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