Sender: |
|
X-To: |
|
Date: |
Thu, 7 Dec 2006 14:53:06 -0500 |
MIME-version: |
1.0 |
Reply-To: |
|
Content-type: |
text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" |
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Content-transfer-encoding: |
7bit |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
In a message dated 12/7/2006 10:32:46 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
However, flattening of
documents is something that a conservator could work with laboratory staff
to do in the right environment and with the right training.
Lisa and others,
I totally agree that this is the best approach to conserving old maps, field
notes, etc., as long as there is money to pay for the service. The bugaboo
is that just about no one in archaeology can scrape up the money to pay a
conservator for this kind of work. The nightmare grows when you realize that we
create hundreds of boxes of artifacts with more boxes of paper documentation in
our careers (with zero budget for conservation). I recall a symposium on the
conservation of leather shoes excavated from archaeology sites and the cost
estimates ran in the thousands of dollars for a single shoe.
I raised this issue of conservation when my historical investigations turned
up a collection of rolled architectural plans drawn by a local architect in
the 1920s here in San Diego. Suddenly, I assumed the role of negotiating
control of the plans from the collector with the promise of giving him hard
copies of his cache. Even with the generous offer from Brad Holderman to help
create digital copies, the expense will be a bite out of our December cash flow
(and we are searching for an angel among contemporary architects).
Now, in another realm of my life, I collect a certain kind of valuable books
that were printed on cheap newsprint subject to severe acid degradation.
Non-conservators buy buffer paper and other chemicals for treating their own
collections because costs of hiring conservators are prohibitive (most
collections run in the hundreds of such books). I realize now the best long-term plan
is to sell off the dadgum books, rather than watch them disintegrate or
having to pay for conservation. Unfortunately, this option is not available to
archaeologist/historians who own historical documents.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
|
|
|