Sharyn Horowitz of The Health Museum wrote:
>I have a friend who collects newspapers. Can someone recommend a way to
>store, preserve, and display these items, or tell me where to find this
>information?

Newspapers are, by their very nature, transient, so preserving them is
difficult over the long-term.  Newsprint normally contains the seeds of its
own destruction.  Newsprint can be preserved <forever>, but it's expensive
to wash, deacidify and store it under optimum conditions.  The best an
ordinary person can do is to provide a benign environment, which translates
into storing newspapers flat in a dark, air conditioned area.  Because of
its lignin content, light, especially sunlight and fluorescent, turns
newsprint dark-hang a newspaper on the clothesline in the sun for one day
and the damage is significant.  Therefore, display and preservation are
mutually exclusive.  Color photocopies are much more stable, look great,
and allow the original to be kept in the dark.

Michael McColgin                               Phone: (602) 542- 4159
Preservation Officer                            Fax: (602) 542- 4402
Arizona State Archives                      Email: [log in to unmask]
1700 West Washington                      Smoke Signal: 0 oo 000 o0o0
Phoenix, AZ  85007

                   Conservators make it last longer.