Connecting to Collections Care

Hi Regina, 

That's a really interesting issue, I had thought the Micron pens were more long-term stable! I haven't had to label something directly in some time, but I've pulled some resources for other materials that might offer some other options:

C2C Marking and Labeling Collections Recording & Resources

• Includes a recording of the presentation given in 2015, and has an attachment with resources that might give some other materials

Ellen Carrlee's blog on labeling kits

• Ellen offers a different type of marker - the Zig Millenium pens - which may have a longer lasting black pigment in them.

What solvent are you using for the B72? Is it possible that it's just not fully evaporating off and impacting the legibility of the writing? 

While we get some collections that have already been labelled, where I work has moved more towards either labelling the enclosure and including an image, or attaching a tag. Hopefully others out there will add their experiences as well!

All the best,

Liz

Hi Regina,

I recently was removing old India ink labels from silver objects and this proved really difficult as the ink's solubility had shifted and it had etched into the metal over time. I personally would encourage moving away from writing directly on objects. When I relabeled these silver objects, I wrote the numbers with Pigma pens on medium weight long fibered tissue and adhered this label to the object using Paraloid B48N. Of course you can always use archival tags for objects as well! For non-metal objects, there are some great resources on printing labels, including this one: https://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/digital-heritage/labeling-objects-laser-printed-paper-labels-tutorial. 

Hope this helps!
Stephanie

Hello, 

Connecting to Collections Care did a more recent "lightning round" webinar on different methods for labeling objects in 2021, which you can catch here: https://connectingtocollections.org/labeling-lightning-round/

Personally, I'm a huge fan of the method of printing numbers on archival paper and then adhering them to the item - you can make much smaller numbers that are still easily legible this way, and it's so easily reversible down the line. You can read more on the method here: https://mnhs.gitlab.io/archive/conservation/www.mnhs.org/preserve/conservation/docs_pdfs/ApplyAccessionnos.pdf

I too, am a huge fan of adhering numbers printed on paper to objects and the article Megan referenced is very helpful.  

I'm not a fan of acetone so I prefer using water soluble Rhoplex as my adhesive whenever possible.  The article mentions using Rhoplex AC-33 (Primal) which has since been discontinued and Rhoplex B-60A, rebranded as Primal, is the replacement. 

Not long ago one of our regional conservators ran an Oddy test on the Rhoplex B-60A and it failed.  She tested a couple alternatives and is now recommending Rhoplex 1950 which can be purchased from Talas.  (Talas may not be the only vendor but it's the one I use.)  I have yet to listen to the C2C Labeling Lightning Round webinar and perhaps this is already addressed there.

Cheers,
Rhonda