Calling Card Book, ca. 1870
Submitted by: Amber
Why is this item important to you?: Collection of my 3rd gr grandfather's calling cards. August Giacomo Jochmus, Baron von Cotign-ola 1808 - 1881. Served as a Austrian Field Marshal. One of our brick walls!
Expert Advice: (Provided by Lindsay Murphy) It is tough to tell the condition of the 150-year old calling card book without personally seeing it, but from the images submitted, it does seem to be in fine shape. I can see some brittleness in the pages the calling cards are (presumably) glued onto, and some staining as well. I can also see some wear and tear on the cover page with the embroidered image. However, the calling cards (and the newsprint clipping) themselves seem to be secure and not hanging loose or falling off the pages. Storage: If the calling card book is bound, I would recommend purchasing and using an acid-free, archival quality box to store the book, as well as tissue paper to wrap the book. If the fabric around the embroidered piece (on what I assume is the cover of the book) is leather, you should use unbuffered tissue paper, which is better for material that contains animal proteins; if it is not leather, you should use buffered tissue paper. The tissue should be wrapped around the entire book so no airborne particles can reach it, and the box should be of a size so that the book can sit inside flatly and should fit snugly (though not too snugly that it is difficult to place and/or remove the book from the box). You should place acid-free paper between each page, so that the materials do not migrate onto the page it is facing/touching. Newsprint, especially, will migrate onto surfaces it is touching, so this is important. You can cut the paper to fit the dimensions of the page. If the book is not bound, the binding has fallen apart over the years, or you choose to unbind it, you can use acid-free, lignin-free folders to store each individual leaf of the book. By placing each leaf in its own folder, you can easily turn the page without needing to touch the actual, potentially fragile, paper. Though it does seem that the calling cards are well-secured to the pages, if they are falling off and/or hanging loosely—or if they begin to in the future—you may want to think about carefully removing them from the page and preserving each item individually. If you do go this route, be sure to scan, photocopy, or photograph each page before doing so, so that you can preserve the exact order and layout that your third great-grandfather created. Some places to buy these boxes, interleaving paper, and folders include Gaylord Archival and Hollinger Metal Edge. Besides archival supplies, some other storage recommendations are to avoid storing this and other similar documents in areas that can experience temperature and humidity fluctuations—so no basements, attics, and garages—and also to avoid storing it in areas with direct exposure to light sources. Handling: The first thing I would do would be to make high-quality scans of the calling card book to reduce touching and use. Once you have a scan, this will drastically reduce the number of times you have to touch the physical documents—and limiting hands-on access it the best way to ensure that items like this are preserved for many years to come. If the book is bound, you may want to consider digitizing the book using an overhead scanner to create high-quality scans of each page without damaging the binding, or, is that is not feasible, you can take photographs of each page. If the book is no longer bound, you can carefully scan each page using a flatbed scanner. If you must handle the physical documents, do not eat or drink around it, and be sure to wash your hands before touching it. You do not need to use gloves to handle the material, as oftentimes gloves actually make it harder to handle and grip paper properly.
