I am not a textile conservator but based upon my environmental experience, sterilite boxes do not seal tightly. This can be good or bad. The boxes will not trap harmful vapors but they won't fully keep out undesirables. They will not prevent seasonal RH fluctuations but they will even out short term ones. On the balance they seem like a reasonable alternative. Marc Williams American Conservation Consortium Sent from my iPhone On Dec 20, 2011, at 9:52 AM, "Berney, Adrienne W" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I am hoping Elizabeth Walton and others on this list who have a great deal of wisdom about textile collections storage can give us some advice about an upcoming project. > > As part of our statewide museum field service, we are planning a re-housing project for about 40 wool coast guard uniforms at a site that suffered significant damage from Hurricane Irene. We anticipate placing most of the uniforms in boxed storage. I know that most textile conservators recommend against plastic boxes for textiles. However, given the collection risks involved (no climate control and wool as a pest attractant), our staff is wondering whether sterilite containers would be a possible solution. They’re made from polypropylene and are clear with white lids. We’d be boxing the items during a period of relatively low humidity (early Feb.) and brushing/vacuuming before padding out for storage. Would silica gel in each box help as an RH buffering measure? Would the box seal out dangerously high RH in the summer months? > > The sterilite containers have 2 potential advantages over archival costume boxes: 1. the under-the-bed size has very similar dimensions to a costume box but sells for less than $10. 2. the material is more rigid and we may have to stack them 10 high. The archival costume boxes won’t hold up with that kind of stacking. > > Feel free to contact me off list at [log in to unmask] with any ideas. > > Best regards, > Adrienne Berney > Collections Care Trainer > DCR Connecting to Collections > 4610 Mail Services Center > Raleigh, NC 27699-4610 > phone: 919-807-7418 > fax: 919-733-8807 > http://collectionsconversations.wordpress.com > > Opinions expressed in the message may not represent the policy of this agency. E-mail to and from me, in connection with the transaction of public business, is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties. > > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 ========================================================= 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).