# Looking Through the Layers

Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861) was considered the first American symphonist prior to the US Civil War. He wrote a prodigious amount of music and each symphony manuscript consists of multiple sheets of paper, many of which contain the composer’s corrections. In the 19th century, instead of white-out, corrections and edits were added by adhering a small piece of paper to cover the original handwritten musical notation. Modern music historians and scholars are as interested in a composer’s original ideas as they are in the easily read edits. Preservation staff use specialized knowledge of the unique chemistry and materiality for the inks and papers of the 19th century and frequently employ the safest and most expedient method for detaching the “paste-over” and re-attaching it by a secure hinging system. However, when a manuscript easily contains hundreds of paste-overs, it becomes most efficient to use multi-spectral imaging, which is a series of different waves of light that allow one to “see” through the layers of paper to read the text below.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2025
- Runtime: 59 min
- By: Peckham, Susan
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/video-10688/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/video-10688?play=1)