Submitted by: Kathleen Why is this item important to you?: The daily inscriptions are difficult to read. It is my hope, over time, to wade through his description of the daily weather to find family oriented information and to transcribe some of his entries. Just preparing this submission has been helpful. I see as I photo each page I can enlarge enough to read it better. Thank you already! Expert Advice (Todd Pattison): Your diary is covered in cloth and has an extended flap with a tongue on the back board and a closure strap on the front board that the tongue fits into to keep it closed. The diary has machine-made paper with entries in manuscript ink. There are also several scraps tucked into the diary, including a newspaper clipping, coupons and a fire insurance payment bill. The cover of the diary has a lot of wear, especially along the edges and the extended flap of the back board but the volume appears to be intact. The pages of the diary are discolored and appear to be acidic. The manuscript ink has sunk into the paper in some areas and is visible on the opposite side of the page; it is possible, although not likely, that the ink may be iron gall ink that is beginning to deteriorate. Recommendations: You mention that you would like to transcribe the notations looking for family information and that taking images and enlarging them has been helpful. I would encourage you get high-quality scans made of the pages of the diary and the enclosed scraps. This will provide copies to aid transcription while limiting handling of the original. It will also allow you to share this information with other interested parties and with people that may be able to help you in some cases where the handwriting is difficult to read. It will also preserve the information in case the original is damaged or lost. The diary may need to be imaged one-up, or one page at a time, with an overhead camera to protect the fragile binding. This would allow for quality capture of the information without opening the volume more than 90 degrees, preventing stress of the sewing or page attachment. You mention that the diary has been stored with three other diaries. You should consider having all of the diaries boxed, either individually or together in one larger box. The scraps can also be placed in a folder or folders and housed with the diary in the box, keeping the information together. There are several styles of custom enclosures, including cloth-covered, drop-spine boxes and phase boxes (there are several styles of phase boxes). 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 the folded scraps, which should be cut to the size of the volume. A cloth-covered box can be made by a conservator or bookbinder while phase boxes are usually ordered from a vendor. The folders should be made from acid-free Bristol or other cardstock material that is lignin free. You may want to consider having a conservator look at the manuscript inks that are bleeding through the paper to the opposite side, to determine if these are iron gall inks that are deteriorating. 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 with some experience with iron gall ink. Handling and storage: Handling of the diary should be limited. When handling the volume or the scraps, you should wash your hands with soap and water but not wear gloves. Gloves will lower the feeling in your fingers so it would be more likely that you would damage the object; cotton gloves, especially, will catch on the worn areas of the binding and could cause further damage. You should also place the diary in a cradle so as not to stress the binding when handling. There are foam supports that are available to cradle the volume, but you can also just use clean towels or pillows. You mention that the diary is currently in a brown paper bag. The bag will protect the diary from light and dust but is most likely acidic and should be replaced with a box as suggested above. The diary should be stored in an area that has temperature and humidity controls.
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.
