Caring for and Preserving Your Family Treasures
Your family heritage and personal collections are precious to you. Proper care and maintenance of your family heirlooms and works of art will ensure that they are available for future generations to enjoy.
Helpful Websites
These websites offer conservation and preservation tips, guides and instructions for books, paper, glass and ceramics, documents, furniture, videotape, metal, paintings, photographs, textiles and more.
AIC: Caring For Your Belongings
Find information from the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) to help you better care for your personal heritage. See guides on how to care for and extend the life of your family treasures.
Center for Home Movies: Preservation
Explore a collection of resources with information for preserving your family films.
Library of Congress - Preserving Your Family Treasures
This comprehensive website gives detailed instructions and guidelines on topics such as collections care by item type, matting and framing, emergency preparedness and how to handle existing damage.
Library of Congress - Preserving Your Digital Memories
This website provides an overview of scanning and digital storage media (DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or internet storage) as well as information on how to preserve your digital photographs, audio, video, electronic mail, personal digital records and websites.
National Archives: Caring For Your Family Archives
Learn how to care for your family archives including preserving family papers, digitizing photographs, converting home movies to video tape and repairing documents.
Nebraska Public Television: Saving Your Treasures
Learn about saving your treasures through online videos and printable files. Get practical and effective methods to help ensure that artifacts, photographs and documents will survive into the future.
Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute: Taking Care
This site offers broad guidelines and strategies for artifact and collections care. These have been compiled into "Guidelines" pamphlets, which can be downloaded. In addition, our Technical Information staff have compiled a number of pamphlets to point you in the direction of information we are unable to provide, such as directories of conservators and artifact caretakers, and other topics as well.
Please Note: The information presented here is not intended to provide comprehensive technical advice or instructions on preservation issues. Any information contained or referenced is meant to provide a basic understanding of preservation practices and does not constitute an endorsement by the Wisconsin Historical Society.