Connecting to Collections Care

I'm working on rehousing documents that have been stored badly. Some of the items belonged to a semi-known writer/historical refugee during World War II. He was a prolific writer, and a number of his writings are on fragile (basically tissue) paper. Some of them are quite long, one that's been especially tricky is 90 pages long, so I need to keep it together as best possible. As it was loosely stored in a regular-sized file envelope, a lot of the edges are damaged. I've been smoothing down the creases with a bone tool/micro scapula. This has prevented me from putting the whole thing in a sleeve. The pages are also slightly larger than average, so it is taking a really long time to interleave with tissue paper that has to be cut down. I've been trying to put it in an extra-long archival envolope, but the bulk of the pages and interleaving tissue doesn't seem like this will be protected well. I could just store it all in a flat archival box, but this seems rather expensive and bulky for something that isn't super important. I've been trying to check all the resources to see if there is any advice for dealing with materials like this, but I can't find anything that's really close. Is there some other way that you would approach this?

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Christina Januszewski
Gig Harbor
United States
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Hi Christina, and thanks for your questions. Caring for Archives: Fundamentals for Everyone from the C2CCare webinar archive is a good orientation to the many factors (including housing) to consider when dealing with unbound paper materials. For more detailed information about housing these materials, you could look at the Northeast Document Conservation Center's Preservation Leaflets.

The "Storage and Boxing for Unbound Documents" section of 4.1 Storage and Handling for Books and Artifacts on Paper gives an overview of the storage solutions I've seen most frequently used in paper-based archival collections. 4.4 Storage Enclosures for Books and Artifacts on Paper delves into the recommended criteria to use when evaluating housing materials available from vendors. And 4.9 Storage Solutions for Oversized Paper Artifacts discusses options for items too large to fit into standard letter- or legal-sized housings. 

In general, folders (in turn housed in boxes or drawers) can often be a safer choice than envelopes for loose papers because they allow the papers to be accessed with less handling and abrasion than if they're being inserted and removed from an envelope. I'd also consider something heavier than tissue if interleaving is necessary. In many cases, a paper that's similar or slightly heavier in weight will support vulnerable paper better during handling as well as less likely to crease or crumple.

Thank you,

Rebecca

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Rebecca Smyrl
Connecting to Collections Care Monitor
Library & Archives Conservator
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