Industry
Part of Document Preservation Comparison: Household Storage Risks
When to hand framing or mounting work to a professional, and five questions to ask
When framing or mounting should go to document preservation companies instead of your own hands, five questions for a shop, and where conservators are listed.
What to take away
- For conservation work, start with the American Institute for Conservation and its Find a Conservator directory. Document preservation companies and frame shops open and close too fast for any list here to stay accurate.
- The test for doing it yourself is not difficulty. It is whether a mistake can be undone.
- Public libraries are the most likely place to find free instruction and equipment for this work.
- Ask a framer or a studio what materials they will use before you ask what it costs.
Frame shops and conservation practices open, close, and change hands, so a list published now would mislead within a year. What is durable is the judgment about when to hand work over, and the kinds of place that teach it.
Deciding whether the job is yours
The New York State Archives guidance on matting and framing family records helps people make this decision. It says good matting and framing is a craft needing skill, artistic judgment and the right materials.
The guidelines let readers decide if they are comfortable doing the work. A reputable frame shop is the alternative.
Its warnings are specific enough to use as a test. Framing or mounting an heirloom with the wrong materials can do more harm than good. It names the offenders: acidic mat board, brown backing paper and cardboard, which speed decay of prints, fabrics and photographs.
It also notes that a frame may be significant in its own right. Consult an expert before you replace or repair an existing frame.
Two of its habits are worth adopting whoever does the work. Dust frames with a soft brush or a dusting cloth rather than a wet cloth. And always identify the item you are mounting or framing, labeling it rather than trusting memory.
Is the job yours?
Is the wrong choice reversible?
Do it yourself
Pay a professional
When to take it to a conservator instead
Reversibility is the test, and a few jobs fail it before you start.
- The mount would be permanent. Dry mounting, spray adhesive and pressure-sensitive tape cannot be undone, and the harm shows up years later.
- The paper is torn, flaking, stained, moldy or water-damaged.
- The medium is friablepastel, charcoal or an unfixed drawing.
- The object is three-dimensional or textilea uniform, a quilt or a medal.
- The frame itself is old or hand-made and may be part of the item's history.
- The item is valuable or insured and you want a written opinion about it.
For those, look for a conservator rather than a general frame shop, and ask whether the person has handled your kind of item before.
What to ask a frame shop or studio
- What board and backing will touch the item, and at what pH?
- What is holding it in place, and can that be undone later?
- Will the item touch the glazing at any point?
- Will the original frame or backing be returned to me?
- What happens to the item between drop-off and collection?
A shop that answers those five easily is a shop worth using. One that answers with the word archival is not. Membership in a professional conservation body is another signal: the American Institute for Conservation publishes a Find a Conservator directory, and its members work to a code of ethics. Ask for the materials list in writing before you leave the item.
Five questions for a frame shop
- What board and backing touch the item?
- What holds it in place, and can it be undone?
- Will the item touch the glazing?
- Will the original frame or backing be returned?
- What happens between drop-off and collection?
Where free instruction exists
The most likely local source is a public library. A funded proposal from DC Public Library and the Public Library Association, held by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, describes the Memory Lab model. Its expansion is a two-year project to embed digital preservation tools and education in public libraries across the United States.
Seven libraries receive training, mentoring and financial support to create digitization stations and curriculum around personal digital archiving.
The proposal explains what such a lab actually offers members of the public: access to digitization equipment and software, resources for best practice, and classes on personal archiving. It also notes the model was built to be copied, with open documentation including guides for individuals and institutions to create their own labs.
That is a concrete thing to ask your library about by name. Beyond it, state and county archives, university library preservation departments and historical societies run occasional workshops on family collections, usually free, and usually announced at short notice. Telephone rather than search.
Our comparison of storage options covers the decisions you can make alone, and the notes on the risks archives plan for cover the planning that no studio will do for you.
