PUBLISH, THEN PERISH - THE RECLAMATION OF A COLLECTION OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS

The need to cope with enormous amounts of material has occasionally re sulted in tile sacrifice of original materials that have been publishe d, based on the ''rule of thumb'' that once published, these materials are of less value to a, repository than those materials that are not published. One of the most famous collections of drawings produced in the late 1800s. the dinosaur type specimen illustrations of rile O. C. Marsh Collection, almost fell victim to this practice. This paper chr onicles the collaborative efforts taken to preserve this historic coll ection; outlines the integrated approach to preservation that was used (including a discussion of the various types of surveys, folder lists , prototypical housing materials and storage, and duplication procedur es); and discusses how the seemingly contradictory needs of access and preservation may be resolved through interdisciplinary dialogue.