When I arrived at the Shelburne Museum 20 years ago, my first project was to get our collection of framed prints into some sort of decent storage situation. We use bins, some constructed of exterior grade or MDO plywood, others of manufactured metal shelving units. The base of the bin is lined with scrap carpet for padding. The bins can be different heights to handle large or small artifacts. Ours are about one foot wide so several frames pieces can fit in each bin. One 8'H X 4'W X 4'D shelving unit will have 4  4'H bins on the bottom for the large prints, and 4 2'H bins in the middle, and 4 2'H bins on the top. Of course, the bins can be any size to best fit your collection artifacts. We use cardboard separators that are slightly larger than the frames to keep the frames from resting against each other. As long as the bins are not packed too tightly, they work very well. You can fit a lot of artifacts in a small space, and they are quite accessible. Huge custom built screens that compact close together on silent rollers sure are nice. Too bad they cost 10 to 30 times as much as ours bins which work just fine.

Relatively low cost metal shelves can be custom designed and purchased from large office supply companies with metal dividers that bolt in place. If you want to build your own, use exterior grade plywood or MDO plywood so that you do not have to worry about formaldehyde offgassing.

You may want to use this opportunity to remove paper items that are not properly framed in acid-free materials from their frames and store them in acid free print boxes.  The boxes can be stored on shelves and the frames can be coded and stored separately in the bins built below the shelves.

IMLS  funds such storage improvement projects. You can use the grant to buy the shelves and your time to assemble them, survey the prints, and situate them in the new storage as the match for the grant. The 2003 grant deadline is October 15th.

Richard L. Kerschner
Director of Preservation and Conservation
Shelburne Museum
PO Box 10, Route 7
Shelburne, VT  05482
(802) 985-3348 Ext 3361

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