[NHCOLL-L:4447] RE: Mimeograph labels

[Erik Åhlander]

Reading old faded labels is always a challenge. If you fail for the moment it is important to keep the original label (it is always important, regardless) and try to read it some years later. Technical improvment (photocopying, UV etc.) seldom helps at all. Sunlight from an narrow angle, good light, long experince, and lot of fantasy use to solve most cases. Today I have problems with my eyes, but I can still read labels, also those which I failed reading 20-30 years ago.

What really is a technical improvment, when reading labels, is Internet. All linguistic, geographical, and biographical help obtainable makes the work much easier!

If you put your labels on internet we can make a reading contest :-)


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Erik Ahlander, Collection Manager - Fishes
Swedish Museum of Natural History
(Naturhistoriska riksmuseet)
Section for Vertebrate Zoology
(Frescativagen 40)
P.O. Box 50007; S-104 05 STOCKHOLM, Sweden
Phone +46 8 51954118; Fax +46 8 51954212
email: erik.ahlander at nrm.se
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of csturmjr+ at pitt.edu
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 1:38 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:4436] Mimeograph labels

Folks,

I have several old labels which were original mimeograph labels (bluish
ink) which are fading. Not all of the locality data is readable. Does anyone know if there is a way of trying to bring out the faded text?

I have tried photocopying these labels to see if I could darken the text.
This failed on two different machines. I have tried different light sources (but not UV yet) and this failed. Any other thought on physical and/or chemical techniques that I might try?

Thanks.

Regards,
Charlie
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Charlie Sturm
Research Associate - Section of Mollusks Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Assistant Professor - Family Medicine
Fellow-American Academy of Family Practice Fellow-Academy of Wilderness Medicine