I believe Mr. Aikens's basic question has been answered. All (or nearly all) collection artifacts should be treated equally in the sense that some basic level of security, care, and safety should be accorded to all of them--but some deserve higher levels on top of that. As far as "redundancy" is concerned, however, we should recognize that redundancy is not necessarily a negative concept or a pejorative term. In the museum world (and probably many others), redundancy is sometimes good. We've been reading about redundancy in keeping multiple copies of Deeds of Gift in separate locations, for example. This is positive redundancy--redundancy in the interest of security for documents. One might also call this not putting all your eggs in one basket. Some collection objects demand multiple layers of security, and this also is positive redundancy. But I don't think the other part of Mr. Aikens's question has been answered adequately yet. Although a safe might be good for providing an extra layer of security, might the micro-climate of a safe be harmful to certain kinds of objects? Could it speed deterioration? I think the answer is yes, some objects might not be safe in a safe. It would be interesting if someone could provide some discussion, based on either theoretical principles or empirical observation, of objects which would not fare well in a safe. David Haberstich ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).