Bringing the Past to Life: Conservation & Preservation of Historical Family Documents

Tape removal is executed using solvents during the conservation treatment of a client’s family tree.

The most common paper artifacts that ordinary people save and collect are documents related to their personal family history. Photographs, love letters, marriage and birth certificates that have been passed on from grandparents and great-grandparents are carefully - or not so carefully - saved in albums and drawers of personal mementos. Our ancestors may not have been able to protect them as well as we might wish, and whether through disaster, neglect or simply inherent vice, paper remnants of a family’s history often end up damaged and deteriorated.

Maybe you’re engaged in researching your family’s genealogy. Maybe you want to pass on some treasured items to your children or grandchildren. Maybe you’re simply curious or sentimental about an item that belonged to your great-grandparents. Either way, a conservator can help you restore and preserve these important personal items.

Our studio regularly treats family documents needing repair and restoration. We clean, flatten, repair tears, remove stains, deacidify, and fill and inpaint losses. We offer advice on proper storage conditions to preserve artifacts going forward, and can provide archival housings such as acid-free folders, mylar encapsulation and clamshell boxes for books and bibles.

A Polish birth certificate c.1905, folded, broken, and inaccessible.

Previous repairs with tape and bandaids have stained the paper fibres.

This birth certificate, from a family of Polish ancestry, was recently brought in for conservation treatment. The document, over 100 years old, had been stored folded and the brittle paper had broken along the fold lines. It had been repaired in the past with materials close to hand, specifically sellotape and the unusual solution of band-aids! The owner was hesitant even to open the folded document, and consequently couldn’t access the information written inside, the birth and christening dates of her grandmother.

Removing various tapes from the document with scalpel and solvent.

Treatment included humidifying and unfolding the tightly folded package, removing the pressure sensitive adhesive tape and the remaining adhesive residue, and lining the fragments onto a new backing paper in order to create a new full sheet to stabilize the document. Some panels of the document were missing, but luckily the areas with handwritten text were all intact and the client could finally read the information.

Reassembling fragments of the birth certificate before repair by lining.

The certificate is lined onto a new sheet, making it safely accessible.

Ancestor photographs often come in for conservation treatment as well. Restoring treasured heirlooms is one of the most satisfying tasks of our daily work, and the feeling of returning a revived photograph to the descendent of it’s owner is wonderful validation for our hard work. The photograph below was the only image one client had of her great-grandmother, but biological damage had affected the emulsion layer of the photograph. Careful stabilization and inpainting restored the image, and the client was pleased to frame it with museum quality materials for display in her home.

Inpainting losses to the emulsion layer of a 19th century photograph.

This small notebook belonged to another client’s Polish father, and was brought with him when he immigrated to Canada after serving in the second world war. Her family now happily considers themselves Canadian, but memories of their father’s war experiences are treasured and revered, and this diary serves as a powerful reminder of the struggles he went though to reach safety. Conservation treatment stabilized it and a collection of other documents related to her parent’s immigration, now preserved for the family’s future.

Repairs with Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste to a Polish immigrant’s notebook.

A charming item came into the studio just before Christmas this year - a client’s childhood letter to Santa. We’re guessing it was c.1970s, by the request for bellbottoms, and the thoughtful request for a mink coat for her mother is very heartwarming. The letter had great sentimental value for the client, and we were pleased to return it carefully restored as a “christmas miracle” in time for the holidays.

Letter to Santa, before conservation.

Letter to Santa, after conservation.

Family history documents are one of our specialities at Book and Paper Conservation Services, and we don’t consider any items too small to be deserving of careful conservation and restoration. The stories that come with these artifacts make the work worthwhile, and although the documents may not be of much monetary value, the sentimental worth is incalculable.

Custom archival storage folders made to house family history documents once they have been conserved at our studio.

Art Conservator and Book and Paper Conservation Services owner Jennifer Robertson recently spoke to the Ontario Genealogical Society about preservation and conservation of family history documents. The talk was recorded and is available for viewing here. If you are interested in learning more about genealogy and connecting with other passionate family researchers in the London area, the OGS’s Middlesex branch website provides information on their monthly meetings and talks.

This small bible (before conservation treatment), travelled with a client’s father while he was on active duty in WWI. The restoration filled losses and stabilized the book, which was then passed on to her son as a family heirloom.

If you are interested in having restoration work done on your family documents or simply have questions on repair or preservation options, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Or, view our portfolio of conservation treatments of Archival Materials for more examples of this type of work.

May your artifacts live safely for many years to come!

Conservation Treatment of a Canadian WWI Battalion Panorama Photograph

Lambton 149 Battalion, panorama photograph, before and after conservation treatment.

As we work our way through the centennial years of the First World War, archives and museums across the country are showcasing items from their collections that relate to Canada’s role in the conflict. This is a wonderful opportunity to show respect for our past and educate younger generations about the impact of war; as these collections are being dusted off for exhibition, it is also the perfect opportunity to provide artifacts with much-needed conservation attention.

A WWI battalion panorama photograph recently came to Book and Paper Conservation Services for treatment from the Lambton Heritage Museum in Grand Bend, Ontario. Like many oversize and awkwardly shaped items, the panorama photograph had been stored rolled for much of its life. Age and exposure had caused the paper to become brittle, and the photograph was inclined to stay in its rolled configuration. Any attempt to unroll it caused stress to the materials, and several breaks had already occurred in the first several inches of the panorama when the brittle paper had been forced open.

Breaks in the brittle photograph caused by rolling.

This meant that the image could not be accessed at all; although cataloguing records noted that it was an image of the Lambton 149th Battalion taken in 1916 at Camp Borden, Ontario, the details of the soldiers and their surroundings could not be studied. 

According to Andrew Meyer, Corporate Cultural Officer of Lambton County Museums, the Lambton 149th battalion panorama photograph was donated to Lambton Heritage Museum by a community member, and it is the Museum’s only copy of the photograph. The photograph is important to Lambton County’s history, and conservation treatment was necessary for it to be accessed and appreciated by a wider audience.

After the panorama was brought to the Book and Paper Conservation Services studio, it was carefully examined and a treatment proposal was submitted to the museum. The photograph needed to be humidified to allow unrolling, and the breaks to be repaired. With the museum’s approval, treatment began at the studio.

Humidification allowed the panorama to be gently unrolled without causing further damage.

Humidification in several stages allowed the panorama to be gently unrolled without causing further damage to the photograph. After flattening between blotters for several days, it was returned to an even, planar state with no inclination to roll back up.

Surface cleaning removes a significant amount of grime, brightening the image.

Once the image could be fully accessed, the photograph was gently surface cleaned to remove loose dirt and grime. It may not have appeared grimy, but many years of dust and dirt had accumulated on the surface and cleaning yielded quite an improvement. The soiling was present over the entire surface, but was concentrated at the side of the panorama exposed at the open end of the roll. 

Ready to begin tear repairs on the verso of the photograph.

Next, repairs began on the breaks in the substrate. Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste, stable and reversible materials favoured by paper conservators for repairs, were used to mend the breaks and reattach the loose fragments. 

Consolidating the surface of the emulsion.

After each tear was repaired, the photograph's emulsion was consolidated to strengthen the area and restore continuity to the surface. Small losses were inpainted with watercolours and coated to restore the surface gloss.

One final humidification and flattening helped to ease the distortion caused by the tear repairs, and then treatment was complete. The process was very successful, achieving the goals of restoring access to the image and repairing the damage it had suffered over the years. 

The Lambton 149 Battalion Panorama, after conservation treatment.

The year 2017 marks the centennial of the Lambton 149th Battalion’s deployment from Halifax Harbour, and the Lambton Heritage Museum has planned several initiatives to celebrate this anniversary. The photograph is included in an exhibition currently on at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery (JNAAG), entitled Lambton at War. The exhibition, focusing on Lambton county’s contribution to the war and the impact of the conflict at home, accompanies a traveling exhibition from the National War Museum, Witness: Fields of Battle Through Canadian Eyes, and runs until January 7, 2018.

Book and Paper Conservation Services is very pleased to have been part of this project, and we encourage you to check out the exhibition at JNAAG and the Lambton Heritage Museum if you are in the area! 

If you have historic or archival items that you are interested in having conserved, get in touch with us today to learn about our services. Or, check out our gallery section to see more conservation treatments of archival materials like documents and photographs. 

Conservation of a WWI-Era Newspaper

Archival materials are valued for the information they convey, but often poor condition and deterioration hinders access to the text or images on old paper and documents. We frequently conserve these kinds of items for libraries and archives who's primary objective is to preserve and study the history they contain. 

This 1916 newspaper was been creased and soiled when it came in to the studio.

This project recently came to our studio from the Lambton Heritage Museum in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada. The 1916 Sarnia Canadian newspaper was part of their research collection, but had never received proper cataloguing or storage. It was the only known copy of this particular issue, and featured names and profiles of the soldiers in the 149 Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (popularly known as "Lambton's Own") about to depart for battle in World War One. 

Damage prevented access to the text of the newspaper.

A researcher using the Museum's collections wanted to read the content of the articles, but poor condition prevented access. The paper was soiled and creased, with folds obscuring text down the centre of paper, and the brittleness of the acidic newsprint had caused many breaks and losses in the sheet. Even gentle handling caused further deterioration, and conservation treatment was needed in order to restore the pages so they could be used safely.

Surface cleaning the paper to remove grime.

First, the front page was surface cleaned to remove the dirt and grime that was ground into the paper.

The creases gently unfolded, with the aid of moisture.

Next, the creases and folds were humidified with locally applied moisture and carefully unfolded, then flattened with a tacking iron, in order to open the sheets fully.

Tear repairs performed with extremely thin Japanese tissue.

Long tears along the creases and smaller ones radiating from the outer edges were repaired and strengthened with an extremely thin Japanese repair tissue, adhered with wheat starch paste. The thin tissue is almost transparent, a necessity in order for the text to remain readable through the repairs, and the adhesive is stable and reversible and won't become yellow or brittle with age.

The newspaper spread after repair and restoration.

Losses in the margins were filled with a slightly thicker Japanese paper to lend strength to the edges. Finally, the sheets were humidified overall and flattened so the paper is readable once more.

The front page of the conserved paper is now fully accessible.

The newspaper is now stable and able to be safely handled by Museum staff and visitors, and all the information is accessible to researchers. The stories of these brave men from Lambton County will once more be known and appreciated by today's citizens. 

Lambton Heritage Museum plans to exhibit the restored newspaper in an upcoming exhibit telling the story of Lambton County's participation in WWI. It will be held at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery in Sarnia, Ontario, in fall 2017, and is to run concurrently with the national traveling exhibition Witness: Fields of Battle Through Canadian Eyes, on loan from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Book and Paper Conservation Services is pleased to have worked on this project and to have contributed to the exhibition in a small way.

If you have historic items you are interested in having preserved, don't hesitate to get in touch with us!