How to house different types of documents within the same fascicule

1.     Description

Last year, we acquired a scrapbook referenced HMTN 2/1 and containing various documents related to Mary Agnes Hamilton: photographs (some dating back to 1900, fig. 1), a large amount of newspaper cuttings, letters on different types of paper (some attached together with a paper clip), transcription of Hamilton’s notes on photocopier paper, a leaflet, a small book enclosed in a plastic sleeve taped to the paper support, two diplomas with red wax seals folded in two and even her death certificate.

Mary Agnes Hamilton (1882 – 1966) was one of the first MPs to be elected at the 1929 general election under equal suffrage. After she lost her seat in 1931, she became a civil servant in the Ministry of Information and Reconstruction Secretariat during the Second World War.

The documents were gathered together in the second half of the 20th century by her great nephew, Commander Robert V. Adamson, and attached on both sides of 28 white photocopier paper sheets. All documents, and their captions created by her nephew, were attached with V strips of a white thick tape except one, a newspaper cutting that was entirely glued to an acidic board.

A page from the Agnes Hamilton scrapbook. Three photographs have been stuck onto an A4 sheet of white paper, onto which the captions have been printed and arrows have been hand drawn.

Figure 1: Second page of the scrapbook with three photos of Mary Agnes Hamilton from the beginning of the 20th century.

2. Condition/problematic/aim

The majority of the documents were in fair condition but, due to their inherent instability, they were starting to chemically react with the poor quality support paper: some newspaper cuttings oxidised becoming brittle and yellow, paper clips were rusty and Sellotape yellowed and stained the paper.

We had to remove the documents from this poor quality wood paper containing unstable products such as optical brighteners. The scrapbook had been created only a few decades ago and even though the documents hadn’t yet massively reacted chemically with the paper support, it was essential to prevent these reactions. Besides, this paper was not thick enough to support some mounted photographs or the leaflet, making the handling difficult and increasing the risk of damage.

Documents had to be removed and housed in a safer environment so we chose to fascicule them. Though fascicules use a lot of resources and can be bulky, they also store and protect single sheet documents very efficiently. Moreover, they allow safe handling of the documents and one does not even have to touch the documents during consultation, a convenience that makes us conservators very happy.

Not only was it decided to remove documents from their original paper support but also to remove all tape from the documents for the following reasons. Some papers such as newspapers were very thin and tensions could easily occur around the thick tape. Plus, the adhesive will oxidise the paper if not removed. This was not a straightforward decision as we knew this step would be time-consuming but we opted for it as this is a high priority item in our collection and we’d already decided to spend time and resources on it anyway when we chose to create fascicules.

The position of the documents was important since the scrapbook was made by a member of Hamilton’s family who sorted out the documents in the most appropriate order. Hence upsetting this order would lead to a loss of information. Plus, for each document, her great nephew printed captions, often very small, and transcribed Hamilton’s letters on low quality paper. We considered removing these captions and re-printing them on good quality paper. However, as we kept the order and layout of the documents, changing the captions could have been confusing even if well documented and compromise the integrity of the original. Also the ageing process of the modern paper would slow down as it will be housed in a good quality buffered paper and it would never be in contact with other documents from the scrapbook.

In conclusion, we kept everything as we found it while undertaking necessary conservation treatments on some documents and creating new fascicules to hold them in an appropriate and stable environment.

3.     Treatment

The removal

The V strips made the removal of the documents much easier than if glue was directly applied between the document and the support paper. The V strips were simply cut with a scalpel then the carrier was removed with a spatula after slowly introducing a little bit of moisture via a gel, 3 % methylcellulose and IMS (1:1) (fig. 3). The adhesive was not water-sensitive so it had to be removed with a crepe rubber but only when the paper was strong enough to resist the pull of the rubber (fig. 4). When the paper was too weak (e.g. newspaper), the adhesive was removed with a small amount of acetone applied with cotton wool under the fume cabinet. We tested removing the adhesive with ethanol first but it was creating tide lines at the front and we do not own a suction table in the studio that could have solved this problem. Acetone, on the other hand, removed the adhesive efficiently without any tide lines. However, it very slightly faded the ink on the verso but no change was noticed on the front side, even after several tests (fig. 5). After discussion, we decided to use acetone. This treatment might not be perfect but we needed an efficient and rapid solution to remove a large amount of adhesive (fig. 2), something other considered treatments such as solvent gels could not offer. Also, we decided that having slightly faded inks at the verso was preferable to having a thick tape stuck to the paper that would have oxidised and created tensions within the paper.

A collection of newspaper clippings lying face down on a table. On the back of each one there are several pieces of adhesive tape.

Figure 2: A large amount of tape on the back of the documents.

A close up of a conservator using a paintbrush to remove adhesive with a colourless acetone gel

Figure 3: Applying the gel with a brush to the tape to facilitate the removal of the carrier.

A close up of a conservator removing adhesive using a spongy rubber

Figure 4: Removing the adhesive from a thick paper with a crepe rubber.

Two newspaper clippings lying face down on a table. The one on the left has had the adhesive removed, there is a slightly faded section where the adhesive had been. The clipping on the right still has patches of the yellowish adhesive.

Figure 5: Comparison between two newspaper cuttings, on the left after removal of the adhesive and on the right with the adhesive just before removal.

The newspaper cutting glued to a thick acidic grey board was removed from its board for its good preservation and to reduce the swell created by the board within the new fascicule (fig. 6 and 7).

A newpaper clipping glued to a thick sheet of cardboard.

Figure 6: Newspaper cutting entirely glued to an acidic grey board.

A newspaper clipping attached via a hinge to the archival-quality paper fascicule

Figure 7: Newspaper cutting removed from the board and hinged into the fascicule.

The backboard was slowly delaminated from the document with a scalpel. The last layer of the board couldn’t be removed mechanically without risking damaging the document so moisture was introduced to reactivate the adhesive. A mix of 3 % methylcellulose and IMS (1:1) was applied for a few minutes and the fibres were easily removable with a spatula. The newspaper was oxidised and lost its mechanical strength so a lining was necessary. Very diluted wheat starch paste (similar texture to skimmed milk) was directly applied to the verso of the cutting through a Hollytex (a polyester release paper) and a piece of 3.5 gsm Tengu Japanese paper. To make sure contact was made between the object and the Japanese paper, a hard brush was gently brushed onto the Hollytex (fig. 8).

‘The object, in a Hollytex sandwich, was left to dry hanging on the edge of the table so it could dry homogeneously on both sides. When approximatively 80% of the water evaporated, the document and the Hollytex were placed between blotters and put under a press overnight (fig. 9). The lining was successful and the object was left under the press for another few days.

A diagram showing how the Japanese paper backing was applied to the document. There is a layer of Hollytex at the bottom, then the document, the Japanese paper, and a layer of Hollytex on the top. The wheat starch paste can then be applied through the top layer of Hollytex using a brush.

Figure 8: Cross-section of the lining treatment. The document is placed between two sheets of Hollytex and a piece of Japanese paper on the verso. Wheat starch paste is then applied with a brush through the Hollytex.

The document encased in Hollytex is hanging from the edge of the table in order to dry in a vertical position.

Figure 9: Letting the newspaper cutting dry at 80% on the edge of the table with Hollytex on both sides.

Making fascicules for paper and photographic documents

To make the fascicules, we mainly followed the guidelines published by Helen Lindsay and Christopher Clarkson in The Paper Conservator magazine in 1994 [Clarkson, C and Lindsay, H. HOUSING SINGLE-SHEET MATERIAL: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FASCICULE SYSTEM AT THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY, The paper conservator, Vol 18, Issue 1.]

Five fascicules were created using a 120 gsm Heritage woodfree bookwhite (buffered) and a 350 gsm grey Photokraft paper for the covers. The original A4 format of the scrapbook was modified and enlarged to create margins of about 40 mm and space for trimming.

The main difficulty was to house different types of documents that have different needs within the same fascicule. For instance, if acidic newspaper cuttings are better preserved in alkaline environments, photographs will not benefit from that. Therefore, photographs were housed in polyester sleeves not only to avoid contact with the buffered paper but also to protect the photographic emulsions from readers’ fingerprints.

The sleeves were made bespoke and welded using our studio welder. There were two types of polyester sleeves:

    • A multi-sleeve treated as a folio was made when the page only contained photographs (fig. 10 and 11);
    • A single sleeve containing one photograph was welded to the paper support when other non-photographic materials were present on the page (fig. 12).

Three photographs and their captions stuck to a page of white A4 paper

Figure 10: Three photographs as they were found in the original scrapbook.

The same three photographs on a newly made fascicule. The layout of the original has been preserved, and each photograph is protected in a polyester sleeve.

Figure 11: The same page after fasciculing. The photographs were placed in a polyester multi-sleeve made-to-measure.

It was not ideal to enclose mounted photographs in a polyester sleeve as the acidic backing board can create a chemically damaging micro-climate within the sleeve. To solve this problem, little ventilation windows were cut at the back of the sleeves (see fig. 13).

A fascicule onto which is mounted a photograph in a polyester sleeve, and a newspaper clipping

Figure 12: One photograph enclosed in a polyester sleeve and welded to the page of the fascicule.

The back of a polyester sleeve containing a photograph. There are small rectangular windows cut into the polyester

Figure 13: Little windows cut at the back of the mounted photographs to avoid creating a micro-climate within the sleeve.

The difficulty was to create the fascicules mentally before assembling them as everything had to be planned beforehand (fig. 14). Here are the details of the materials used for each one of the fascicules:

    • Fascicule 1: 5 polyester sleeves, 10 paper folio, 1 paper bifolio
    • Fascicule 2: 4 polyester sleeves, 11 paper folio, 1 paper bifolio
    • Fascicule 3: 2 polyester sleeves, 13 paper folio, 1 paper bifolio
    • Fascicule 4: 15 paper folio, 1 paper bifolio
    • Fascicule 5: 7 paper folio, 1 paper bifolio

A notebook containing sketches of the layout of several fascicules

Figure 14: Drawings of the fascicules before cutting the materials.

Considering the thick documents within the scrapbook (e.g. mounted photographs), we wanted to avoid pressing the whole fascicule while the documents were inside. Therefore, we thought that sewing the fascicules first then hinging the documents was the best option. But we quickly realised that this was not a handy solution for several reasons. First, welding the singular polyester sleeves into the bound fascicule was not an easy task and the welded line was not always perfect. Second, the cockling of the paper support after hinging the documents was difficult to flatten even when weights were left for a substantial time. This was caused by the tension of the sewing and the fact that the folio was not directly placed on a hard surface. We stopped that process and started hinging documents on loose folios before sewing them into fascicules. Finally, the fascicules were lightly pressed for a few days and the edges trimmed. This shows that unforeseen results can arise from a planned treatment that we thought to be best but solutions were found and applied as soon as possible.

Attaching the paper documents

The paper documents were hinged with 17 gsm Usumino Shiro Japanese paper strips of 16 mm and adhered with wheat starch paste on 2 mm on the reverse of the documents (fig. 15 and 16).

A close up of a newspaper clipping attached to a fascicule using a strip of Japanese paper as a hinge. Both sides of the clipping can be viewed.

Figure 15: Newspaper cutting hinged in the fascicule.

A fascicule onto which 8 newspaper clippings have been mounted

Figure 16: Several newspaper cuttings hinged to the same page in the fascicule.

Specific cases

The loose diplomas with a wax seal were folded with their recto facing outside making hinging difficult (fig. 17). Therefore, they were housed in a polyester sleeve to facilitate handling and give better protection to the wax seals (fig. 18).

A Cambridge graduation diploma which has been folded in half, the end of the document is visible which has a blue ribbon attached with a red wax seal.

Figure 17: Hamilton’s diploma folded in two and loose in the original scrapbook.

The diploma with its red wax seal has been inserted into a polyester sleeve, which has been bound into the fascicule

Figure 18: The diploma enclosed in a polyester sleeve and sewn to the fascicule.

One leaflet, a couple of letters and a small book were housed in plastic sleeves that had to be removed as they were not made of archival quality material and did not facilitate handling.

We wanted to include the leaflet in the fascicule by sewing it to a folded tab, thus the layout of that page had to be exceptionally modified (fig. 19 and 20). The backfold was originally stapled twice so we re-used the existing holes to sew it. This method of attachment is interesting as it efficiently secures the document and does not require any paste, making the attachment easily reversible.

An A4 page from the original scrapbook, onto which has been mounted a newspaper clipping and a leaflet in a plastic wallet

Figure 19: Page with the leaflet protected in a plastic sleeve before fasciculing.

Fascicule containing a leaflet sewn to a folded tab, so the pages can be turned. The layout of this page of the scrapbook has been reversed from the original (the leaflet is now on the left and the newspaper clipping on the right), since the tab is sewn into the centre binding.

Figure 20: Same page after fasciculing where the leaflet was sewn to the tab and the newspaper cutting hinged to the page.

The book could not be housed within the fascicule because of its substantial thickness (fig. 21). Also the inserted documents were in poor condition and we preferred to house them in an acid-free paper folder instead of leaving them vulnerable inside the volume (fig. 22). The book was placed in a four-flap folder with its inserts and the original position was recorded in the fascicule and on the four-flap folder (fig. 23).

A plastic wallet containing a small book 'Otto Klemperer Erinne Rungen An Gustav Mahler'. There is a paperclip attached to the top edge of the front cover of the book

Figure 21: Small book enclosed in a plastic sleeve before fasciculing.

An open book with a newspaper clipping and a small photograph paperclipped to one of the pages

Figure 22: Loose inserts in the small book that were vulnerable.

A 4 flap cardboard folder tied with a ribbon.

Figure 23: Housing the small book and inserts in a four-flap folder.

The two letters were simply hinged to the fascicule and the layout had to be slightly changed to keep margins as wide as possible (fig. 24 and 25).

A page from the original scrapbook. Two newspaper clippings and a plastic wallet containing a handwritten letter have been mounted on an A4 sheet of paper

Figure 24: Two letters folded and enclosed in a plastic sleeve in the original scrapbook.

A fascicule containing two handwritten letters which have been attached using hinges so that both sides of each letter can be read. The two newspaper clippings are mounted underneath, their captions are on the right hand side of each clipping instead of at the top as they were in the original.

Figure 25: The two letters were hinged to the fascicule and the layout was slightly changed to keep large margins.

Four letters attached together with a paper clip were hinged to the fascicule, even if they were not originally attached to the scrapbook, for security and handling reasons. All documents were hinged on the same page in order to keep the connection between them and no information was lost as the versos are still easily accessible (fig. 26 and 27).

Four handwritten letters on different sizes of paper, fixed together with a paperclip

Figure 26: Four letters were loose and attached together with a paper clip.

A fascicule onto which the four handwritten letters have been mounted using hinges, so that both sides of each can be read. The letters are overlapped on the page which gives a sense of connection.

Figure 27: All letters were hinged to the same page even if they were originally loose for security and handling reasons.

4.     Housing

A clamshell box was made-to-measure to house the five fascicules (fig. 28 and 29). At the Churchill Archives Centre, we store our collections in standard archive boxes. The clamshell box is currently housed in an archive box along with the additional four-flap folder protecting the book.

A rectangular grey clamshell cardboard box

Figure 28: Clamshell box to house the fascicules.

5 slim grey cardboard fascicules, stacked neatly in the open clamshell box.

Figure 29: Fascicules in the clamshell box.

5.     Conclusion

This project was interesting and exhaustive as it not only combined several conservation treatments such as tape removal or lining but also preservation housing.

Making fascicules does not seem a very difficult task since it is just creating simple volumes and pasting documents inside, right? However, I found it to be much more difficult in this project especially with the variety of documents I had in front of me. The preparation time was essential before starting the creation of the fascicules. Indeed, double or even triple checking the fascicules’ construction was essential to achieve the desired result.

Another challenge was the decision to remove the tape or not and, if we did, the way to remove it. The priority of the item and vulnerability of the documents made us choose to remove the tape. Then the large amount of tape required an efficient and rapid solution that was not perfect on every level but gave the best chances for the documents to be as stable as possible for the generations to come.

Erica D’Alessandro, Conservator


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