Hi Beverly,
This is an interesting case, for sure. Honestly, it will ultimately be up to the donors on what they decide to do (just as you mentioned.)
I've consulted with some colleagues about this, and we all agree that we would advise against the application of any permanent marker medium over top of the original handwriting. Doing so would contradict our Code of Ethics, really. Would the donors be open to pursuing alternative passive solutions? An idea that we discussed was the possibility of recording legible text and printing (via laser printer) onto archival-quality paper and interleaving the information into the scrap books. The transcriptions could be inserted into archival plastic page protectors and bound into the book (if it's in a 3-ring binder format). It might be a harder sell, but another idea would be to do comprehensive annotated photodocumentation of the scrapbook. That way, both the photographs and associated information could be recorded and stored digitally as well as physically, if the donors wish to print the photographs out.
If the donors are determined to apply a permanent white marker over top of the original text, they might have a hard time getting information or recommendations from an accredited conservator on how to do so. I am going to reach out to some of our C2CC paper experts and see if they can offer any additional solutions or ideas.
Stay tuned, Beverly, and I'll add to this thread as I receive information from our experts.
Best,
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Nicole Peters
Conservator
Peters Art Conservation Services, LLC
Skagway AK
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