Maintenance
Why do the same archive mistakes keep happening to careful people?
What actually damages a home archive: damage in family collections comes from a short list, pests, damp, light, handling and one hopeful repair.
What to take away
- Most damage is slow and environmental. The dramatic accidents are rarer than the damp cupboard.
- Mold does more than stain. It weakens material, carries moisture, and makes objects more attractive to insects.
- Mold and pest debris are a health matter as well as a collection matter. Wear a mask before you sort a moldy box.
- Almost all of it is prevented by conditions, not by products.
The three kinds of pest
The Canadian Conservation Institute's account of pests as an agent of deterioration groups them into microorganisms, insects and rodents, and notes that those three account for the majority of pests affecting cultural heritage, with others such as roosting birds and bats significant only in particular places.
The section on microorganisms is the one to read twice. They digest, stain, weaken and convey moisture, and they attract insect pests by modifying and increasing the nutritional value of an object. That last mechanism explains why a moldy box becomes an infested box: the mold makes the paper worth eating.
It is also direct about the risk to people. Beyond infection, bacteria and fungi pose a health risk through high concentrations or chronic exposure, leading to allergic and severe respiratory conditions, and it strongly advises effective personal protective equipment when working with contaminated material.
That is the correct response to opening a box that smells of mold: close it, get a mask, and work outdoors.
The order damage arrives in
| Cause | How it shows | Typical source |
|---|---|---|
| Damp | Musty smell, cockling, mold | Basement, exterior wall, leak |
| Pests | Grazed edges, frass, holes | Damp plus food debris |
| Light | Fading, yellowing, brittleness | Display and daylight |
| Handling | Tears, creases, fingerprints | Working too fast |
| Repairs | Stains, adhesive residue | The urge to fix something |
Read down the column. The first two are the room, the third is a decision, and the last two are you. That is the whole subject.
Damage causes and how they show
Cause
- Damp
- Musty smell, cockling, mold
- Pests
- Grazed edges, frass, holes
- Light
- Fading, yellowing, brittleness
- Handling
- Tears, creases, fingerprints
- Repairs
- Stains, adhesive residue
How it shows
- Damp
- Basement, exterior wall, leak
- Pests
- Damp plus food debris
- Light
- Display and daylight
- Handling
- Working too fast
- Repairs
- The urge to fix something
Typical source
- Damp
- Pests
- Light
- Handling
- Repairs
Photographs fail in their own ways
The New York State Archives guidance on photographs and slides is worth following exactly, because photographs carry failure modes paper does not.
For display: show copies rather than originals wherever possible and store the originals separately, always copying damaged photographs; protect anything displayed behind glass or acrylic that filters ultraviolet; and use acid-free albums rather than magnetic or self-adhesive ones.
For framing it gives a specific test to ask for. Use rag-board mats that pass the photographic activity test, applying to digital prints as well as traditional ones, with mats unbuffered for color photographs and buffered for black and white.
For storage: use envelopes or folders of stable plastic or acid-free paper, placed in acid-free boxes and not packed too tightly. And it names the materials to keep away from photographs, which are exactly the ones households have: brown kraft paper, glassine envelopes, mat board with high lignin content, rubber cement and glue.
Why it happens anyway
Not through ignorance, usually. It happens because the collection arrives at a bad moment, gets put somewhere temporary, and the temporary place becomes permanent. The garage is not a decision anyone makes; it is a decision nobody revisits.
Our notes on damage that is hard to undo cover the actions to avoid, and the guide to organizing a family collection covers the sequence that gets things out of the temporary place.
Common questions
Is a musty smell always mold?
Can I clean mold off myself?
How do I know if insects are active?
What is the single most common cause?
In this guide
- Archive risk starts with inspecting the building, not just the boxesInspection routine that catches problems early: active and passive detection explained, how often to inspect a home collection, what to look at in a building.
- A detection and containment checklist for archive mistakes before they spreadKit for finding problems before they spread: the monitoring and containment kit for a home archive, what to buy for detection, what isolation actually requires.
- Archive materials fail quietly: plastics and rubber damage from the insideMaterials that quietly cause the damage: some of the worst things in a family collection are the storage materials themselves, degrading plastics and rubber.
- Cleaning: the archive mistake that does the most damage at homeWhy cleaning is the most damaging thing a beginner does, what liquids actually do inside a layered object, and what to do instead when something is wet.
- Work surfaces compared: where archive handling mistakes actually happenFour work surfaces compared for archive handling, showing which mistakes happen on each and what to check before you lay fragile material down.
