The ARC (Archival Resting Cradle) reinvents the way collections and care professionals handle book cradling: prioritizing efficiency, support, and sustainability.
Features
The ARC offers features that traditional foam cradles lack, aiming to improve the handling experience of books.
In-Use Adjustability
Move the cradle freely to your desired angle while working with a book. There's no need to swap wedges.
Easy to Clean
Made with acrylic paneling: easy to disinfect, and combats staining from red rot and hazardous materials like arsenic.
Long-Lasting
This cradle promises a long lifespan, and multiple use applications, keeping the cradle out of the landfill.
Swappable Spine
Accomodates for wider and thinner book spines, as well as the use of blankets and pillows with different spine inserts.
Wide Board Support
Supports extra wide book boards up to 16" long and 12" tall, adjustable.
Crafting the Cradle
Every collections and care professional is different: they each have a set way of handling books, organizing their reading rooms, and assembling their cradles – all honed into a perfect system over many years of working in the field. Despite having these familiar systems, they have their peeves and desires for more efficient methods of cradling books.
Book cradles are an important tool for handling and interacting with books. Whether it be for display, reading, imaging, or restoration, a book cradle is at the center of the book’s safety and stability for various interactions. There have been many iterations of the book cradle, from bespoke to manufactured, however, there is a need for book cradles that meet the goals of efficiency and sustainability.
Market Research
There are different types of cradles for different applications. The cradles I primarily looked into are cradles built for reading rooms, display, and imaging.
The cradles I researched can be summed up as follows:
Foam Cradles
Cost: $200-$800 (depending on size and system)
Applications: Reading rooms and restoration
Pros: Relatively customizable, offers good board support, mix-and-match pieces, lightweight
Cons: Bulky, lack of friction (on tables, and sometimes books, depending on the foam), hard to clean, susceptible to red rot/arsenic staining, inefficient workflow applications
User Research
Interviewing directors of libraries, scholars, researchers, and students, I pinpointed common pain points surrounding modern book cradling systems.
While every individual had a different preferred style of working, there were some commonalities I could work around:
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Foam cradles are bulky and typically take up way too much storage space.
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Reorganizing wedges while working with a book is inefficient.
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Angles should be fine-tuned to a specific book’s needs.
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The cradles must be easy to clean.
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There was a desire for a cradling system that could accommodate the benefits of personal workflow preferences (ex. using book pillows).
Ideating the Cradle
The process began with pinpointing how I wanted the cradle mechanism to work. I knew that I wanted the angle to be adjustable in some way, and at the time I had goals of making the cradle more portable.
Early sketches of the cradle
My earliest Fusion360 model featured the mechanisms that I liked the most from my ideation, which included adjustable angles, plates, and plans to fold up the cradle for storage.
Motion demonstration
The extending arches would be supported with a friction-based holding system, a lot like how tripods work. The scrrew would bring two pieces together that would squeeze the middle piece in place.
The boards were going to have a teeth gripping mechanism in order to hold them out, but I found out that they hold perfectly fine through friction.
Prototyping the Cradle
With support from the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection (Steven Galbraith), I was able to procure materials to prototype my cradle. The process took several months and required me to make many adjustments to my CAD model as I assembled it.
Click on the images for more details on production
Prototyping & Design Restrictions
The design and prototype of this cradle were restricted to my means of manufacturing it. I had to be able to assemble this cradle using tools that were available to me, including laser cutters, 3D printers, and basic power tools.
Current Cradle Prototype
The current functional prototype includes the following features:
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An adjustable opening angle of ~115°-70°
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Panels that support boards up to 12" tall and 16" wide*
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Swappable/removable spine support inserts
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Easy to clean acrylic panels
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No-slip feet
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In-use adjustability
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Storage space of about one 12”x6”x4” wedge
* The panel extends to ~14", but it effectively supported a book with 16" boards
Changes Made
(Not Included in Prototype)
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Flat top panel (no holes) for easy cleaning
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Removal of bolts from the spine insert
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Solid footing on the arches
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Handle redesign
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Divots added for no-slip feet
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Knob adjustments
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More spine sizes (wider and thinner)
Future Inclusions
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Vertical angling
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Attachable page holders (book snakes)
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More spine variations, including cushioning
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Fabric/foam covers for panels
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Angle measuring and marking tools
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Storage/transport methods
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Iteration for mini books
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Will exclude expandable plates
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Iteration for elephant folios
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Will include reinforced support
on raised arches
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Will include a crank mechanism for
raising arches
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Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by:
Thank you Steven Galbraith (skgtwc@rit.edu) from the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection (cary@rit.edu) for supplying the materials necessary for prototyping, and monitoring the project during my independent study period.
Thank you Leah Humenuck (lh2897@rit.edu) for being my primary project monitor these past two years.
Thank you Juilee Decker (jdgsh@rit.edu) for being my primary faculty sponsor who helped me bring this project into an independent study, and for introducing me to Leah.
This project was presented at the American Institute of Conservation 2025 conference in Minneapolis.
Resources
“Book Display Stands, Book Cradles, Book Pillows & Book Mounts: Gaylord Archival.” Book Display Stands, Book Cradles, Book Pillows & Book Mounts | Gaylord Archival, www.gaylord.com/c/Book-Cradles-and-Mounts. Accessed Mar. 2024.
“BPG Materials, Equipment, and Tools.” AIC Wiki, American Institute for Conservation, 18 Sept. 2015, www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/BPG_Materials,_Equipment,_and_Tools.
“Conservation Materials: Acid Free Paper and Board, Adhesives and Tapes, Framing and Bookbinding Supplies.” University Products Inc., www.universityproducts.com/conservation-materials. Accessed Mar. 2024.
Decker, Juilee. Personal Interview 1. 25 November, 2024.
Decker, Juilee. Personal Interview 2 with Class. 14 April, 2025.
Dreyfuss, Henry. The Measure of Man and Woman: Human Factors in Design. John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
Fletcher, Tim; Justice, Lorianne. “Professional Practice (Patents).” 24 September, 2024. Rochester Institute of Technology. Lecture.
Galbraith, Steven; Hugill-Fontanel, Amelia. Personal Interview 1. 17 September, 2024.
Galbraith, Steven; Hugill-Fontanel, Amelia. Personal Interview 2. 15 April, 2025.
Hannington, David. Basic Care of Books. Edited by Christine McNair, Canadian Conservation Institute = Institut Canadien de Conservation, 2022.
Humenuck, Leah. Personal Interview 1. 28 November, 2023.
Humenuck, Leah. Personal Interview 2. 20 February, 2024.
Humenuck, Leah. Personal Interview 3. 30 April, 2025.
Siebach-Larson, Anna; Haag, Autumn; Mead, Melissa. Personal Interview. 8 March, 2024.
“Stilt Book Cradles.” STILT Book Cradles, stiltbookcradles.com/. Accessed May 2024.