Victorian Family Bible Life Written from the Bible’s Point of View
For me, things started to go downhill from the moment my family bought their Family Bible, that’s me.
It was 1837, they bought me from a stationery store, it was common for stationery stores of the time to supply the bound family Bible.
In the cities, the atmosphere was thick with dilute sulfuric acid, caused by the burning of fossil fuels to heat and light the Industrial Revolution.
In the long run, the acid in the atmosphere was going to wreak havoc on my leather covering, and after we got home, it didn’t help that we were kept at a table facing the window, the ultraviolet light from daylight also tended to degrade the materials used in the family Bible.
I was quite the focus of attention when I was young; the family Bible became the spiritual center of the home.
But at the dawn of the 20th century, I was 63 years old and the years had taken their toll on me. Victorian houses used to be damp, and damp is a vital ingredient in the deterioration process that was taking place.
Poignantly, after World War I, mourning letters and newspaper clippings, along with dried flowers, were placed inside me for safekeeping. These flowers contained lignin, a plant acid, and would cause long-term damage to my pages. Newsprint, made from very poor quality paper, yellowed quickly and caused more damage.
Eventually they put me in a box, only coming out when entries were made on the special family pages.
I wish I could say that things got better, but in truth, during the 50’s/60’s there was less and less thought of the family Bible, no one consulted me anymore, but the family facts were still recorded.
By now the decay process that had taken place within my leather cover had caused the leather to break where it was hinged, the front cover in particular was very loosely attached, the leather here was dry and crumbling to the touch; It was only a matter of time.
In 1968 it finally happened, someone took me out of my box and went to open me up, my boards were very heavy, and the brass hardware I had made made them heavier.
When they opened me up my front cover just fell off. They put me back in my box and forgot me.
Being in a house with central heating caused the adhesive used on my spine to break down, it was just paste after all, and then the linings on my spine began to peel off, leaving my leather spine dangling by a thread.
I think it was my family’s conscience that made them do something about their family Bible.
They took me in my box to visit a family Bible repairman; He was going back to my roots, but that’s another story.
by R.Norman