Preservation is a topic near-and-dear to my heart; as an alumnus of the College of Charleston’s Historic Preservation program and in the few years since graduating, I gained experience in archival and architectural preservation. I love sharing my expanding knowledge and passion with others, so I tried to select a wide variety of resources within the BDC on the topic.
But first, what is preservation? The Society of American Archivists defines preservation as “the professional discipline of protecting materials by minimizing chemical and physical deterioration and damage to minimize the loss of information and to extend the life of cultural property.” Cultural property includes materials like books, photographs, textiles, artifacts, and architectural features. While those of us in the BDC are trained or in-training professionals, there are levels of preservation work that can be undertaken by anyone interested in protecting their personal documents and collections for future generations! This display highlights some of the resources and materials we have to do so.
The shelves are arranged by topic:
- Shelf One: General Preservation Tips
- Shelf Two: Archival Preservation Process
- Shelf Three: Cultural and Historic Preservation
- Shelf Four: Preservation of Photographs
I used the top shelf of our display case to explore the basics of preservation as it applies to our work in the BDC, other heritage institutions, and what people can do at home. I start with a copy of the American Library Association’s “Preservation Week: Quick Preservation Tips – Take the First Step” flyer. This is a handy beginners guide to protecting your collections and outlines what to keep an eye out for. If you can’t make it in to see the display, you see the flyer on the ALA website. I also added a few ALA “Pass It On” bookmarks that summarize these points; take-home copies are available in the BDC too.
The books on this shelf come from the BDC’s Professional Reference section, meaning these are the resources we turn to for guidance. The first book I selected was Caring for Your Family Treasures: Heritage Preservation (2000) by Jane S. and Richard W. Long, a handy primer for long-term care for your personal artifacts. From silver to scrapbooks, this book outlines best practices for preserving and conserving common heirlooms with helpful tips and tricks. The author also points to additional resources for more in-depth study.
Also on the shelf is Caring for American Indian Objects: A Practical and Cultural Guide (2004) edited by Sherelyn Ogden. This is an introduction to the caring and keeping of Native American objects for museum and archival professionals, with advice on accessioning, labeling, and displaying objects as well. The BDC does not have any Native American objects in our collection, but understanding how to care for unique materials with connections to our local history is of great importance regardless. While the volume focuses specifically on Native American cultural heritage, the lessons learned can be applied to many other types of objects as the variety of materials is wide-ranging. For example, sections on how to apply museum labels to fabrics can be useful for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous textiles. As such, this is a great guide overall for cultural heritage professionals or those with large personal collections of Indigenous objects and more.
With the second shelf, I wanted to take the opportunity to showcase the work that our volunteers and I do within the BDC – archival processing and digitization. I chose Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections: Reducing Processing Backlogs (2015) by Daniel A. Santamaria, as it directly relates to my day-to-day work. This is another professional guide to preservation of archival materials, this time looking at how we prepare these items for use by customers (called archival processing). Preparing a collection for use includes rehousing materials in non-acidic enclosures, making preservation surrogates of materials that are acidic or otherwise detrimental to the collection, organizing the material in a way that respects the original order while making it findable, and describing the collection in a “finding aid”.
Another aspect of our work is digitization, where we scan certain collections, like photographs, and upload them to the Lowcountry Digital Library website so they are readily accessible to the public while also being protected from regular handling or other pollutants. The NEDCC’s Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation Access (2000), edited by Maxine K. Sitts, gives a thorough overview of digitization in archives and discusses why it matters and how digitization projects can be managed with collections of any size or scale. This is an older edition, so some advice may be outdated, but the general concepts are enduring. The physical volume of this title is available within the BDC while the PDF format can be accessed through the Northeast Document Conservation Center's website. Materials related to this process are also displayed on the shelf. These include:
• Samples of archival quality materials used when rehousing or reformatting like Bristol – chemically inert material used in archival folders, Permalife – an acid-free paper, Mylar – used in sleeves for print materials, Reemay – a lining and backing material, and Buckrum – book cover material.
• Abbey pH Pen used to test the acidity of things like paper. When acidic, the ink will turn yellow; when neutral or alkaline, the ink will be purple. You can see a sample of this test in the display case.
• #2 pencil used to label materials and take notes in archives. Many BDC visitors know this already, but no pens are allowed around archival collections as ink formulations are varied and complex and mutable and sometimes not reversible! Pencil marks are easily and safely removed with a rubber eraser.
• A sample of materials commonly encountered during processing like photos, print documents, handwritten correspondence, prints, and newspaper clippings.
• Archival folders used in collection boxes and for the BDC’s vertical files.
The next shelf focuses on cultural and historic preservation. While the BDC’s work mostly revolves around preserving paper-based heritage materials like documents and books, preservation also includes the conservation and management of historic sites and properties, like prominent architecture, cemeteries, archaeological sites, and even viewsheds. The BDC has materials and resources that record and offer guidance on this ongoing process within Beaufort County, like the newly revised edition of The Beaufort Preservation Manual (2022) by John Milner Associates. The manual was the first of its kind in 1979 when the first edition was published, as it outlined and illustrated the ideal treatments and methods for preserving historic buildings in Beaufort along with design guidelines for new additions to old houses. This book is a great resource for historic homeowners who want to keep the unique character of their house and do as little long-term damage as possible. The BDC has both the first and second editions available for use by patrons in the Research Room, and the City of Beaufort has uploaded the second edition to their website.
Also on this shelf is Grave Matters: The Preservation of African-American Cemeteries (1994) by the Chicora Foundation. This short book gives a condensed history of African-American burial practices in South Carolina, including those of enslaved peoples and the Gullah-Geechee community. It gives an archaeological overview of known historic cemeteries, the research being done on them, and dissects some of the differences between white and Black cemeteries. It also gives brief suggestions to those curious about preserving Black cemeteries in their own community and the laws surrounding the conservation of these sites.
I also chose to feature Site Destruction in Georgia and the Carolinas (1993) on this shelf, as it outlines the potential loss of cultural history that can occur without preservation. According to the authors David G. Anderson and Virginia Horak, “Site destruction is perhaps the most significant problem facing the historic preservation community in the Southeast” (p.1). This work outlined the most pressing concerns to local preservationists in the 1990s and some of the lost or endangered sites of that time, including materials lost to looting, damage to historic sites done during Hurricane Hugo, and early archaeological sites revisited by contemporary professionals who disagreed with the methods of the past. In case you are curious about what not to do at a historic site, the book includes descriptions of activity considered to be “disturbances” to historical sites, like the removal of features or artifacts, rubbings or casts of features, and the chipping or removal of loose or embedded materials like bricks or tabby.
Lastly, the bottom shelf touches on a subset of archival processing and something that you can easily do at home: the preservation of photographs. Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler’s Photographs: Archival Care and Management (2006) is highlighted here – this book is a detailed guide to handling, assessing, and storing photographs for professionals, but anyone curious about archival standards for photographs can benefit from reading it. I particularly enjoyed reading the chapters on identifying types of photographs and the methods for housing each type. Also displayed is a small summary of best practices from SC Archives Month 2009 alongside a pair of gloves - archival standards dictate that cloth gloves be worn when handling photos to prevent oils from our hands damaging the photo. Below them are surrogate copies of photos we hold in our collections in a variety or mylar and polypropylene sleeves, showcasing the ideal ways a photo could be archivally stored.
While this display is not and cannot be a comprehensive list of all of our preservation related materials in the BDC, I hope that it serves as good introduction to our mission and daily work.
Reminder: The Library is closed on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 for Staff Development.
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