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Re: Smoky odors



I know it's not Friday but I can't help reminiscing--especially since I
was just talkin' about this with someone the other day--about my
first use of the Otis Marston papers in the Huntington Library.  No
fault of theirs of course but Marston had apparently let the
collection go to the rodents, so that when the Huntington got it in
the early '80s it was infested with mice and droppings and
whatever, eeyyeeuuww!  So they used--so I was told--tear gas to
drive out the beasties and somehow disinfect it, and I remember
the first time I sat down as a eager researcher and opened the box
(this would have been about 1985), the reek brought tears to your
eyes.  You had to look at some of the papers, put your head up to
take a breath, look some more, breathe some more, and so on.  At
the end of the day you had a headache.  Whatever they used to
disinfect also caused the tons of old thermofax copies to run, so
the printing would come off in your hands.  Whoops!  The guy I was
talkin' with this about the other day said now the smell is gone and
it's regular stuff.



Roy Webb, C.A.
Multimedia Archivist
Special Collections
J. Willard Marriott Library
295 South 1500 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah   84112
(801) 585-3073  //  fax (801) 585-3976
rwebb@library.utah.edu

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