Hello,

I'm posting for a colleague at an agricultural research college.  (I 
searched the archive but didn't find any similar posts.)  She has a 
collection of 200 wax fruit specimens (scientific quality, not Victorian 
parlor fruit) made between the 1920s and 1940s.  They've been stored in 
styrofoam peanuts since the 1960s, subsequently there's a lot of little 
white flecks stuck to the fruit.  I haven't seen the collection and I 
don't know the storage conditions - I hope they haven't been in an attic.

What's the best storage system for wax fruit; specifically, what's the 
safest packing material to be in contact with the artifact?  I was going 
to recommend archival boxes with dividers, but what should she use if 
she wants additional packing underneath and around each item?  Wax is 
one material I haven't worked with much.

If you've worked with such a collection or know museums that have them, 
I'd appreciate any information to pass on to my friend.

Thanks,
John Marks
Curator of Collections
Geneva (NY) Historical Society

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