Preservation Tips: Caring for Documents and Papers

Hello I'm Heather Johnson a curator at the  Bess Bower Dunn Museum and one question   we get asked often is how can people  care for their paper documents at home?   Some things to know are that all paper will  become acidic with time. You can see this when   it starts to turn yellow. Newspaper is a really  good example of this. It yellows very quickly.   It also might start to become brittle or kind  of crumbly around the edges. And it's important   to know too that acidity will affect nearby items  so it's kind of key to think about how things are   stored and what's stored next to each other. And  interestingly, sometimes you might find that your   older papers are in better shape than newer papers  and this is because of how paper making processes   have changed over time and how that has affected  the quality of papers. So first, things that you can   do are storing things in the house where the  people are. This will provide climate control   and will help minimize damage that might occur  with temperature and humidity fluctuations.   Careful handling is also needed if you're  unfolding or unrolling pieces of paper.   And if possible you should be able to store things  flat. This will help minimize damage and wear and   tear at the folds. If something does become  damaged or tear don't try to fix it yourself.   There aren't any adhesives in the market today  that are have longevity for doing repairs on   historical materials. That adhesive will eventually  discolor and eventually will also fall off which   defeats the purpose of using it. And if you're  considering displaying items try to keep them   out of direct or constant light. You could get  them professionally framed using a UV filtering   glass and archival framing materials. And that  will help. But maybe you're at a point where you   want to consider investing in some products  that will be safe for storing your papers.   One thing you could use are archival tissue papers  and paper for interleaving items. We talked about   storing things separately. You could easily do  this by slipping sheets of paper in between.   This will protect them from each other and help  that acidity from migrating. The things that you're   going to want to look for to make sure that you're  getting archival quality papers are acid free and   lignin free. Lignin is a naturally occurring  substance in paper that's made from wood pulp   but this can be removed. You might also see that  some of the paper products have what's called a   calcium carbonate buffer and all this does is help  further neutralize the paper on that acidity scale.   Another option are archival paper folders. Again  you want to look for the acid free and lignin free.   These are nice because they'll provide support for  your documents or if you have a lot of materials   you're organizing you can use this to help store  related materials together. It provides a place for   labeling. An additional option is using clear  sleeves for storing things. This can be useful   because you can still see the document. So if it's  something that you want going to be wanting to   use or look at a lot this could be the way to  go. Be aware that it does not protect from light   and you also want to make sure that it's not  completely sealed in. You don't want to seal   in any moisture or any gases that might  be occurring as the paper becomes acidic.   So you always want to make sure that at least one  side is open. And you could of course get archival   boxes. This will provide good safe enclosures  for your materials where there's nothing harmful.   These are made out of, again, archivally safe  paper that is acid free and lignin free   and it doesn't use adhesives to hold the box  together. And they come in a variety of sizes so   no matter how much material you have or what sizes  you can probably find a box that will work for you.   Some resources for all these materials are down  in the links below. To learn more about the Dunn   Museum and Lake County History subscribe to  our Youtube channel or visit www.lcfpd.org/museum.

Channel: Dunn Museum

Views: 6,783

Keywords: Dunn Museum, DunnTV, Lake County IL, Paper, Archival, Museum Collections

Id: UOUY9K6wHzs

Length: 3min 37sec (217 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 15 2022