Preservation Methods

By Chad King

I have now started the preservation process of Douglas G. Wright’s papers, and it has been great learning experience for me. The collection was donated by Wright in 1974 and was briefly organized and cataloged that same year. Now in 2014, I have been assigned to ensure the collection is preserved according to the standards set by the National Archives and the Library. First off, I had to remove all papers that were not acid free – untreated paper deteriorates over time, and could affect other items in the collection. Newspapers are usually untreated and present a challenge to any collection. Wright kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, so I meticulously scanned every item in his scrapbook so every item would still be accessible to researchers. Items that were untreated, or considered too fragile were moved to a separate file to be preserved and permanently stored away in the archive. Later, I will begin writing a new finding aid for the collection to replace the original that was created in 1974. This will better assist researchers who might be interested in Wright’s career.

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