Toxic Book Project

Articles

• Brower, Justin. "These green books are poisonous—and one may be on a shelf near you". National Geographic. 28 April  2022. 
• Delbey, T., Holck, J.P., Jørgensen, B. et al. Poisonous books: analyses of four sixteenth and seventeenth century book bindings covered with arsenic rich green paint. Herit Sci 7, 91 2019. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-019-0334-2
• Everhart, Megan M. F. "Arsenic and old books". University of Delaware. 22 June 2022.
• French, Robert. “If Books Could Kill: Poison, Heavy Metal, and Literature.” Museums Victoria, Technology and Industry. 2025. 
• Gil, P. et. al. “Detecting emerald green in 19thC book bindings using vis-NIR spectroscopy.” Anal. Methods, 2023,15, 6603-6609. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3AY01329D
• Grayburn, Rosie, and Melissa Tedone. “From Poison Books to “Bibliotoxicology”: Highlighting Hazards in Paper-Based Library Collections.” Collections, 0 (0). https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906241255706
• "International poison project uncovers library's toxic tome". Leeds City Council News. 22 October 2022.
• "Leeds: Rare book laced with arsenic found in library". BBC News. 28 October 2022.
• Poison Book Project (Wikipedia) 24 July 2024.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_Book_Project 
• "Rare book laced with deadly arsenic found in Leeds library". ITV News. 28 October 2022.
• “Screening Books for Arsenic and Other Toxic Pigments.” Bruker. 2025.  
• Sirmans, Harikleia. “Judging A Book by Its Cover.” Textile Tuesday: Toxic Textiles in Libraries. Textile Society of America. 18 April 2023.
• Sloan, Marisa. "Victorian-era Books Bound in Emerald Green Are Laced With Arsenic". Discover Magazine. 19 September 2022.
• Stimpson, Ashley. "Old books can be loaded with poison. Some collectors love the thrill". Washington Post. 24 July 2024. 
• Tedone, Melissa and Rosie Grayburn. “Arsenic and Old Bookcloth: Identification and Safer Use of Emerald Green Victorian-Era Cloth Case Bindings.” JAIC. 22 March 2022.  https://doi.org/10.1080/01971360.2022.2031457
• Tedone, Melissa and Rosie Grayburn. “Toxic Tomes: Understanding the Use and Risks of Heavy Metals in Nineteenth-Century Bookcloth.” Collections: a journal for museum and archives professionals. 21 April 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906231159040
• Vermeulen, Marc; Samuel M. Webb, Susan Russick, Alicia C. McGeachy, Karissa Muratore, Marc S. Walton. “Identification, transformations and mobility of hazardous arsenic-based pigments on 19th century bookbindings in accessible library collections.” Journal of Hazardous Materials 454 (2023) 131453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131453
   

Books

• Hawksley, Lucinda. Bitten By Witch Fever: Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Victorian Home. London: Thames & Hudson. 2016. 
• Lundblad, Kristina. Bound to be Modern: Publishers’ Cloth Bindings and the Material Culture of the Book, 1840-1914. Trans. Alan Crozier. New Castle, DE : Oak Knoll Press. 2015. 
• Krupp, Andrea. Bookcloth in England and America, 1823-50. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press; London: British Library; New York: Bibliographical Society of America. 2008.
• Tomlinson, William, and Richard Masters. 1996. Bookcloth 1823-1980: A Study of Early Use and the Rise of Manufacture, Winterbottom’s Dominance of the Trade in Britain and America, Production Methods and Costs, and the Identification of Qualities and Designs. Cheshire, Eng.: D. Tomlinson. 1996. 
• Whorton, James C. The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. 2010. 

Webinars

•  Bruker Nano Analytics Interviews the Poison Book Project with Dr. Melissa Tedone and Dr. Rosie Grayburn. 2023. (YouTube)
• C2C Care: The Poison Book Project: What You Need to Know about Historical Bookbindings with Dr. Melissa Tedone and Dr. Rosie Grayburn. 2023. (YouTube)  
• Duo Dive: Books that Can Kill featuring Melissa Tedone. 2021. (YouTube) 
• Heavy Metals and 19th-Century Euro-American Bookcloth Manufacture with Dr. Melissa Tedone, Fred Bearman Memorial Lecture, ICON. 2022. (YouTube)