Course description: Do you have boxes of photographs or family papers stored away in a closet or attic? This session provides a basic introduction to organizing and preserving family history materials including books, papers, and photographs.

1. Lynda Kachurek
University of Richmond
Osher Institute Course
July 2014
PROTECTING YOUR
FAMILY’S HISTORY

2. Welcome
• Introductions
• Course Agenda & Housekeeping
• Protecting Your Family’s History
• Resources, ideas, and tips
• Questions
• Looking Ahead:
For Next Week

3. What are family papers?
Family papers can include a wide variety of materials:
• Manuscripts
• Clippings
• Correspondence
• Photographs
• Audio-visual materials
• Scrapbooks
• Diaries
• 3-dimensional artifacts
• Digital items

4. Our Goal:
From This …. To This . . .
Unprocessed Collection Processed Collection

5. Or, in some cases, from this . . .

6. Examples of family papers
• official documents: passports, birth, marriage and death certificates
• correspondence: letters, postcards, email, telegrams
• diaries
• scrapbooks
• photographs, movie film, video, audio recordings
• books: cookbooks, family histories, religious and spiritual texts
• artifacts: art objects, clothing, military material, occupational and
household items, daily-living material, and furniture
• digital materials: laptops, floppies, cell phones

7. Where to start?
•Find place and time to
work
•Have first round of
materials (folders,
boxes, pencils, etc.)
•Organize
•Protect
•Enjoy
• Start small
• Don’t get overwhelmed
• Start with basics
• Move into specifics
Saving Your Treasures

8. Priority #1: The Environment

9. Environmental threats
to your family papers
•Temperature and humidity
•Sunlight
•Bugs

10. •Heat and humidity = Mold

11. •Heat that comes
in many forms

12. More environmental threats
•Dirt
•Food and drink
•The atmosphere

13. Best Practices: Environment
• Ideal temperature: 60-72 degrees
• Ideal humidity: 40-60%
• Consistency is important
• Protect materials from dust, light, pests, and mold
• Avoid attics and basements (barns, tool sheds, etc.)
• Avoid damp areas
• Use your nose
• Don’t let “for now” become “forever”!

14. Priority #2: Organize
• From this 
• To this

15. Most Important Thing?
Don’t do anything that can’t be undone!
• Lamination
• Ink
• Unintentional Damage

16. Things to Do: Flatten
• Remove letters and documents from envelopes and flatten.

17. Things to Do:
Remove Harmful Items
Common items to avoid
•Cellophane tape
•Paper clips
•Rubber bands
•Ink pens / markers
•Lamination

18. Things to Do: Clean
• Lightly remove surface dirt with fine brush, document cleaning
pads, polymer erasers, vulcanized rubber sponge

19. Things to Do: Identify
Using soft pencil, provide any identifying information that you can:
• Names
• Dates
• Places
• Events
• Relationships
Not just photos!

20. Things to Do: Select
• Survey materials as whole, then work down through individual
items
• Typical materials of interest include:
• Letters, memoirs, reminiscences, oral histories, stories
• Diaries, scrapbooks, photo albums
• Professional information, business records, minutes/reports
• Financial records (some)
• Legal documents, speeches, lectures
• Genealogical information
• Photographs
• Films, videos, audio tapes
Deciding What to Keep

21. Things to Do: Storage
Ideal/Best practice:
• Acid free folders, labeled
• Acid free boxes, labeled
• Photo sleeves
• Protective covers
Reality:
• Do the best you can
with what you have!

22. Proper Storage Tips
• Store in dark, cool and dry area
• Isolate acidic items (old newspapers)
• Use appropriate archival containers
• Avoid sunlight and UV light
• Watch for bugs and mold
• Use Mylar or other
chemically inert plastics

23. Things to Do: Preservation Tips
Scrapbooks
• Keep their original order if possible
• Identify materials removed from scrapbooks with date, source,
names, and places. Use only pencil.
• Remove any materials in magnetic / sticky photo albums, but
do no harm.
• Consider taking photos of the scrapbook as it is, for back-up.

24. Photo Tips
• Do not take apart any ‘cased photographs’ (daguerreotypes,
ambrotypes, and tintypes).
• Do not flatten tin-types or attempt to clean with solvents.
• Avoid touching images with fingers. Hold the edges or use white
gloves.
• House photo prints in clear polypropylene or polyethylene sleeves
(Mylar) and in folders and boxes for support. PAT-tested supplies.
• Avoid wood-pulp paper, glassine, or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for
storage!
• Store negatives separately from photographs.
• Label using soft pencil or in sleeve with label
• Use digital copies for display, or UV filtering covers on framed
photos, keep away from direct sunlight

25. Audio recordings
• Store all LPs, discs and tapes (cassette and open-reel) upright,
on edge. Do not lay any recording flat.
• Keep all tapes away from potential sources of
demagnetization, such as loudspeakers, televisions, and heat
sources.
• Store tapes without rewinding.

26. Digital Objects
• CD-ROMS have shown serious degradation in less than 10 years
• DVD’s are believed to have shorter life-spans than CD-ROMS
• External hard-drives an option, but not foolproof
• Can print things that are for permanent retention or storage.
• Make and carry out a plan to migrate (or at least check and refresh)
your data to new CD-ROMS or other digital storage on a regular
basis.
• Create back-ups, in case one set fails. Cloud storage an option!

27. Things to Do:
Make an inventory
• Helps keep track and locate items
• Helps identify gaps in family materials
• Assists in “weeding” – what to keep,
duplicates, etc.
• What to document?
• What items are in which folders
• What are the dates of the documents
• Which family members are represented
• How did you acquire the documents

28. General tips
• Store objects of the same size together.
• Do not overcrowd boxes and files.
• Keep boxes off the floor.
• Avoid using paperclips, glue, tape and rubber bands.
• Copy crumbly newspaper clippings to acid free paper.
• Have a disaster recovery plan.
• Know where items are located.

29. Winding up:
Preserving Your Family Treasures
• Collections Care
• Organization
• Storage
• Temperature and humidity concerns
• Reduce risk of damage
• Your Collections – Examples
• Bring in item to work with next class!
• Things we didn’t talk about:
• furniture, textiles, china, glassware, etc.
• Now What?

30. Next Steps
• Enjoy your hard work
• Get interested family members involved
• Use materials to generate and discover more
• Family gatherings
• Create oral histories
• Craft a digital story
• Share your materials
• Local historical society
• Library
• Archive
• Donate materials!

31. Possibilities
• Scrapbook / album
• Time capsule
• Storybook
• Oral histories
• Personal history / memoir
• Reunions / memory tables / identification / gather new stories
• Digital storytelling / picture sharing
• Family history blog
• Donations

32. Tips to Get Started - Projects
• Plan
• What is the purpose?
• Who is your intended audience?
• What story do you want to tell?
• Who can tell the story?
• Create a timeline
• Identify both personal and world events as well as social and
cultural changes
• Use photographs, scrapbooks or albums to trigger stories and
memories
• Library resources
• Websites to help

33. Just a Few Examples
• Minnesota: Everyone has a Story!
• Association of Personal Historians: Tell Your Story – Connect
Generations!
• Finding Your Roots – Share your Story
• UR Digital Storytelling
• CTLT has equipment, studios, and tech help!
• Leonard Cohen, Dance Me to the End of Love
• Cowbird (www.cowbird.com)
• Veteran’s History Project