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Re: How to Handle Old, Crumbling Newspapers?



Mr. Barrett,

The first thing I would do is to check an see if the New York Newspaper
Project has already micrfilmed the papers you are talking about. Or if they
are interested in adding them to the collection. You might be able to get
copies from them.

I am not a conservator, but I have experience working on the North Carolina
Newspaper Project, solving just the kind of problems you are describing.

To some extent the solution depends on whether the paper is rag or pulp.
You must also determine if your ink is water sensitive. Some inks disolve
and some float off of the page.  Test a sample area.

Most of the papers I have worked with from that time period can be spounge
dampened (Lightly) on the crease, and then opened slowly within a few
minutes. More moisture may be needed as you open the page.

Another (faster) way to open the page is to use a steam iron to humidify
the area in question.

Once the pages are open, you can press to flatten. Use blotter board for
the outside of the group of papers, and/or sleeve the pages with absorbant
sheets of paper.

BE AWARE that damp pages can stick to each other. Certain coatings are more
prone to sticking than others.

If you are in a hurry and use an iron (low heat)to fast dry the pages,
remember that the pages will curl toward the side being ironed if you take
too much moisture out of the page. I do not recommend using an iron except
when you intend to micrfilm and dispose of the original.

These papers can be deacidified with with a spray product (Wei-T'o), but
don't seal them in mylar. A closed environment can acceletate the
degradation of the page, especially if the page is not deacidified first.

No matter what you try some pages have brittle page syndrome, and are just
going to come apart.  If you are copying and throwing them away I would use
a transparent tape to hold it together long enough for it to be copied. If
you really want to keep a seriously damaged page, take it to a conservator.


Sincerely,

Cathy Brown, CA
North Carolina Division of Archives and History



At 10:32 AM 06/14/2000 EST, you wrote:
>I would appreciate advice on handling private files that contain
>crumbling newspapers that are 50-100+ years old.  Many of these
>papers are in their original newspaper sections, folded into quarters
>or smaller, browned, very brittle and crumbling at their edges.  I
>would like to open them and begin reading, but I would bet that
>doing so will cause pages to break/disintegrate.  How should I
>handle these papers?  If they do break and I use the pieces to
>create good photocopies, have I destroyed something of value
>(historical or, to the owner, monetary)?  In the end, would an
>archival library prefer to get these kinds of papers (1) as they are
>now (mostly unbroken, but unread and unusable), or (2) as
>originals but read and thus in more pieces, or (3) simply as
>photocopies (originals pitched after copying)?
>
>These files also contain single newpaper pages and clipped articles
>that I can handle without the same breakage problems.  They are
>just very old.  How should I be storing these -- in some kind of
>plastic sleeve; loose, separate by sheets of plain white paper; etc.?
>
>Thanks for any thoughts you may have.
>
>JQB
>
>
>*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
>*  John Q. Barrett
>*  Associate Professor
>*  St. John's University School of Law
>*  8000 Utopia Parkway
>*  Jamaica, New York  11439
>*
>*   e-mail:     barrettj@stjohns.edu
>*   telephone:  (718) 990-6644
>*   faxes:      (718) 990-2199
>*               (718) 591-1855
>*
>*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
>
>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
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Cathy Brown, CA
North Carolina Division of Archives and History

My opinions...

Esse Quam Videri: "To be rather than to seem"

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>