Common Problems with Letters

I told Samantha Sheesley, Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, that I found a paper clip on one of the June and Art love letters.  When I removed it, the reddish-brown image of the paper clip remained.

“That’s typical,” she said.  But I did the right thing in removing it.  Rust will discolor and weaken the paper.  You carefully slide off the paper clip, throw it away, and live with the stain.



Another common problem – although only found in one instance in the June and Art letters – is pressure-sensitive tape.  These scotch tapes and masking tapes are the bane of conservators.  The adhesive penetrates through the paper, leaving an ugly yellow scar.  As for the tape itself, it doesn’t even do its job right.  Eventually, it dries out and falls off, leaving nasty adhesive residue still on the paper.

According to Sam, you shouldn’t attempt to remove the tape yourself.  The risk of tearing or skinning the paper is considerable.  She recommends either leaving it alone or taking it to a professional conservator to remove.

Pressure-sensitive tape attaching a
feather to a card.

And the last problem is (thankfully!) one that we didn’t find at all in the June and Art letters.  Sometimes letters are stored in warm, damp, dark places that breed molds.  You’ll probably see it if it’s there – sometimes they can be quite psychedelic, Sam says – and you may smell it, too.  It’ll have a mildew scent.  If that’s your problem, don’t mess around with it.  Either throw it out, or schedule a visit to take it to a conservator.  It’s not something to keep around the house.

Thanks so much to Samantha Sheesley for her gracious consulting on letter preservation this past week!

© 2010 Lee Price

Old Paper vs. New Paper

Examining the June and Art love letters (1949-1951), Samantha Sheesley, Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, commented on the problems with acidic twentieth century wood-pulp

Thomas Jefferson letter from the
collection at the David Library of the
American Revolution
(Washington Crossing, PA).

papers.  “Normally the letters and manuscripts that we are asked to work with are much older,” she said.  “They present a different set of physical and chemical problems.”

For instance, here’s a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote at Monticello in the early nineteenth century.*  Like most of the letters of its day, it’s written on cotton rag.  After 200 years, the paper remains flexible due to the length of the paper fibers and discoloration is minimal due to the lack of acidity in the sheet.

By comparison, my parents’ letters are on wood pulp paper.  It’s lost much flexibility and is
turning an ugly yellow.  I wish these letters

Letter from June Anderson to
Art Price, 1949.

were holding up better – after all, it’s only been 61 years.  I guess it’s a good thing that the John and Abigail Adams love letters will outlive the June and Art letters, but on a personal level it’s a bit upsetting.

But I bet my mother would have been surprised to see her letter compared to Thomas Jefferson’s!

* Special thanks to the David Library of the American Revolution in Washington Crossing, PA for agreeing to share this beautiful example from their collection!

© 2010 Lee Price

Love Letters as Objects

I asked Samantha Sheesley, Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, for her thoughts about the June and Art love letters – not the content, but the physical objects themselves.

According to Sam, both June and Art wrote on commonly available machine-made wove paper, usually with a linen texture.  June tended to use matching envelopes.  Art’s envelopes rarely matched and were frequently of cheaper, more acidic quality than the letters.  All the paper involved, both the letters and the envelopes, were originally a brighter white and are now moving toward a yellowish-brown color, typical of discoloration from inherent acidity and exposure to light.

There are ways of slowing the degradation of the letters – such as storing them at a cool uniform temperature, keeping them in the dark, and storing them with microchamber paper which contain zeolites (molecular sieves to trap pollutants) – but slowing the degradation process is the best that you can hope for.  In Sam’s words, there’s “lots of inherent vice built into modern material.”

June and Art usually wrote with ballpoint pens, which were just becoming popular in the late 1940s.  June’s pens tended to leave unsightly blots of ink on the paper which often bleed through to the other side.  Sam says the paper in these blotted areas may be slightly weaker than the surrounding paper, but proper storage and safe handling practices will help to prevent additional damages.

In the June and Art blog, I’ve removed most of June’s endless problems with pens.  But since we're on the subject of pens, here are some of June's thoughts:

“(darn pen!)”

“(the pen leaks, too)”

“As you can see, I’m back to my old pen again.  Shirl’s sister is using hers.”

“I hate this pen, don’t you?”

“How do you like the ink?  I bought some Parker’s Superchrome Ink today – it’s special for these pens.  I’ve meant to buy some ever since you gave me the pen.  I really think it writes smoother with this ink.”

 “I just filled this pen and as usual got ink all over it.  Not having a blotter, Shirl told me to wipe it on the couch.  I refused, saying, ‘No, I’m going to be neat about this.’  With that, I grabbed the nearest paper bag and wiped the pen on that.  It’s fine, except that the pretzels fell out on the floor and Shirl had the last laugh.”

And, on receiving a pen as a gift from Art:

“Does the writing look any different to you?  (I’m confused on how to fill this pen.  I’m not even sure if it’s right this time – it takes me awhile to figure these things out.)  I should have waited until tomorrow, but gee, it got here today and how could I wait?  Oh, it writes so nice and easy – I don’t need to press at all – it just glides along.  Looks like I got it filled this time, hmmmm?  Or maybe I shouldn’t mention that so soon.  Do you realize this is the first time I’ve ever written you

with my own pen?  I’ve always used Shirl’s and that you have to dip into the ink all the time.  Thank you so much.”

© 2010 Lee Price

Preservation Tips for Letters

Samantha Sheesley, Conservator at the Conservation
Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, with one of the
June and Art love letters.

We began working with the June and Art letters when my mother (June) asked my wife to organize her half of the correspondence.  This was in early 2004, less than a year before my mother died.  My wife put the letters into plastic sleeves and then into a binder.

After my father died in 2009, my sister and I discovered his half of the correspondence.  I took the letters back with me to New Jersey where I combined them with my mother’s letters, organized them chronologically, sleeved everything in plastic, and packed them into three binders.  In addition, I transcribed them into the computer (Microsoft Word) for digital preservation of the contents.

Last week, I asked Samantha Sheesley, Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, if we had handled the letters appropriately so far.  Her response can be summed up as:  Pretty good, but with room for improvement.

Sam recommended –

Letters in need of flattening.

Flattening the pages before putting them in the sleeves.  They flatten paper professionally at the Center but even amateur flattening is better than none if the letters can be opened and flattened safely.  My wife and I had unfolded the letters but hadn't attempted to flatten them.  Sam said that carefully placing the letter between acid free papers on a smooth flat surface under a heavy weight (like a phone book) for a day or two would help.

One leaf per sleeve, add identifying
information to white edge with
a sharpie.

Restricting myself to one item per sleeve.  I had grouped all pages from each letter, plus the envelope, into a single sleeve.  Sam strongly recommended only one sheet per sleeve, including a sleeve just for the envelope.  That’s a lot of sleeves, I protested, but Sam insisted it’s for the best.  When I argued that I wanted to keep each letter together for organizational reasons, she said to write the identifying information along the white edge of each sleeve with a sharpie.

Using a three-ring binder/storage box.  My binders were standard school issue, with the paper edges exposed to light.  According to Sam, the best storage for these papers would combine a three-ring-binder photo album structure with a clamshell storage box that keeps out light and dust.  The archival supply company Gaylord offers several possibilities.  This is a nice one:  Preservation Box.

© 2010 Lee Price