Storing Your Collections: Following Through
This article originally appeared in Exchange, a
newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical
Society. (Volume 24, Number
6, November/December 1982) It is the seventh in a
series of articles titled Conservation Corner.
The series features information about maintaining
an adequate environment for the storage and exhibition
of historical collections, employing proper collection
care techniques, and recording and cataloging historical
collections. This article was written by Joanne Hohler,
retired conservation archivist for the
Wisconsin Historical Society.
Our last column dealt with the need to provide acid-free boxes, folders and envelopes for archival materials. However, the curator's storage responsibilities obviously go beyond securing proper materials. Developing storage systems for special items, determining how individual items are filed in the box, and deciding how the box is placed on the shelf are significant preservation considerations. The handling that each individual item receives is the final test of curatorial care.
In the storage of manuscript and archival materials, papers should be opened flat and packed evenly in the folder. Papers that are not stored in this manner will fray and tear at the edges or crease unevenly, leading to even bigger problems in time. If the folders are not packed tightly enough in the box, the folders and the material in them will slip toward the bottom of the box, curl, be crushed, and perhaps tear. It is equally unfortunate if the box is packed too tightly, making it all but impossible to remove a folder without abusing it and the papers within. A box should be only so full as to allow a folder to be lifted up a few inches, or pushed back into position in the box without a struggle, but full enough to hold the raised folder in that position solely by the pressure of the other folders in the box. This working rule limits the number of sheets one can assign to a single folder. Too few sheets is wasteful of folders, but too many is a poor preservation procedure. Folders generally have one to three scored lines at the fold edge. These should be used, if more than five or ten sheets are placed in the folder, to create a flat bottom edge for the folder to stand on in the box. This will allow the papers to rest evenly on the flat edge of the folder and negate the necessity for solander and flat boxes, in which folders lie on top of each other. Documents stored in this manner will not be harmed in storage or in removal from the boxes for use.
All the folders used in any box should be the same size as the box. A legal-size document case should not contain letter-size folders intermixed with legal folders, even though the documents within the folders may be mixed in size. If the folders do not fit the box correctly, they will shift and the papers they enclose may fray or bend as the box is handled. The folders protect the papers as well as help to identify contents.
Whether placed in folders or loose in a box or carton which is stored on a shelf, the papers should always be positioned so that their edges are perpendicular to the shelf and facing the aisle. There is a reason for this. Imagine the worst: a fire or flood. If the face of the sheets of paper rather than an edge are exposed following partial destruction of the box from water damage, the papers will more readily fall out of the box and off the shelf. To locate and re-sort loose pages scattered about a filthy and slushy floor after such a disaster would add countless hours and result in a whole new dimension to the recovery chore.
Because of their frequently awkward size, maps try a curator's storage ingenuity. If one is fortunate enough to have flat drawer steel blueprint cases, maps can be foldered in large map-stock folders and filed in these oversize drawers quite safely. It is also possible to file maps in oversize acid-free boxes, even though these are more difficult to service. Maps too large for either drawers or the largest boxes available can be rolled on the outside of an acid-free mailing tube or an ordinary mailing tube covered with acid-free paper. The rolled map can then be covered with a linen or polyester wrapping to keep it clean.
Photographic prints and negatives can be stored in acid-free paper
or plastic (polyester, tri-acetate, or polyethelene)
envelopes or sleeves. Plastic enclosures work particularly
well for prints because the image is visible through the plastic and
the risk of scratching the print when removing it from, or replacing
it in, its enclosure is reduced. However, because plastic enclosures
may trap moisture between the plastic and the gelatin emulsion and
cause these surfaces to stick together, acid-free envelopes are preferred
for negative storage — alkaline-buffered if acidic components
are a factor. Nitrate materials, especially, are most safely stored
in paper because the natural porosity of paper permits decomposition
gases to escape. Nitrate film should be stored under refrigeration
to slow its deterioration and to guard against spontaneous combustion.
Optimum conditions of environment, storage, and housekeeping are often difficult to attain. But by purchasing the very best containers, and by organizing the storage area carefully and prudently, the curator will have taken "one giant step" in the direction of preservation. As with the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, much will be owed by many to a very few.
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