Preserving letters

[Birdgirl82]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on how to preserve letters my Nan sent to my Grandad during WWII. They are in pretty good condition considering they are nearly 80 years old but I'd like to store them in a better way than they are currently. At the moment they are stored in a plastic bag which is better than the wax hood they were discovered in 30 years ago. I'm not sure how many there are exactly but I would estimate around 100-150. Each one has about 3-4 sheets of single sided written sheets. I'd love to be able to read them all without handling them all the time but realise this could become very expensive to display them in such a way. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Jill on the A272]

I have some in A4 acid free plastic sleeves in a lever arch file.

I need to get some more as I have a bundle of letters from WW2 from mum's cousin to his wife written until his death in 1941, they came to me after their only son died nearly 10 years ago and I still haven't looked at them.

[Birdgirl82]

Yes, I was looking at acid free pockets. I've costed up A5 ones as my letters would fit in those. Typically, they are more expensive than A4 ones so gets quite costly. I think this may be my only option though. I looked at photo/postcard pockets (2 slots to an A4 pocket) but they are very expensive considering the number I would need.

[Darksecretz]

You could look at something like Acid free photo albums, then you can buy extra sleeves etc.. S&N Genealogy or My-History if you are in the UK are places I've ordered things from before and have been really quite great value for money.

whatever you do please don't laminate them, [though I'm sure you wouldn't anyway!]

[Birdgirl82]

Thank you, I'll have a look 😊. They have generally been a bit out of my price range for the quantity I would need but I'll have a look anyway. Definitely not going to laminate them, don't worry 😊.

[PhotoFamily]

You could look at something like Acid free photo albums, then you can buy extra sleeves etc.. S&N Genealogy or My-History if you are in the UK are places I've ordered things from before and have been really quite great value for money.

whatever you do please don't laminate them, [though I'm sure you wouldn't anyway!]

+1.
Acid free, lignan free sleeves. Handle once. Don't stick anything to them (by laminating or with sticky notes), and don't write on them. One advantage of the sleeve is that you can write notes on the border of the sleeve. Possibly you could write a note and place it in the sleeve with the original (that's when lignan-free is in play.

There's a lot of discussion about digitizing images too. What format and where to store. Personally, I've scanned once, but haven't made a final decision about storage.

An archivist I consulted also suggested color photocopying. Way too expensive for what you have, but if a few of the documents are especially important, you could consider it. Photocopies can catch detail that might otherwise be missed, and can also be stored.

Then there's paranoia. What if your house burns down or floods? Do you have any (additional) offsite storage?

Could these be of interest to an historical society? Could they be a storage site?

Good luck!

[Darksecretz]

Thank you, I'll have a look 😊. They have generally been a bit out of my price range for the quantity I would need but I'll have a look anyway.

You could ask Santa?

[RespectfulConversations]

Acid-free sleeves in a binder or album seem like the best preservation option. Make sure to also scan or photograph the letters so you have a digital backup.


Such a treasure to have those World War 2 letters!