In my pre-Mommy days, I worked as a curator at a local history museum. This usually elicits the response, "Hmmm. That's very interesting...um...what does a curator do?" I did a lot of exhibit work and gave tours of our historic house, but mostly I worked in storage and organization of old stuff. You name it, I've worked with it, from bomb casings to undergarments to medical lancets. It's an eclectic job. It occurred to me that we as parents are often entrusted with things that we want to save for years to come, whether they are family heirlooms or just the first crayon drawing created by our darlings (Little Miss' is hanging on the fridge right now, Little Man has yet to produce one as he still attempts to eat the crayons). With that in mind, I want to put up a short series of articles that will give a few basic guidelines for textiles, paper, photographs, and multimedia. Up first...paper.
There are three basic rules for any artifact, no matter the medium. 1) Keep it out of the sun. 2) Avoid temperature swings. 3) Avoid high humidity. My rule of thumb is, your treasures like to live where you like to live. Don't stick them in the basement, where they could be exposed to extreme humidity and the potential for flooding. Don't stash them in the attic, with dramatic temperature changes and possible exposure to vermin. Instead, think of an extra bedroom, a closet, or even under the bed.
Before storing, start with a few practical preventative measures. First, think about the object in question. Is it even a good candidate for saving? Your child's treasured glue-and-macaroni artwork is not going to stand the test of time, no matter how hard you try. Something like macaroni (or cereal, or sand, etc.) is too heavy for the paper it's on, and it will start to weigh it down, tearing the paper and eventually falling off. Even the best glues, let alone plain old Elmers, are not going to hold for years to come. Second, remove all metal. Paper clips and staples will rust, causing lasting discoloration. Third, unfold. Fold lines become extremely worn and delicate, and tears are almost inevitable. If you have inherited something that has been folded for storage, perhaps something large-format like a family tree or an ink drawing, carefully unfold it as soon as possible! It's only going to get worse. Fourth, don't use tape for any reason, even to affect a repair. Tape will eventually fall off, leaving a sticky residue behind, but not before it discolors and damages your special artifact.
If you are working with something oversized, that I have now made you unfold, you might be panicking. What am I going to do with this giant thing if I can't fold it!?! Well, the next step, whether your looking at a business card or a poster, is to find an appropriate folder or possibly a box. All of these materials should be acid free. Paper contains acid, and this acid will start to deteriorate the object. Some papers contain more acids than others. Modern newspapers, for example, almost never make it because newspaper has such a high acidity level (instead of trying to save a clipping, photocopy it onto acid free paper). If you use a folder or box that has an acid content, the places where your treasure touches its storage container will become brittle and discolored. So make sure to go acid free.
Museums use a variety of archival companies when they buy boxes and other supplies. A few of my favorites are: Light Impressions www.lightimpressionsdirect.com, Hollinger www.hollingercorp.com, University Products www.universityproducts.com, and Metal Edge www.metaledgeinc.com, but there is nothing wrong with an acid free set-up from a store like Archivers or even kits sold from Amazon. The only differences are price, available sizes, and quantity. When buying boxes and folders, the description may say "buffered" or "unbuffered". Something that is "buffered" has a low PH rather than a neutral PH. The low PH is designed to counteract the high PH in acidic paper and other materials. Something "unbuffered" is simply acid free. Most museums go for "unbuffered" almost exclusively because some materials, like silks, can react negatively to "buffered" materials.
If you have just a couple of items to store, buy a packet of acid-free folders, and you're done. You can put more than one artifact in each folder if you layer acid-free paper between the treasures (you don't want colors to bleed or acids to travel from one paper to the next). If you have a lot of legal-sized or smaller things to store, you might want to get a document box. These are about 4" wide, nice and sturdy and designed to hold dozens of folders upright (FYI: avoid metal and wood cabinets for storage, buy a box instead. Metal can rust and thus discolor your objects, wood has a very high PH). If you have something very large, or even just a non-standard size, you can get big sheets of acid-free poster stock that can be made into large folders with a bit of cutting and folding. Museums do this all the time. The companies I listed above sell boxes of all different sizes and shapes, so you should be able to find one that meets your needs. Boxes can hold multiple items, again, if they are layered with acid-free paper (or tissue) or in folders. Keep these large-format items and their boxes flat. Gravity is not their friend.
Another option is a clear plastic-like material called mylar that is completely neutral and safe for your artifacts (plain plastic is not ok). The above companies have mylar sleeves in all different sizes up to about 11"x14". These could then be filed in your folders or boxes, or even stored in a three-ring binder. Beware if your treasure is very delicate. You have to slide the object into the mylar sleeve, and delicate objects can't take that pressure. Instead, you could by a large roll of mylar. With some double-sided tape (applied to a front and back pieces of mylar, never to the artifact itself), you can easily create your own custom sleeve. This is a little bit like lamination, but museums do not under any circumstances recommend lamination because it is impossible to reverse and directly alters the artifact. If you laminate, your item is no longer the original paper artifact, it is now a plastic-y shadow of what it was. Museums don't do it, but if you want to have something sturdy and visual to display for years to come, lamination may be the choice for you. Just don't do it to anything that has historic or monetary value. If you laminate, it will have neither.
If you want to frame, make sure to use acid-free mats and backing board. Keep the artifact out of the sun. You can help prevent fading by buying UV protectant glass from any of the companies I've mentioned above. They'll custom-cut it to the size you need. If you have the artifact framed by a professional, make sure that they don't use any tape at all, even just to secure it in the corners. You'll never see it until you try to unframe, but then, its sure to tear and in the mean time, it is discoloring your treasure.
I was a museum professional for five years, and I have a Master's degree in museum studies. If you have any specific questions about something you want to preserve, just email me. I'll do what I can to make a recommendation. If you have a lot of artifacts to store, you might want to check out one of my favorite preservation books The Care of Antiques and Historical Collections. This is a staple in most museums' professional libraries and covers a whole variety of artifacts.
