Archival and Preservation Tips

3 Simple Tips to Protect Your Archival Collection

Posted on April 23, 2025April 23, 2025 by Steve

Sometimes following museum best practices with your collection can seem overwhelming. Here are 3 simple tips to protect your archival collection that you can do quickly, easily, and affordably.

Use Archival Folders

If you’ve gotten into collecting Civil War history, you’re likely to start winding up with a lot of paper. This ephemera could be CDVs, military documents, old newspaper articles, etc. Some of these may end up on display somewhere in your home, but if they are not, they need to be stored. It may be tempting to just stick them in a box for safekeeping, but that is not the best idea.

Placing these historic documents in archival folders is a great cost-effective option because it allows you to protect the documents while also keeping them organized. Archival folders are becoming much easier to find nowadays. Instead of ordering them from museum supply companies, you can often find them at your local Walmart or Staples store. They tend to cost a bit more, but in the long run they are worth it. Non-archival materials will damage your documents over time. They tend to be acidic, which means they will turn papers yellow and eventually crumble them away.

We’ve all seen an old, yellow crumbly newspaper, right? The reason that the newspaper is yellow and crumbly is because it was printed on very acidic paper. Dime store paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s are often yellowed as well for the same reason. Acidic paper is cheaper and is often used by printers when longevity is not a priority. Now, have you seen a paper turn yellow because it was stored next to a newspaper? I’ve seen this happen countless times in shoe boxes of old papers that folks tend to keep. The newspaper clippings are acidic and so any paper they come into contact with is also yellowed and damaged. That is exactly why we want to use archival folders to store our documents. We don’t want them to turn yellow because they were stored inside an acidic folder.

Use Acid Free Paper

Easy to find acid free paper for your archival collection — This paper is extremely low cost and available locally in Walmart stores. It is acid free and suitable for archival purposes. This paper is a great low cost option for interleaving. It can be found here.

Now that you’ve got some archival folders, you’ll want to get a ream or two of acid free paper. You can store multiple documents in the same folder, but you’ll want to separate them with acid free paper. Use the paper as interleaving between the documents.

Let’s say you have 5 papers that all relate to the same individual and you would like to store them in a folder together. You can store the first document in the folder, then a sheet of acid free paper, the next document, a sheet of acid free paper, and so on, until you’ve placed them all in the folder. This ensures that the papers are not rubbing against each other and transferring ink or dirt, and they are also protected from any potential acid transfer. Now, this is something that you will need to check on. If you have a folder full of newspaper articles, that acid in those newspapers may leach through the interleaving eventually, so you may need to replace it periodically.

Acid free paper can also often be found locally very easily at any office store or big box store.

Use Archival Photo Sleeves

These are archival products that I really can’t live without. I use these for photos and also for any important documents. These sleeves give paper artifacts and an extra layer of protection. For reference, I prefer the side-locking sleeves that I’ve mentioned in previous posts, which can be purchased here.

Here is an example of one of those hard plastic sleeves. Notice how this is only a narrow opening available to slide media in and out and how it takes a great deal of pressure to open. Compare that to a sleeve that lays completely flat, opens up for your to place your document inside and then folds back over. These may have value for dealers who have people sifting and sorting through their wares on a regular basis, but these have no place in a private collection for long term storage of fragile documents.

I have had CDVs shipped to me in rigid plastic folders that I CANNOT STAND. I’ve also seen a lot of collectors keep their CDVs in these same hard plastic holders that are only open on the top. I hate these for several reasons:

You have no idea if they are archival or not. Just because an antique dealer shipped you a photo in it, does not imply that it is safe to continue to store your item in it.
They are rigid and the document is held inside by force. This is not a good way to store archives. You don’t want pressure on the document because that harms it over time. Think of any video you have ever seen of an archive or museum collections room—are ANY of the artifacts stored in things that squish them, press down hard on them, or force them in any way? No.
Because they are so rigid and only open on one side, it is much more difficult to remove the document from them and also difficult to place them back inside. Yes, we all have our little tricks to pop them open a certain way, use a thumb to press down and slide them out, etc. Again, where have you ever seen anything like that done in a museum collection? It’s not. Typically, these cards are used to store CDVs, although I have seen them used with tintypes, which is a whole other issue…CDVs are basically REALLY old cardstock with an image printed on it. It should be handled delicately because each time you remove it and put it back, you are damaging it. Period. No matter how good you think you are at getting them in and out. The very fact that you have to grab the image with your thumb to pull it out, damaging it. Period images should be handled by the edges just like how you’d handle an “old fashioned” CD. Remember how sacrilege it was to get fingerprints on a CD? Think of that when you’re handling those CDVs and tintypes. You can’t handle them by the edges and use those rigid plastic holders that are only open on the top. For that reason alone, they are not good for these collections. Not to mention rubbing on the images, damaging the prints, etc.

If some of you would like to keep your images in “pockets” I would recommend looking into archival sleeves that are designed to hold images safely in binders, or even small archival books designed to hold images. I use these notebooks, place the images on the paper using archival photo corners, and they are safe inside the book without any pressure on them, and they can easily be removed if I need to rescan them for any reason.

Bonus Tip

Always, always, always scan and digitize your collection! If you don’t have one, invest in a simple scanner that can scan at least 600 dpi and scan all your photographs at that resolution to start. Documents can be scanned at 300 dpi and be easily read and enlarged clearly. Once you have your collection digitized there is no reason to be pulling old photos in and out of sleeves, documents in and out of folders, etc. You can easily look at them digitally and ensure that their condition is not degrading as you keep handling them. No matter how careful you are, every time a document is handled, its condition degrades. That’s a simple archival fact. So, the more we can minimize that, the better! And as an extra tip, please consider setting up a digital catalog system like I discussed in a blog post a few weeks ago here! All of these tips will go a long way to protect your archival collection!

How to Label Your Collection

Posted on April 16, 2025April 16, 2025 by Steve

Last week we discussed how museum and archive numbering systems work, and this week we are going to discuss how to label your collection. This is a relatively straightforward process, but there are a few key things to keep in mind as you go. The main rule of thumb is that however you add your catalog number to your object or document, it is done in a non-permanent way. In other words, don’t pull out the Sharpie and start writing all over your things! Sadly, I have seen that happen in museums, and that’s definitely something we want to avoid!

How to Label Your Collection: Writing Directly on the Document Vs. Archival Sleeves

When you’re working with paper or photographic archives there are two schools of thought with regard to how they should be numbered. Some folks will write VERY lightly in pencil the catalog numbers on the bottom right (or left) corner of the document—typically on the back. This way the writing is not visible from the front if it is on display, the writing is reversible because it can be erased, and the size of the writing is very small so that it is not intrusive. This method can work for relatively modern documents. For example, if you have someone’s 1980s era research notes that you are adding into your collection you may choose to number it that way. For Civil War era paper materials (including CDVs), I would hesitate to use this method, simply because the documents are often very fragile—and in some cases disintegrating—to the point that should that number ever be erased, doing so would likely destroy the paper. The advantage of lightly writing the number in pencil on the document directly ensures that it will never be separated from the number. If using this method, do not use a mechanical pencil as it is often too sharp and can damage old paper or leave an imprint that shows through the front. Use a 2B soft leaded pencil, sharpen it, and then use a piece of scratch paper to soften the tip of the lead so that it is a bit duller. The below video shows how to mark papers, photographs, and books using this method.

Personally, the method I prefer (and the one we use at the Research Arsenal) is to write the number on the clear archival sleeve that protects the document. This ensures that the document is not directly affected by the writing. Should the number ever need to be changed it only needs to be placed in a new sleeve with the correct number. You can use a fine point Sharpie to write on the sleeve and the ink will not smear. Be sure it has dried completely before you place a document inside just in case the document touches the ink.

Here is an example of writing the catalog number directly on the archival sleeve.

If your documents are digitized (which they all should be eventually) then there will be minimal need to handle the original documents in the future. If you want to read through them or look up something with them, you only need to use the digital scan, rather than handling the original document which can further degrade it.

How to Label Your Collection: Tagging Objects

How to tag your collection, artifact tags — This is an example of a museum artifact tag sold by Gaylord here.

In this case, I am going to include tintypes (in cases) and ambrotypes as objects as opposed to archives simply because they are not made of paper material. Anything not made of paper will typically fall into the object category and use tags. Tintype photos not in cases can be safely stored in archival sleeves and can be numbered using the above method of numbering the sleeve.

Objects will need an archival tag which consists of a small square of archival cardstock strung on a loop of archival string. These come in all sorts of sizes and shapes and can be used on a variety of objects. They are also easily removed if need be and can be arranged in such a way that they are not obtrusive if the object is on exhibit.

To use a tag, you will want to write the catalog number on the tag and if there is room, a one- or two-word description. A tag for a M1851 Colt Navy Revolver might look like “2025.002.0014 M1851 Colt Navy Revolver” and that’s it. You can shorten or lengthen in to your preference, the intention being that it allows you to easily identify what item the tag goes with, should it become separated, and also so that you can easily identify what the object is without needing to look it up. To write on the tags you can use the fine point Sharpie again.

You’ll want to loop the tag around the object in some fashion so that it is unlikely to fall off. In the above example of the Colt Navy Revolver, you could loop it around the trigger guard. For objects that don’t have an obvious way to loop the tag, you’ll have to get a bit more creative. You can tuck the tag inside the case of a tintype, loop it around a buttonhole, tuck it in the band of a hat, etc. It will vary from object to object. No matter what the object is and how difficult it is to find a way to secure the tag, do NOT tape, glue, or otherwise use adhesives to attach it. If you are working with small objects, maybe say, Minie balls, you may wish to keep them in a small Riker mount and then tag the mount or keep them in a small archival box with the tag inside the box. The most important thing to consider in all of this is that what we are doing does not have any permanent effect on the object.

I’ll leave you with this link to some “horror stories” of museum numbering fiascos that you may find entertaining. Whatever you do, don’t do what these folks did! https://world.museumsprojekte.de/how-not-to-number-objects/

How to Set Up a Catalog Numbering System

Posted on April 9, 2025April 23, 2025 by Steve

Last week we looked at how to catalog your collection and the software available to do that. This week, we’re looking at how to set up a catalog numbering system and the kind of information we want to prioritize in our collections, whether it’s for our own personal reference, for other people to use after we’re gone, or insurance purposes.

Catalog Numbering Systems

If you’ve ever visited a library—I am assuming everyone has (if not, go to a library!) —you’ve no doubt seen a very prominent numbering system in use. The Dewey Decimal system allows libraries to organize and catalog books using a numeric code. Each prefix in the string of number indicates what subject matter the book relates to. Additionally, each call number has additional numbers indicating where the book falls in relation to that subject and author information. All of this is contained in a simple numerical code! The Dewey Decimal system dates back to 1876, and although it has been updated over the years, it is still in use in libraries today.

If you visit a museum, you may see a similar string of numbers on various artifacts. Sometimes the numbers are also included on the signage within the exhibits. These catalog numbers are very similar to the call numbers on books in libraries, however, there is no standard in catalog numbers that is used by all museums. Typically, these numbers will be in a trinomial system, which each section representing a specific data point. For example, a catalog number of 2024.003.0001 would be broken down into: 2024 meaning the year the item was acquired, .003 indicating it was the third collection of items to be acquired, and finally, .0001 would mean that this object is the first item in the collection. For a museum that routinely acquires donations of materials this system works very well. For a private collector, who is acquiring items often one or two pieces at a time, this may not work as well, as the number of collections (middle number) in any given year could grow very large.

Therefore, it may be more reasonable to modify this number system and use the middle number to track the source on a market basis rather than by individual person. For example, using the same number 2024.003.0001, the first number would still represent the acquisition year, but .003 would now represent “eBay,” and .0001 would represent the first item purchased from eBay that year and added to the collection. In this system, you may have various numbers that would retain the same meaning regardless of the acquisition year.

2025.003.0013 would simply mean the item was acquired in 2025 from eBay and that it is the 13^th item from eBay that year. Your additional secondary numbers could represent donations, garage sales, specific auction houses (Fleischer’s, etc.) you regularly purchase from, and individual people you regularly trade with, or from whom you have received a large collection.

.001= Donations/gifts
.002= Garage sales/flea markets
.003= Ebay
.004= Fleischer’s
.005= Joe Smith

Once you have this key, it is easy to add more numbers to it as you go if they are needed. If you start buying a lot of items from another auction house, for example, then you simply add that new venue in as .006. The rest of the system stays the same, as the first number is always the year of acquisition, and the last number is always the number of the individual item.

Example of a trinomial artifact numbering system. — Here you can see a good example of a trinomial catalog numbering system on a museum artifact. This particular item is at the Huron County Museum. You can read more about this image and museum numbering here.

Is everyone still with me? I know this is a lot of numbers and may seem convoluted, but the nice thing about having a system like this is that it gives you a good amount of information by just glancing at a number. This is especially useful if you do not have a computer-based system and are looking up items by hand in a notebook or with an index card system. Knowing that the item you are trying to find was purchased on eBay in 2023 gives you the first two numbers and narrows your search. Likewise, if you are looking at an item in your collection and see the catalog number for it on a tag with it, you immediately know where you got it from and when. If you need some examples of what the secondary numbers can represent, take a look at the Research Arsenal database search page and select “Search by Source/Call Numbers” then select “11th OVC Archives” from the top drop down menu. Once you select a year, you’ll be able to select the secondary set of numbers and can see how those work to filter through collections on the database. We’ll go into how to tag objects and archives in the next post as that can get a bit more complicated.

Now, as an aside, there are situations where these numbers may change a little. Let’s say you have a Civil War letter and the corresponding envelope. Or a letter and the CDV the soldier sent home with it. Obviously, these two items are related, and they also came together. This is the key part—they CAME TOGETHER. From a catalog standpoint, these would be cataloged as a single item. The envelope is intrinsic to the letter—it was not mailed without the envelope; the envelope is part of the overall object. The CDV was mentioned in the letter and mailed with it, therefore, it became part of the object of the letter. In this case, there are a couple of options of how to handle this. You would use the same numbering system we discussed above with just a minor addition to indicate they are tied together. Personally, I use lower case letters, so the letter would be 2024.003.0012a, and the envelope would be 2024.003.0012b. I prefer lower case because at times a “B” can look like an “8” very easily depending on handwriting, and there are less issues of that with lower case letters. If you prefer to use strictly numbers, then you could structure it as: 2024.003.0012-1 and 2024.003.0012-2 or use only decimals with 2024.003.0012.1 and 2024.003.0012.2. This really just comes down to personal preference. To me, using extra numbers at the end makes it easy to not see a decimal point or a hyphen and then get .0012.1 confused with .00121. This is why I prefer using letters to indicate items that are tied together.

For our next blog post, I’ll discuss how to label your items with catalog numbers, now that we know how to create a system. In the meantime, go through your collections and determine what your secondary numbers might be. Find out where you’ve acquired a lot of your items and use that as a guide to create those prefixes. Once you have that, save that as a key and use it to reference and add more numbers to as your collection grows.

What is the Best Way to Catalog Your Collection?

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Steve

What is the best way to catalog your collection? A catalog system for your collection can be as basic or advanced as you would like, however, there are some key pieces of information that it should keep track of:

What the item is
Its description
Where it came from
Where it is located
Its catalog number

Aside from these major points, it can be helpful (although not necessary) to keep track of:

What did it cost
What is its value
What is its condition
Related items

As we discussed in a previous blog post, the purpose of the catalog system is to keep track of important details about your collection in a way that is easy to access. This second part will determine the best way for you to keep a catalog.

Analog or Digital?

I am a strong proponent of using a digital method to track your collection, but I will concede that the most important point is that you have one—not so much the format it may take. If you prefer to keep a notebook with this information written down, that is better than nothing, and I applaud you for creating a system! However, if I can encourage you to use a digital system, that will be of more use to you in the future. Simply put, a digital system will allow you to search your collection by keyword, location, description, donor, etc. If you are only using an “analog” system, you will only be able to search by your catalog’s filing system. If it’s alphabetical, you’ll only be able to search by that, or if it’s by catalog number, that will be your method of search. It will be impossible to simply do a keyword search for “bayonet” and find every photograph, artifact and document with “bayonet” as part of its description.

If you are dead set on avoiding anything computer based, and analog based system is still better than nothing. There are a couple of ways to do this: you could use a system based on index cards, or a simple notebook. In either case, you would want to give each item its own catalog number (which will get into in a future post on actually cataloging items) and use that as the filing point for your collection. For example, you may choose to use a simple numerical system of your name combined with the year you obtained the item. If Joe Smith purchased a bayonet in 2025, it’s number may look something like JS2025.001 with “.001” identifying it as the first item obtained in 2025. Don’t stress too much over the numerical system as we’ll go over that in a future post!

Computer Based Collection Catalog Systems

If you are comfortable with computers there are a number of options for you to use to create your catalog. Museums by and large use Past Perfect software, which is very expensive, and geared for museums. For the average private collector that is overkill, and now there are even competitor programs to Past Perfect.

If you’re only a small step up from using an analog based system, and the thought of using a dedicated software program is intimidating, then I’d recommend just using Excel. It’s not pretty, but it will let you list everything you would have listed in a notebook or index card set digitally, which will give you the option to at least use CTRL+F and do a keyword search.

If you’re willing to learn a new computer program, there are a couple of options:

Recollector

Cost: $49 one-time fee

Recollector is by far the most cost effective catalog system available for private collectors. It mimics the well-known Past Perfect but is stripped down to run on a budget. It is easy to install and their website includes a number of training options from videos to manuals, so it is easy to learn.

Screenshot of single entry in Recollector — Here you can see the important information that a catalog system tracks in a single entry for Recollector. All of the key information is easy to find, searchable, and in one convenient location.

It will track all of the key information above, is searchable, and lists the information in an intuitive format. In addition, it has a companion app so that you can view your collection on your phone. How handy would this be the next time you’re at one of those big Civil War collector shows and wondering if you already have a photo, document, or artifact similar to what you’re considering buying?

If your collection is sizeable—we’re talking over 1,000 items, many of which are related, then you will likely want a more robust program. In this case, I would recommend CatalogIt.

CatalogIt

Cost: $150/year for 2,500 items and 3 users

This software has all of the components of Recollector, and a whole lot more. One of the key features is the ability to relate items together and to share your collection online in virtual galleries. Both of these features are included in the subscription cost. Another key difference with CatalogIt is that it is cloud based with a fully functional phone app, meaning that not only can you see your collection from your phone, you can edit from your phone. You can create an entry on your desktop, snap a quick photo on your phone, and upload the image straight into CatalogIt from your phone. Easy peasy!

Screenshot of CatalogIt entry for the Grand Army of the Republic — In this screenshot from the author’s personal collection taken from the mobile version of CatalogIt, you can see how the Grand Army of the Republic is listed as “GAR” and “G.A.R.” showing that a search of any of those three terms will result in Grand Army of the Republic items.

CatalogIt also allows you to create related organizations and people. This is HUGE. Let me explain why: If you’re a Civil War collector, chances are you may have a GAR item, right? Or is that Grand Army of the Republic? Or is it G.A.R.? Now if you do a search in Excel or Recollector for “G.A.R.” you won’t bring up “Grand Army of the Republic” or “GAR” because they are not the same text values. They are purely searching based on that information. Or, if someone is “John Michael Smith” and is sometimes referred to as “J.M. Smith” or “JM Smith” or “J. Smith” you have no way to indicate that they are all the same. CatalogIt allows you to create an organization or a person when you are tagging information in your collection. When you create that person or organization, you simply type in any of their AKAs and the software will remember that. In addition, if you suddenly discover that a person named “Amos” also went by “Dale” you can edit the person you created, add “Dale” and it will automatically update that for all of your entries. This is a fantastic feature to make searches way more useful and accurate, and excellent if you wish to share your collection online for people to search through.

Take a good look through all of these options, and it’s important to note that both software programs offer free trials, so that you can see which one is right for you! We’ll start going over how to catalog in the next blog posts! In the meantime, feel free to check out the Research Arsenal database for ideas of information to track in your collection.

How Are You Keeping Track of Your Collection?

Posted on March 26, 2025March 26, 2025 by Steve

Collections of items in Riker mounts (like this display of GAR medals) can benefit from having all of the background provenance tracked in a database.

Why You Need to Inventory Your Collection

Keeping track of your collection is one of the most important things you can do as a collector. We all know how it starts: You are going through life minding your own business when suddenly you get bitten by the collector bug. Now you find yourself scouring eBay, Facebook Marketplace, flea markets, antique stores, garage sales, and greasy dumpsters for your latest finds. Don’t worry, there’s no shame in that. Although if you’re a regular dumpster diver I’d definitely make sure that all your shots are current….

Once the collector bug has struck, you may find your new collection quickly spiraling out of control with more and more additions. Whether it’s a plethora of general Civil War memorabilia, a hefty photographic collection, firearms, buttons, badges, or ribbons, it can get overwhelming fast. Are all of these finds still on display? Or has that beautiful new sharpshooter tintype you found on your latest dumpster diving trip (hey, it could happen!) taken center stage on the mantel and relegated those other old CDVs to a drawer or a binder? Do you have all of the information of where you got these things, who you got them from, what the significance of them is, where they are stored, what you paid for them, who’s in the picture, and more, written down somewhere, or is it all in your noggin? If it’s the latter, it’s high time to start getting this information down on something concrete.

And if any of you are out there saying, “But I can remember all this! I know all this information in my head!” I’m going to tell you right now, STOP. Once your collection ends up with more than a few things, you won’t be able to remember the exact date you got something, the exact price you paid, the name of the person who sold it to you, the random funny story the seller told you about the person it used to belong to, etc. That information will fade. It’s a simple fact of life. The second issue with this mentality is what if something happens to you? We all know someone who has passed unexpectedly or has been severely debilitated by a stroke or freak accident. We all think it won’t happen to us, but the truth of the matter is that it absolutely can. One last thing to consider is what happens to all of your stuff when you pass on? Are your kids taking it? Do they have the encyclopedic knowledge of your collection that you do? Will it be sold? Does your family have the encyclopedic knowledge of your collection to sell it for a fair price? We all love those deals we find where someone is selling something that they have no idea the actual significance or value of. We’ve all made scores like that, but that’s probably not something any of us would like to see happen to our collections.

How Can I Keep Track of My Collection?

Pen and paper is better than nothing, but for a truly functional catalog system, you'll want to use a computer database. — Pen and paper is better than nothing, but for a truly functional catalog system, you’ll want to use a computer database.

At this point, you may be asking, “Well, this is wonderful information, but what can I do?” I’m so glad you asked! May I present to you, the idea of (drumroll) CATALOGING!” You may say, “But I’m not a museum! I don’t need that!” Well, my friend, once you’ve crossed the line into a large collection, you may as well be a museum. You’re in the big leagues now and you’re going to need to start using some sort of catalog system to track and store information about your collection. This is not as overwhelming as it may seem, and chances are, many of you are already doing something like this.

Over the next few blog posts, I’m going to walk you through creating and using a museum catalog system. I will take you through the basics of creating a trinomial numbering system, how to number your items (spoiler alert, it’s not with ballpoint pen. Didn’t you read last week’s article?), enter them into a database, and store your collection. The goal of all of this is to ensure that your collection itself and the information associated with your collection, all stays together in perpetuity. It’s frustrating to think that we may own an unidentified photo that maybe just one or two owners back, was actually identified, but the information was lost when the collection was parceled out on eBay. This happens far more often than I like to think about. Having all this information together in a single database will help alleviate those concerns. Not to mention, this also becomes a fantastic way to track your collection for insurance and appraisal purposes.

As someone who has worked in museums, ran museums, designed exhibits, and served on museum boards for the past 17 years, there are a lot of museum practices that would be of tremendous benefit for private collectors. A catalog system is high on that list because the value of keeping information with artifacts is priceless. So, pull out your notebooks for next week’s post as we dive into this. This is also a wonderful time to assess your collection and really take the time to inventory it, even just on a cursory level. How many items do you have? Do you know exactly which items are in which boxes for storage? Which items are on display? Can you pop quiz yourself on where, when, how and for how much you got each item? And for those of you who have a catalog system in place, how does that system work? Is there anything it’s not keeping track of that you wish it was? We’re going to go over all of this in the coming weeks and I sincerely hope that the information in these upcoming articles will help you find a system that works perfectly for you!

In the meantime, hop over to the Research Arsenal and look through the database to see what sort of data points it tracks. Then take a look at the Library of Congress (or any other inventoried database) and get a feel for how these sites organize information and what they keep track of.

Tracing Civil War History With a Ballpoint Pen

Posted on March 19, 2025April 23, 2025 by Steve

This letter was written by Lt. Horatio Graves of the 10th Massachusetts Infantry in June 1864. At some point in recent history, the original writing has been traced over in spots with a modern ballpoint pen.

Working with archives and artifacts, you are bound to come across things that make you cringe or outright cry. I have been working in museums and with historic material for over 16 years now, and the things I see sometimes still shock me. No one wants an “angry archivist” so I am going to share some of the more unfortunate things I’ve encountered in this (and future) blog posts in the hopes of offering solutions so that these things can be avoided in the future.

One thing that is important to get straight right off the bat: If you are a collector of anything historic (ANY item of historical significance) you are not its owner, you are its caretaker. Bluntly, this means that this item should continue to exist long after you have kicked the proverbial bucket. Which also means that it should continue to exist in its purest form. It should not be modified in any way from its original form. Anything done to archive material or artifacts should be reversible—or in the case of conservation, be done by professionals to avoid irreversible damage. Tracing Civil War history with a ballpoint pen causes irreversible damage to documents.

The Ballpoint Pen

Civil War letter traced with ballpoint pen — This original Civil War letter written in pencil has been traced over by a modern hand with ballpoint pen.

Take a look at this wonderful original Civil War letter. Look at that lovely blue ink it is written in…wait, why is it in a mixture of pencil and ink? Why does that blue ink look like ballpoint pen ink? They didn’t have those in the Civil War, did they? No, no they did not. This letter was written in pencil, but at some point in its lifetime, a former owner of the document decided it was hard to read. So, what did they do? They busted out their trusty ballpoint pen and TRACED OVER THE ORIGINAL WRITING WITH PERMANENT BLUE INK.

Folks, I cannot stress this enough, please, please do not do this. I understand that 160-year-old pencil writing can be difficult to read, but tracing over the original writing on a period document is an archival crime.

Here are some alternatives:

Rewrite the letter onto a separate sheet of paper. Or, better yet, type it on your computer!
Scan the letter and use a photo editing program to enhance the contrast and make the writing more readable.
Literally anything that does not deface the original document.

The Tape

Civil War letter with acidic tape — Here you can see how acidic old cellophane tape is. Even where the tape has crumbled off, the yellow stain remains on the document.

As you can imagine, documents from the Civil War are extremely fragile. Some are even falling apart. Unfortunately, for this document, not only was the pencil writing difficult to read, but it was tearing along the creases where the letter had been originally folded. But not to worry! The former owner of it knew just what to do! TAPE IT. Sigh.

Crumbly acidic yellowed tape is something I see far too often on archival documents. And I understand why people did this. The paper was old, it was falling apart, and they tried their best to keep it together. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Unfortunately, tape is not archival—it is extremely acidic. Especially that old transparent cellophane tape from the 1960s and 1970s. Over time, it turns a beautiful shade of yellow, gets super crumbly, and begins to eat the paper. Lovely, isn’t it? And once it’s on there, much like the ballpoint pen, the damage is irreversible. In fact, if you look closely at this photo you can see where the acidic tape has actually eaten through the paper and dissolved it.

Here you can see how the acidic tape actually ate through the paper of the letter causing irreversible damage.

This is a quandary though. If you have historical documents like this, it’s important to preserve them. But if they are falling apart, what can you do? I’ll give you a hint, the answer is not to tape them back together. The first option I would recommend are archival sleeves. Specifically, polypropylene sleeves that are side locking. These are perfectly clear, durable, and archivally safe. This means no yellowing! Or slow acidic eating of documents! What’s better is that they are side locking. This means that you can easily open the sleeve, gently place your document inside it, and then “lock” it with the folding flap. The sleeve then safely holds your paper with a small bit of static and pressure of the top flap to ensure that it does not slide around inside. These types of sleeves come in a variety of sizes so that you can put everything from CDVs to oversized parchment certificates in them. Archival Methods is a great place to purchase some if you are interested: https://www.archivalmethods.com/product/side-loading-print-sleeves

These side-locking print sleeves from Archival Methods will keep your fragile documents safe without causing further damage and degradation.

When shopping for sleeves, I recommend the side-locking type, although there are other varieties that seal on two or three sides. I discourage using the ones that are sealed on three sides because that only allows one side to insert the document, and if it is fragile (as all Civil War era papers are) there is a much higher chance it will be damaged trying to place it in the sleeve. Because the side-locking ones are only sealed on one side, they open easily allowing you to place the document inside gently, and then fold it back over, minimizing stress on the document.

Digitize Everything

The second thing I would recommend is to digitize your documents. In museums, we always try to minimize the amount that any original document or artifact is handled. The more it is handled the more it starts to degrade. Tears on paper get bigger, edges can start to crumble, the leather on artifacts starts to deteriorate faster, etc. Once something is digitized it reduces the need to handle the original object. This is especially true with papers because they can easily be read on a high quality scan (300 dpi). Once the document is scanned, it can be stored safely in a sleeve inside an archival folder and box.

I understand that most collectors are not trained in museum and archival best practices. And I hope that sharing some of the suggestions above will help prevent more incidents like what I’ve discussed. I’ll continue to post and share helpful hints and tips on this blog and share resources of other sites that may be helpful for you in managing your collections. The most important thing to keep in mind when storing or working with your collection is: Is what you are doing permanent? If it is, do not do it. Don’t write on original documents with permanent pen, don’t cut them with scissors to better fit that neat frame you bought, don’t tape them back together, don’t hang them up in sunlight to fade, etc. You are the proud caretaker of these items, and if treated well, they will continue to last for future generations whether in private collections or museums. Once they are permanently ruined, there is no going back.

Where Can You See These Letters?

To see the letters referenced in this post visit the Research Arsenal database.

The first letter pictured can be found here: https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/130324

An example of tape destruction can be found here: https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/130294

The rest of the Horatio Graves letter collection can be found by searching by “Individual” and typing in “Horatio Graves” on the Research Arsenal database.