Working with Architectural Plans

          I’m still working on architectural plans.  Why couldn’t the architects standardize size? That makes a difficult re-housing task even more difficult. File folders and boxes come in size 32x 40, but some of the plans are larger than that. If they are linens they can be rolled, but tracing paper or brittle vellum needs to flat. (Everything would be better stored flat.) One of my co-workers came up with what I think is a brilliant plan to move the 32x40 size boxes. Right now they are stored on what we are calling bread shelving, which is on wheels. (6 heavy gauge wire shelves like you see as a bakery)  The plan is to wheel the whole shelving unit from our office directly into a van and then unload it the same way.  (

 I’m still working on architectural plans.  Why couldn’t the architects standardize size? That makes a difficult re-housing task even more difficult. File folders and boxes come in size 32x 40, but some of the plans are larger than that. If they are linens they can be rolled, but tracing paper or brittle vellum needs to flat. (Everything would be better stored flat.) One of my co-workers came up with what I think is a brilliant plan to move the 32x40 size boxes. Right now they are stored on bread shelving, which is on wheels. (6 heavy gauge wire shelves like you see as a bakery)  The plan is to wheel the whole shelving unit from our office directly into a van and then unload it the same way.  (The plans have to be taken to the University of North Texas in Denton.  Hopefully they have s a loading dock. ) They plan to hold the boxes in place with shrink wrap. Great idea! I’ve been worried about this for months.   

Now I just have to figure out how to move the really large plan sets.  One of the supply houses has a larger size file folder so I got that.  It’s fine, but file folders especially of that size are floppy. These plans are also going to UNT so we have to figure out how to move them safely given that there are no boxes large enough for them.  I could make a box, but I’m not sure I could even get barrier board large enough.  My solution, but I’m open to suggestions, is to make a cover folder out of e-flute archival board.  I’d tie it closed with cotton tying tape. Using that type of housing would enable us to move the material out of the door because we could turn it on its side and it would be secure enough not to slide. In a box, if I was to make one, it could slide and be damaged. Working with oversized materials is hard.

Archival Compromises

            We make compromises all the time.  That’s true in life and it’s true in archival processing.  There’s the ideal way to do something and then there’s reality.  For example, many factors go into making a decision as to the best housing for collections.  Right now dealing with architectural plans I am having to compromise to deal with those factors. Because the drawings are on different media, each requires different housing.  The ideal is to store them flat in metal map cases and separate the different materials - linen from tracing paper and so on.  The reality is that these plans are going to be digitized meaning each set needs to be kept together.  In addition we don’t know where the plans will go after they are digitized so we don’t know what potential housing conditions they will face. Unless you're the Getty, money also limits decisions that are possible.  All of this means that rehousing decisions will involve compromise. You just have to do your best.  The same is true for protecting your materials at home.  At a minimum keep paper items in the dark with some control over humidity and temperature.  That means not in an attic, basement, or unheated storage building.  Some things you just shouldn't compromise if you want materials to last.

Back to Photographs

            Well I’m great at telling people what they should do to preserve their photographs, but with my own photographs I have not done so well.  Actually mine are pretty much a study in what not to do. I shouldn’t admit that should I? Anyway over the holidays my daughter wanted to look at old photographs. I had some in an old accordion file (Actually they were my mother’s and grandmother’s so they are old - early 1900s.) I had put them beside the sofa to begin re-housing them in archival envelopes and had actually re-housed a few. That was last Christmas - 2013 not this past one. Oops! Dusty, disorganized, unlabeled. Oh dear.  Somehow it's been easier to go through someone else’s pictures. That is now going to change.

            What to do to rectify the damage and start making forward progress?  Last year I made the decision that I didn’t want to put them in albums so instead I had ordered polyester archival sleeves. Good so far.  That provides protection, but not order. This year I ordered document envelopes so that I can impose organization.  I’ve decided to do it by subject - my mother’s family, my father’s, my childhood and favorite animals and so on.  Other schemes could be by date, certain activities, locations, whatever.  It’s an individual thing.  My mother had started to separate by the subjects I noted so I’m just following her order more or less. Choose your own. By the way there’s nothing wrong with albums.  They do make viewing easier and do protect your photographs as well as sleeves.  I just happen to like sleeves and envelopes  (By the way all of the archival houses have envelopes in lots of 25 or 100 and in various sizes. I got 9 ½ by 12 with a side opening.  Again your choice.)

            As far as the dust is concerned.  It isn’t as bad as I initially thought.  The accordion folder protected most of the pictures and many of the very early ones were in archival sleeves. I do have a can of pressurized air and also a very soft brush.  That is halting any damage.

            Anyway the moral of this story is don’t wait.  Keep up with your photographs and get going with the organizing and re-housing.  Don’t forget to label with pencil or an India ink pen- never a ballpoint.

Framing Documents the Archival Way

            Over the holidays I got an email from someone asking about how to frame an old diploma, which they thought was parchment (probably not)  Apparently the document was in poor condition although the writer did not elaborate on what that meant.  There are two questions here - (1) how to care for a damaged document and (2) how to frame documents.  Without knowing more about the document and not being a paper conservator I have to leave the first question to experts.  What I can suggest is to house the material in an archival folder out of the light and contact a conservator in the state where you live.  This can be costly depending on the work that is involved, but there are places that will give estimates.  Here in Texas the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin maintains a list of conservators - www.hrc.utexas.edu/conservation/resources/directory.  I do know that the Northeast Document Conservation Center is a reputable organization (www.nedcc.org) and you can send them documents for estimates.  Conservation comes down to money as the deciding factor.  Individuals protecting family heirlooms just may want to store their documents in a safe, dry, and dark archival box. Organizations may have more money to invest in conservation.

            What I will comment on is how to frame documents to preserve them for as long as possible.  This you can do at home and although more expensive than regular framing the steps you take will help extend the life of your document.  Of course you need archival (acid free) supplies.  The document should be behind UV filtered glass and separated from the glass with an acid free mat.  Never put any document directly touching glass.  It could stick and often will.  Backing of the frame requires archival board - usually e-flute board, which looks like blue-grey cardboard, but is acid free.  Regular cardboard is not acceptable.  If you have framed items with cardboard you should replace the backing for them as well. That’s it and you are good to go.  By the way most good framing places can do this if you ask.  Next step is not hanging it in direct sunlight.  If you really want to protect it take it out of the light every few months.  The term for this is “resting” the material.  Good luck and remember nothing organic lasts forever, but you certainly can extend its life.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all.

Novel Cleaning for Architectural Plans

           The first thing you notice when you open a canister of architectural drawings that have been closed for 50 years is the smell.  Best I can describe it is that it is a little like strong candle wax.  This smell is from the resin that coats much of the material in the Castle Drawing Collection, which dates from 1914 to the 1950s.  The resin is embedded in the linen sheets of many of the sets of plans and also on the waxy tracing paper called vellum by architects.  The resin attracts dirt and in the case of the vellum has caused deterioration and brittleness not only in the impregnated papers but in anything around it.  All challenging to say the least. 

            Most of the sets are bound together by clips.  You know the kind.  Punch them through a hole and then open the two wings to hold the material together.  They look like brass, but I don't know what metal they actually are.  At any rate when they oxidize they create a blue crust on the clip.  This crust flakes off and embeds in the linen or vellum staining it a blue-green color.  Pretty color, but not so great for the linen and tracing paper. What to do to keep the crusty bits from scattering everywhere, which is what happens no matter how careful you are.  At first I used a very, very soft brush. It worked but I had to do everything twice. Then I went back to my days in the museum.  The way to clean linen is to lightly vacuum them through a screen using an up and down motion. (I talked about this several blogs ago.) You have to use a vacuum with a hepa filter of course and one that has variable suction speeds. (See blog on vacuums I have loved) These are costly, but the only way to go. First I vacuum the front and back of the clip to remove as much of the crust as possible before touching them. Then with gloves on I carefully removed the clips and vacuum the holes again. I’m sure a conservator would be horrified, but it worked. Never use a push and pull method vacuuming you can smudge the ink, which is embedded in the coating.  That’s only for the linen material.  For the vellum and tracing paper you have to use the brush method.  What  Waverly Lowe and Tawny Ryan Nelb recommend in their book Architectural Records is grating an eraser (buy at Gaylords or Hollinger) and brushing the bits lightly over the surface.  It does work well - tedious of course.  It’s impossible to get all of the blue stain off of any of the material, but once you remove the clips it won’t get worse.  If anyone has other ideas about how to deal with this problem I am all ears or eyes.

Architectural Drawings - The David S.Castle Collection

           Been busy for the past month.  Started a new project - interesting, but demanding.  The project is the processing of a collection of architectural plans designed by one of the most important early architects in the West Texas region.  His name is David S. Castle and he opened his architectural office in Abilene, Texas in 1915.  During his long career he designed many of the municipal buildings, courthouses, commercial buildings, churches, and residences throughout the West Texas region.  When he died his son, also an architect, closed the family business and moved elsewhere.  Before he left town he gave the plans from the Abilene office to the Tittle Luther Architectural firm.  They have preserved these important papers since the 1950s. 

            Our goal is to organize, inventory, and clean these papers so they can be digitized.  They have been housed in an unheated storage shed in either metal or cardboard canisters.  The plans are drawn on a variety of material - linen, tracing paper, vellum (waxy feeling coated paper, not calfskin).  The collection is large ( over 700 separate sets of plans) and has been touched only briefly during the 50 years the material has been in storage.  (The earliest set of plans so far dates to 1916- thirty years after Abilene was founded)  Processing the collection is a challenge because of the size of the individual pieces and their condition.  Dealing with material that is as large as 38” by 42” and is coated with resin is a little like wrestling slippery fish.  Learning the best method for handling, cleaning, and flattening the material safely and organizing it following the original order has been interesting and I will use other blogs to describe what we have learned as we learn it.  We only have one more week of work so I’m taking a brief break from this blog for the holidays. More in 2015 on archives, preservation, and architectural drawings and maybe fish.