SYS Blog

How To Not Forget Family History Stories – 3 Easy Steps To Start

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  By Jasmine Brand, historian, researcher, writer, guest blogger   Having a hard time remembering past stories from people in your family? Are you worried about the next generation remembering their heritage? While some people love their family photos and get warm fuzzies, some people struggle reconciling their past relationships and events. Yet, we are […]

Water Damage on a Lithograph of a Woman by Henri Matisse

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 This work on art on paper came into the lab because it had a water stain on the lower right hand corner, which makes this valuable print look awful… and takes away from the value. What causes water stains? I spoke with Scott Haskins, our conservator and he said one of the reasons this […]

Part 2 Questions about Archival Storage and Acid Free Paper

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Scott, Another question… for items I want to keep in a transparent enclosure (so they don’t have to be handled directly to view), there seem to be so many choices. I’m thinking the polyester or polyethylene envelopes might be the best because they’re closed on 3 sides (less chance of something falling out) and seem […]

Questions Acid free, Archival Storage and About Acids in Paper

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Scott, Hi. My answers to Kathie are in bold… I’ve another question. I’m still trying to get a handle on the most effective (but also economical) way to store paper items archivally. 1. Is it OK, for instance, to put paper items in archival manila folders and/or archival poly pages (all acid and lignin-free), but […]

Mold damage and storage of family history.

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Here’s a family pile of stuff that was cleaned from mold and packed away under our care. Even if you don’t want to go through the inventorying process, protect items with baggies and proper storage containers. For important papers, certificates, memories in the office, these are great ideas for emergency preparedness.

Do It Your-Selfers: Don’t Do This!!!!!

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Impatient, the do it yourselfer may just pull framing apart without knowing that taking off even a little of the surface of a paper item will reduce the value because its damaged. This is POOR quality work!