About the Toxic Book Project at Fresno State
In August 2024, the staff at the Special Collections Research Center became aware of the Poison Book Project, spearheaded by the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and the University of Delaware. This is a recent project started when, in 2019, Winterthur staff discovered some of their nineteenth century cloth book bindings contained arsenic. After further investigation, they decided to start the Arsenical Database and share the information widely, hoping to raise awareness and document more book titles with proven levels of arsenic or potential arsenic contamination.
Books of concern were published between 1816 and 1899, published in Europe and Britain, and feature green cloth bindings.
The Toxic Book Project at Fresno State is a response to the Poison Book Project, initiated by the Special Collections Research Center and the Fresno State Library. The Project aims to proactively take steps to remove the potentially toxic books from our circulating collections and securely sequester the books in non-circulating collections with protective bags.
This guide is for anyone interested in learning more about arsenic in books or the history of printing and book binding, based on the Poison Book Project.
This library is indebted to the pioneers at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and the University of Delaware and their colleagues for bringing this issue out in the open and educating people in the field as well as the general public.