’t really blame people for using tape, says Elissa O’Loughlin, a former conservator at the Walters Art Museum, who co-teaches a five-day course on paper conservation. “It’s just human nature,” she says. “It was seen as a miracle product.” Pressure-sensitive tape, to use the official term, is much more convenient and easy to use compared to older adhesives that required heat or water. Of course, people would use it to repair rips in drawings and documents, without thinking of conservators in the future.

To read more go to: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/how-to-get-scotch-tape-off-of-a-work-of-art/560738/

Maybe DNA Can't Answer All Our Questions About Heredity

HEREDITY is a powerful concept. It’s the thing that ties families together—that gives shape to their shared history of stories, of homes, of personalities. And more and more, it’s the way we understand families’ shared genetic inheritance. But that more modern biological notion of heredity comes with some new, technical baggage: It’s easier to talk about the high blood pressure that runs in your family than it is to discern the alleles that define it, all the meiotic divisions that had to occur before that trait was passed down to you. And misunderstanding the role DNA does or doesn’t play in determining one’s fate can have dangerous consequences.

Luckily, acclaimed science writer Carl Zimmer is here to unravel the tangled history of the science and pseudoscience surrounding heredity, in all its many forms. In his expansive, engrossing, and often enlightening new book, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh.

To read more on this fascinating concept, go to: https://www.wired.com/story/maybe-dna-cant-answer-all-our-questions-about-heredity/

Last Will & Testament of Zephaniah Clement

History of Early Bibb County, Alabama 1820-1870, by Ulysses Huey Abrams
The Will of Zephaniah Clement Will of Zephaniah Clement, Bibb Co., AL
Copied from the original will in the files of Probate Office.


I Zephaniah Clement of the Co. of Bibb & State of AL being weak in body, but of sound & perfect mind & memory, do make & publish this my last will & Testament, in manner & form following (to wit) First I give & bequeat unto my beloved son Stephen Clement One Dolar over & above the amount he has already received - I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved son William Clement One Negro girl named Nell & one Horse, & one cow & Calf worth Ten dollars & one Bed & furniture worth ten dollars & one Bed & furniture worth fifty dollars to him & his heirs forever -

I also give & bequeat unto my beloved son Thomas Clement on negro girl named Harriett one Horse worth $100 one Bed & furniture worth fifty dollars & one cow & calf worth ten dollars, to him & his heirs forever- I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved son Luellen Clemment one negro girl named Rose & one Horse worth $100 one Bed & furniture worth fifty dollars one Cow & calf worth fifty dollars, tho him & his heirs forever.

I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved son Alfred Clement one negro girl named Amy one Bed & furniture worth fifty dollars, & one cow & calf worth ten dollars, to him & his heirs for-ever I do leave in the care of my executors for the support & maintenance of my beloved dau. Isabel Clemment one negro girl named Writta one bed & furniture worth fifty dollars & one cow & calf worth ten dollars to her during her natural life, & then to return to her Brothers & sisters to be equally divided among them.

 I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved dau. Polly Wash one negro girl named Fanny one Horse worth one Hundred dollars, one Bed & furntiure worth fifty dollars one cow & calf worth ten dollars, eifht head of hogs worth fifty dollars to her & her heirs forever. I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved dau. Susanna Terry one negro girl named Mirah & Hundred dollars in money one bed & furniture worth fifty dollars one cow & calf worth ten dollars one sow & pigs worth ten dollars to her & her heirs forever- I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved dau. Leanna Clement one negro girl named Betty one Bed & furniture worth fifty dollars one cow & calf worth ten dollars to her & her heirs for ever - I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved dau. Nancy Hunt one negro girl named Dina one Mule worth one Hundred & fifty dollars One bed & furniture one cow & calf worth ten dollars, to her & her heirs forever -

I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved dau. Parsada Clement one negro girl named Juli one bed & furniture worth fifty dollars one cow & calf worth ten dollars to her & her heirs for ever - I do also give & bequeat unto my beloved dau. Anna Mariah Jones all my right & claim to certain tract of land lying in the state of SC Edgefield Co. Walnut Creek now contested by law, & in case she should fail to recover the said land that she is to receive four hundred dollars in lieu thereof out of the proceeds of my Estate to her & her heirs for ever - It is also my will that the following negroes (to wit) Gilbert, Nan, Milly, Lucy & Dicy, Judy, Pharo & Ester be kept together upon the plantation, under the care & direction of my Executors until the discharge of all my just debts, & after the discharge of said debts that the said Negroes be equally divided so as to make the smallest legacies equal with the greatest. & lastly,

I do appoint my beloved sons William & Thomas Clement & John Hunt my sole Exectuors of this my last will & Testament - hereby revoking all former wills by me made - In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal the 25th day of Jan. in the year of our Lord one thousand & eight Hundred & twenty two.

Signed Z. Clement His Seal Signed, sealed, published, & declared by the above named Zephaniah Clement to be his last will & Testament, in the presence of us, who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses in presence of the Testator: P. Watkins, Samuel Cammack, & Lewis Cammack. Peter Watkins & Samuel Cammak proved the Execution of the Will 25th Feby Feb. 1822. Let it be recorded. A.M. Lusk, Judge of Bibb Co. Ct.

This will also recorded in Book C pages 10, 11, & 12.
http://www.africanaheritage.com/uploads/564/FarrisFamilyPart2uploaded.txt

Signed, sealed, published, & declared by the above named Zephaniah Clement to be his last will & Testament, in the presence of us, who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses in presence of the Testator: P. Watkins, Samuel Cammack, & Lewis Cammack. Peter Watkins & Samuel Cammak proved the Execution of the Will 25th Feby Feb. 1822. Let it be recorded. A.M. Lusk, Judge of Bibb Co. Ct. This will also recorded in Book C pages 10, 11, & 12.

This was published in the "Alabama Sentinel" which was printed and published by Thomas B. Grantland of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  "March 24, 1826
 Adv. Bibb County 6 March 1826.  John Hunt, one of executors of will of Zephaniah Clement, deceased with William Clement and Thomas Clement to make final settlement."

Zephaniah's estate was appraised on March 9, 1822 for $7,087.50.
What cost $7,087.50 in 1822 would cost  $132,461.80 in 2017. Inflation Calculator http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi