I don't know what the follow-up steps are, but you are supposed to NOT let
it dry out.  It needs to dry out very slowly or with some special
processing.  For lumps of paper, in one of the many Titanic media bytes, I
learned that they used freeze-drying to conserve the paper.  It produced
readable letters, & etc.
 
For paper labels on bottles, I was once given the suggestion (by a
conservation specialist) to use gortex (I think) to hold the label onto the
bottle while allowing it to dry very slowly. A layer of plastic wrap while
letting the bottle dry slowly inside a ziplock might also work and would
let you look at the label while it dries.  (Yes, ziplock plastic bags still
"breath").
 
Good Luck,
Mary Ellin D'Agostino
[log in to unmask]
 
At 12:59 PM 9/29/98 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 9/29/1998 10:55:33 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><< During excavation of a turn of the century privy in Feltville, NJ this
> summer, Montclair State University's field school recovered a wad of
> newspaper stuffed in a paint can.  The privy was filled in about 1914.  The
> newspaper, which is apparently contemporary with the filling of the privy
was
> waterlogged but partially legible when recovered.  Since then the newspaper
> has dried out but is still intact.  My question is, is there any way to
> conserve and perhaps eventually read the newspaper without destroying it in
> the process.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Feel free to reply off list.
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Richard Veit, Ph.D.
>  >>
>
>PLEASE - Respond ON the list.  I have the same situation with newspaper
>associated with a cache of ammunition which could date to ca. 1900.  The
>newspaper dates and/or content may be our only clue to the date of the cache
>and its creator.  It is drying out now, perhaps too much and is becoming
>brittle before we have a chance to examine it in detail.
>
>Mike Polk
>Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
>
>
********************************
*  Mary Ellin D'Agostino       *
*  [log in to unmask]   *
*  Department of Anthropology  *
*  University of California    *
*  Berkeley, CA 94720-3710     *
********************************