Document preservation for home display?

March 29, 2010 1:43 PM

How to preserve/display this old map in my home?

During a recent renovation, my husband and I found an old map wadded up and stuffed in a wall. As far as we can tell, it's not a treasure map, and the local history center was not interested in it, but we still think it's cool and we'd like to display it somehow as an homage to the bizarre things we've found in this house. As you can see, it's in pretty rough shape. So how can we get it into a frame and on the wall while doing the least damage possible and preserving it (keeping the writing legible and that little bit of color visible) as well as possible? Can such a thing be done? Bonus points if your solution is cheap.

posted by phisbe to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

I think some if its charm is its shape and curves, so I would be tempted to put it in a shadow box, held up by a few strategically placed pins (in which case, the ideal shadow box would have a cork or similar backing). It sounds like you have other similarly interesting finds, and if they're 3D as well, you could easily do a small series of shadow boxes.

Extra cheap solution would be to look for the shadow box frames in charity shops or consignment shops. If you're going to do a series, spray painting the frames the same colour would give a bit of continuity.
posted by brambory at 2:07 PM on March 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Keep it out of direct light wherever you do display it, and consider UV-blocking glass.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:17 PM on March 29, 2010

Ditto what everyone says above, although if you wad up some unbleached cotton batting or cotton fabric, you might be able to hold it in place without pins. Tempting to put pins in where the holes are, but you might be better off propping it up gently from the bottom within a shadow-box.

(Display != preservation, of course, and the cheapest preservation is a dark drawer in a non-humid room.)
posted by cobaltnine at 3:04 PM on March 29, 2010