--- Kjirsten Gustavson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Erin-
One of the most important aspects to consider (and
fear) is the migration of acid.  Many older
scrapbooks, including those with photographs, had very
acidic, thick, "poster paper" pages.  Even if you
interleave these with acid-free tissue, the acid will
still migrate to the objects attached to the paper.   
If this is the case, preservation-wise it is much
better to separate the attached objects, treat them,
and reattach them with archivally sound techniques to
another acid-free and more "permanent" backing.  An
addition problem, of course, is the method that was
used to adhere the objects to the paper in the first
place.  The binding can still be saved, and the leaves
attached with a post-binding construction.  You really
have to decide what is most important to you and your
collections: to keep the original intact exactly as it
was created (the archivist and bibliographer
perspective) or to recreate it as closely to the
original format as possible but with conservationally
sound techniques (the conservator perspective).  I
have been both a head of special collections and a
conservator, and the conservator has always won out. I
fully understand the importance of the original object
and its cultural context (my teaching and research
specialties), but I figured that those would not
matter if the object had disintegrated in the
meantime.

Prof. Kenneth Lavender
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
    

> 
>  I've worked in two sites with important
> photographic scrapbooks circa 1900-10 and both
> museums chose to use interleaving between each page
> without separating it from the book in order to
> preserve the original binding and then store the
> whole books flat in an acid-free box.? Both sites
> also photographed each individual page so that as
> clarity failed on the inks, a record of the brighter
> state was maintained.
> 
> Kjirsten
> Curator of Education
> Clermont State Historic Site
> Germantown, NY
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erin Gerrity <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 2:58 pm
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] scrapbook storage
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I work at a small local history museum and an
> important sports figure recently 
> donated several 
> scrapbooks filled with mostly newspaper clippings to
> our collection. Searching 
> Museum-L archives 
> gave me some good ideas about how to preserve the
> pages (clear archival sleeves, 
> acid free tissue 
> between pages, etc.) but I couldn't find anything on
> how to store each item as a 
> whole. We will 
> probably take the book apart to sleeve each page.
> Does one normally attempt to 
> rebind it or do 
> you buy special binders to then insert your sleeved
> pages and store the original 
> book covers in a 
> box with the new notebook? Do you recommend storing
> each scrapbook in its own 
> box? Any ideas 
> would be helpful. Thanks!
> 
> Erin Gerrity
> Portland Museum
> 2308 Portland Avenue
> Louisville, KY  40212
> 502 776-7678
> 
>
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