Archival help for documents for an old time Big Leaguer

[whiteymet]

Hi Gang:

I have a friend whose grandfather had a cup of coffee with the Cleveland Indians in 1920-1921 and is looking for information how to protect some of the items he has from his grandfathers career.

Below is the email I received. If any of you can supply me with ideas/info etc. how to help them best preserve the paper items they have, please post it here.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide!


I have a question I hope you can help me with.* We've got a lot of baseball memorabilia from my grandfather including newspaper clippings, contracts, pictures, etc, and would like to preserve them in a better format than the scrapbook many of them are in.* Since quite a few of the items are 99 years old, they won't last much longer, especially the newspaper articles, and the team pictures are rolled up and cracking (we aren't opening them).* Do you have any idea who would do such a thing? Any advice would be appreciated!

[steve B]

Since they have value to the family, I'd suggest contacting a good paper conservator. Someone trained can really do wonders.

Newsprint on what's usually an acidic page for a scrapbook isn't a happy combination. The home solution is making digital copies even taken with a phone is ok and if you're good at taking pictures can be good enough. Then mylar or something to preserve the originals as much as possible and only handling the copies.

Again, a good conservator can recommend other things even beyond deacidifying, that aren't stuff most people can do at home.

[Leon]

I keep my 1930s-1960s Burdick letters in archival 8 x 10s.. something like this and they are fairly cheap...Lot of different brands but these are good,..,and I have most of them in a binder, I think...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/100-8x10-PH...ty!75002!US!-1

[todeen]

Since most colleges are out for the summer, tell him to contact his local small college. Even the local state college might be interested in helping. Tell him to contact the archivist. Every college has one. When I was writing my MA thesis, the archivists were spectacular with help they provided. Even reach out to the Cleveland Indians (if he lives in Ohio). He will be surprised how helpful some of these people are. Especially if it's a chance to get away from desk work.

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[slantycouch]

For archival supplies, www.bagsunlimited.com is a solid resource. Like many businesses I believe they're working on a skeleton crew right now. But in the past I've found them very helpful when asking what product is best for a specific need.

[whitehse]

Perhaps the Hall of Fame would have some interest in helping with this cause. I would contact them and see if the HAll would help to preserve these images and documents and the family would donate them all to the Hall in exchange for digitized images. IT is just a thought as I have no idea if the conservators at the Baseball Hall of Fame would have any interest in this but it is certainly worth pursuing I would think.

[oaks1912]

Itoya portfolios come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I've used these for scrapbooks which are crumbling and have to be disassembled in order to preserve. The individual pages can be displayed with black background (one sided) or with clear pockets (two sided) so you can view the contents without touching the pages

[darkhorse9]

Without looking at the actual materials, I'm guessing much of it has far more sentimental value than actual collectible value. Have them keep that in mind before investing heavily in preservation. That can get quite costly.

I would recommend finding the pieces that have the most significance and then finding a good framer who can place them in ligin free environments and go from there.

[rootsearcher60]

As was stated earlier, a conservator is going to be an expensive proposition. Since most of what you list is paper related, the suggestion of scanning, or taking photographs, is a good one. I've done this in the archives that I have worked in over the past twenty years. There are other companies such as University Archives, Brodart and Hollinger Metal that you can purchase archival folders, sleeves and envelopes from. Anything that you use needs to be acid free. I have used Itoya products for rehousing disbound scrapbooks. HobbyLobby sells these. Once I have rehoused the scrapbook, I use Hollinger boxes to store the scrapbook in.
You can also relax rolled photographs yourself. Follow this link for a good explanation of the process. https://thefamilycurator.com/photo-t...rolled-photog/

Michael

[whiteymet]

Guys, thanks for all your advice! I have passed it along to the family for them to decide what they want to do.