Submitted by: Andrea Why is this item important to you?: Wallet was carried thru Revolutionary war by Capt Asa Clarke. I believe it is important to remember the past which effects our future. My relatives kept these items for a reason. I decided to learn why. Expert Advice (Todd Pattison): This is a handmade wallet which at one time contained at least 15 documents. The two documents shown in the image are 18th century handmade paper with black printing ink and manuscript ink notations. One has a red sealing wax impression in the lower, right-hand corner on the recto while the other has an embossed paper seal, likely affixed with sealing wax in the upper left-hand corner of the recto. Both pieces of paper are discolored, stained, and torn. Both documents were stored folded for many years and have tears and slight losses along the fold lines. The wallet appears to be in very good condition for an object that was carried around by a soldier during the Revolutionary War. The red seal has cracked and appears to be crumbling at the edges with small amounts of loss. Recommendations: You should get high-quality images of the documents and also photograph the wallet to document condition. This would allow you to have this material in a format that can be shared with other interested people and would provide copies of the material if anything happened to the originals. The documents would benefit from conservation treatment as the paper of the two shown is quite damaged; this damage will likely continue if not addressed. There is a Find a Conservator page on the AIC website that allows you to search for a conservator by specialty and location; you would want a paper conservator experienced in dealing with deteriorating paper. It should be possible for a conservator to repair the paper and check the inks to make sure there are no additional issues that do not show up in the submitted photograph. Storage and Handling: The documents are currently stored in plastic enclosures that may be stable plastic, but it might be better to house the documents in separate acid-free folders and a flip-top archival box. Storage in plastic can create a micro-climate with extremes in humidity and it will also trap any off gassing from the chemical reactions that are deteriorating the objects. Also, one of the objects is stored in a plastic sleeve that is too short and does not protect the top of the object. The information that is written on the labels can be put on the folders in graphite pencil to retain that information. You should consider having the wallet boxed as well. It could be placed in a folder and put in the box with the other documents, but a separate box will provide better protection. There are several styles of custom enclosures, including cloth-covered, drop-spine boxes and phase boxes (there are several styles of phase boxes). Good environmental storage condition, especially stable temperature and humidity are important for these item as higher temperatures and humidity speed up the chemical reactions leading to the deterioration of the object. The documents should be handled as little as possible given the condition of the paper. If you do need to handle any of the items wash your hands with soap and water but don’t wear gloves, as they will reduce your sense of touch and could lead to damaging the paper further.
Submitted by: Kassidy Why is this item important to you?: my great-grandfathers memoirs about WW2 and his love affairs Expert Advice (Todd Pattison): Your book is about 30 years old and typed or computer printed on machine-made paper and bound with a comb binding. The pages are slightly discolored, at least at the edges, which may be an indication that the pages are acidic and will break down further in the future. The comb binding is plastic, which likely contains internal plasticizers. When the plasticizers leach out of the polymer then the plastic can become brittle, causing the comb binding to fail. Recommendations: I would encourage you to get high-quality digital images of the volume. This would allow you to share the information with other interested parties and provides an alternate copy of the information in case that copy is damaged or lost. You may want to paginate the pages using graphite pencil if they are not paginated. This will help to establish order in the digitized copy and locate the position of any pages that become detached. Eventually, the binding of the volume will fail as the plastic gets brittle and weak. Also, because of the perforation of the pages at the spine edge it is more likely that the pages can become detached during use. We have materials like this in our collections and typically rebind using a double-fan adhesive page attachment (with stable adhesives) and a cloth covered binding, assuming that there is enough of an inner margin for this procedure. You could consider rebinding this volume or wait until the comb binding fails and store the volume in folders and an archival, flip-top box. You might consider having volume boxed in a cloth-covered, drop-spine boxes or phase boxes (there are several styles of phase boxes) to better protect it. The key to any enclosure is that it fit the volume exactly. If you measure this yourself you need to make sure that you find the largest square dimension, as the box will be square even if the volume is not, and include the thickness of the plastic comb and not just the paper text. A cloth-covered box can be made by a conservator or bookbinder while phase boxes are usually ordered from a vendor. Storage and Handling: You mention that the volume is stored flat, which is good, but that sometimes there are other materials stored on top. As the plastic becomes brittle it will be more likely to break if materials are stored on top of it so it would be best to avoid that. The volume should be stored in an area with good environmental controls as higher temperatures and swings in relative humidity with speed up the chemical reactions that are leading to the deterioration of the plastic and paper. Freezing can also make the plastic more brittle. Handling should be limited so as not to stress the page attachment. When handling the volume, you should first wash your hands with soap and water, but you do not need to wear gloves. Gloves tend to minimize your sense of touch and they are not recommended for handling paper.
Submitted by: Sarah Why is this item important to you?: These photos include my 5x great grandmother, 2-3 of her sons, and my great great grandmother. Expert Advice (Todd Pattison): The photographs are housed in the original cases, which are composed of wood, leather, metal, velvet and sometimes cloth. Some of the images are missing the upper cover of the cases while others have upper covers that are detached. Seven of the images are daguerreotypes, which is the earliest type of commercially available photograph and was widely used in the 1840s and 1850s. Daguerreotypes can sometimes be dated at least generally by the case and gold mat over the photograph. For instance, Wardwell3 has what appears to be an earlier type of mat, which is less decorative than some of the later ones. In addition, the daguerreotype process was used to copy miniatures and small painted portraits, which appears to be the case with Wardwell_Lydia1. This may have been taken after her death, when it was not possible to take a living photo, but it might also have been done to provide a copy for someone who wanted it. The other three photographs appear to be ambrotypes, which were first introduced a little after the daguerreotype, but the two processes overlapped with ambrotypes being most popular in the 1850s and 1860s. A daguerreotype is a photo on silver plated copper while the ambrotype is a photo on glass. Daguerreotypes used glass to protect the photo so both types of cased images include glass. Glass is an amorphous solid, so it is somewhat between a liquid and a solid. While most glass is very stable it can also break down over a long time period. There is spotting on the glass of some of the daguerreotypes; for instance, Wardwell8 has spotting on the glass covering the image, as well as tarnishing on the silver at the edges. Silver tends to tarnish when it comes into contact with oxygen; the cases included seals when constructed to prevent oxygen from getting at the plate so this may be caused by a break in the seal. Recommendations: The glass on the daguerreotypes can be replaced, an option being borosilicate glass, which is much more stable than regular glass. A photograph conservator, preferably one who is a member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and has experience treating daguerreotypes, could replace the glass and examine the photographs for possible treatment, although they seem to be in good condition. One issue to consider are the original seals, if they are still intact you may want to not disturb those but if seals are broken, which is quite possible in the images with tarnish at the edges, replacing the glass would be a good option. There is a Find a Conservator page on the AIC website that allows you to search for a conservator by specialty and location. If the daguerreotype is removed from the case to check seals and replace the glass it should be professionally imaged at that time as you would get the best image capture. There are specific techniques for imaging daguerreotypes to counter act the mirroring you normally get in a photo. The daguerreotypes would also need to be resealed and put back in the cases afterwards for protection. The ambrotypes, being directly on glass, do not allow for the glass to be replaced but they can also be examined for any issues not showing up in the photos submitted. Also, it appears as if Wardwell_Lydia2 may have an issue with the black background that is used to make the underexposed “negative” of an ambrotype appear as a positive image. A conservator could add a black piece of paper behind the image to create greater contrast and improve the viewing of the image. A conservator could also reattach some of the covers that are now detached if this is of interest. Storage and Handling: You mention that the case images are currently being stored in an archival box, but you will get individual boxes made for them. There are some boxes made for cased images from some commercial archival suppliers, but you can also have ones constructed specifically for your photographs. The key is to protect the glass with rigid boxes as glass can be fragile.
