Save Your Letters: Storing Your Collection In Boxes

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I think once you get your documents and your materials out of an attic, out of the basement, and you're faced with a box -- could be a wooden box, it could be a cardboard box, it could be a shoebox. You've done a lot by just removing it from the attic. You've done a major degree of the work in trying to preserve your collections. Now if you'd like to go the next step further, what you want to do is address the boxes that these objects are in, and these letters are in. Most of the boxes, the cardboard boxes -- shoe boxes are very convenient, very inexpensive -- but they're not going to benefit the collection. They're extremely acidic. And we know that the one thing that will destroy your paper is an acidic environment. It will cause your paper to brown, cause your paper to turn brittle, and eventually break and fall apart. So pick the collection you'd like to start with, say a collection of letters or a collection of postcards, and purchase an archival box. And there are companies that specialize in archival products. And I really stress to you, find a company that has a reputation of carrying archival products. Don't depend on going to the stationary store and finding an archival box; you'll probably have to mail order them. The next best thing would be if you don't have the money right now to get a new box, or to buy an archival box, if you would like to wait on purchasing the archival box, the next best thing is to try to get a new box. Boxes get more acidic with age, so if you have to, go to a new cardboard box. You can, if you want, line the box with say, unbleached muslin, and put them in there and that can act as a little bit of a barrier between the box. And once again, if you're going to use the cardboard box or the shoe box, it's a new one, don't put it back down in the attic and don't put them down in the basement. Try to keep it where it's going to get as little air circulation and air exposure as possible. The air that we breathe, the air that we have to live in, is acidic, and the more it's exposed to the air and the environment, the more acidic the box will become over age.