My father's family lived in Brooklyn for many years, and
>weathered the blizzard of 1888.  My great-grandfather took
>some of the snow that had piled up outside his home, melted
>it down, and sealed it in a bottle (I think he used parrafin
>and foil), labelling it as carefully as if it were a museum
>object.  The bottle still exists; it is still sealed rather
>well, but fully half of the quart of snowmelt originally
>contained there has evaporated away.  That it took more than
>a century to lose half the volume of the snowmelt seems
>remarkable to me.

>My question is this:  what is the best way to preserve this
>particular artifact?  I wouldn't be the least bit surprised
>to discover, via this listserv, that there is a Museum of
>Blizzards out there--Should this bottle be bequeathed to
>such a museum?  Is there any interest in the chemical composition
>of 19th century snowmelt?

The Johnstown Flood Museum in Johnstown, PA exhibits a sealed bottle of
flood water. It appears to be nearly full, and is a very dark color, like
Coca-Cola. There are "water collectors" out there--my oldest son, now the
systems librarian for a college, has been collecting and saving water from
around the world for years. I will never forget the night we were awakened
when his bottle of Venetian Canal water (that was stored in the sun on a
windowsill),  finally "worked" enough to blow its cork!

Carol Morgan
Director, Demuth Foundation
Lancaster, PA