Mes Chers, I hope this post card find you well.

January 5, 2023 9:56 PM

How do I store and preserve a collection of postcards circa 1900-1910?

I have a postcard album with over 200 postcards that I inherited from a great aunt who exchanged cards with family and friends in Europe around the time my grandmother's family immigrated to the US. The original album is paper (probably not acid-free) and is crumbling. I would like to move the postcards to another form of storage. I don't really care about maintaining the "album" format, it's more for preserving a piece of interesting history. In fact, if they can take up less space, that is preferable. Is it OK to pack them back to back in a box, and if so, what kind of box? Airtight or permeable? Do I need an acid-free sheet between each? Should I be concerned about effects of humidity? They've made it this far with no archival protection, so they seem pretty robust.

Many of the postcards feature European cities, towns and tourist sights, as well as American midwestern scenes (where the family landed). Most are printed, some are made from photographs and of course there are lots of interesting stamps and cancellation marks too. I would also like to eventually scan them all, but that feels like a big project. My goal now is to ensure they are protected well for home storage.

Bonus points if you can also provide guidance on how to go about translating old style French and German script, usually written in the tiniest penmanship.

posted by amusebuche to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: That's great that they've held up so well! It's generally best to keep them in a place with stable temperature and humidity, and where they're reasonably well protected from pests (which it sounds like they have been up to now!)

Do you know how the postcards are affixed to the page? If they're just in there in photo corners, they should be easy to pop out, but if they're pasted down they might need more careful removal. There a little more info on that here, here, and here (I also recommend checking out any other topics in this series that might apply to you! It's a wealth of knowledge [and I can vouch for the source because it was written by my library school preservation professor!])

If there's anything on the paper of the album that provides contextual information, I'd suggest scanning each page before dismantling them. After that, I'd recommend putting each postcard in a sleeve (like these), then a box (like this).

For translating old script, I usually kludge my way through with free online translations and a dictionary for anything that seems especially off. Unfortunately, my best tip for deciphering the script itself is to fruitlessly stare at it/try to read it until something clicks and it starts to become legible to you.
posted by quatsch at 7:16 AM on January 6, 2023

Best answer: What a wonderful treasure!

MeMail me one or two and I can take a guess at the French to give you a head start... Is the German in fraktur script? Or maybe Kurrent?
posted by OhHaieThere at 7:35 AM on January 6, 2023

I know this is a few of months old, but what you need for the postcards is an "archival varnish spray." Amazon carries a number of brands with varying prices. It's not a "varnish" like what you use on wood. It's a protectant that will prevent aging and make it less delicate to handle. Good stuff!

Hopefully this will help you still.
posted by magnoliasouth at 11:31 AM on April 28, 2023