Preserving a document

[Ians1900]

I have my Great Grandfather's Army Birth Certificate from 1872, which is a thick paper document with writing on both sides.  It has been folded for all these years and fell apart along the folds when it was opened recently, so now it is in five or six small pieces.

How can I best preserve this?

Ian

[CaroleW]

Having taped the pieces together - you could laminate it.

However - if the paper is particularly thick, you would have to ensure it would go through a laminator otherwise you could end up destroying it.

There are websites who sell special archival binders - here's a link to just one of them

http://www.genealogysupplies.com/certificate-binders/

[Ruskie]

I disagree Carole. Never use sticky tape and never laminate old documents (or even anything new that you value) - this will destroy it. 

Are you hoping to 'mend' the document, or just keep it from further damage?

Prue will be able to advise, but I think you may need help from the professionals to preserve this.

[CaroleW]

I laminated a 154yr old original document back in 1994 and it is in perfect condition with no fading whatsoever.  There is also no future risk of it disintegrating with age or getting torn. 

Some very old letters have also been laminated to preserve them from fading or damage.  I find this a much better method as the documents can be passed around interested parties without fear of damage

If a document is in several pieces - I can't think of any other method to put it back together again apart from using some sort of tape?

[Ruskie]

I think a conservator might use a 'special' glue or tape to join the pieces together. If it wasn't double sided they may 'glue' the pieces to some paper, but as this document is double sided, maybe just the tape would be used (but not ordinary sticky tape) -  then I expect it would be kept flat between archival quality tissue and card.

Over the years your laminated document will probably yellow and suffer other damage (those sticky photograph albums come to mind). It can obviously never be removed from the laminate.

Help Prue.... 

[PrueM]

Oh, my goodness...the dreaded sticky tape!
If you could only see the damage that old sticky tape (and I'm talking anything from 10 years old upwards) does to paper, you would swear off using it on anything important.  See here for a couple of examples:
http://aiccm.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=3&Itemid=30

Likewise laminating.  It melts plastic into the fibres of the paper and is irreversible. Down the track the plasticisers start to migrate through the plastic and cause staining and stickiness and as time goes by, documents will be ruined. Horrible stuff.

There is no need to go down either of these roads.  If you don't wish to invest in the services of a conservator who would repair the paper using strips of fine tissue and a reversible paste made from wheat starch, you could simply photograph or scan the pieces to create a digital image of the original document, then store the pieces all together in something as simple as a "zip lock" plastic bag that you can buy at the supermarket.

There are plenty of simple preventive conservation/preservation ideas on the AICCM website linked to above, and other professional conservation organisations around the world (such as the UKIC, AIC etc.)

Cheers
Prue

[Ruskie]

Good advice Prue (great link too). I wasn't too far off the mark with my 'advice'. 

(ps. Love your avatar  )

[Ians1900]

Thank you everyone. 

I think I will scan it and preserve the pieces - thank you Prue.  After all, it was handling the document that did this, I suppose, so I can make use of a digital image and simply keep the original pieces safe.

Thanks again to everyone

Ian