[Nhcoll-l] Labels for Collection

[Callomon,Paul]

Just a follow-on from the discussion on original labels: it's a axiom of conservation work that you should never use a glue if you don't have to. If there's a purely mechanical way to fasten two things together (like string or an attached Mylar envelope) that should always be used. Even "reversible" glues like Paraloid (Acryloid) B-72 will bind fibers and cause distortions through differential shrink rates that can't be "reversed".

A glue story: I just spent several weeks detaching all the labels, letters, invoices and other bits of paper that had been glued into our collection ledgers over the 100-plus years of their use, before sending the books off for scanning. From the 1890s up until about 1935, our folks used a remarkably "reversible" natural resin of some kind that still dissolves in water from a hard, glass-like state to a sticky solution; adding more water thins it further, allowing even tissue-thin notes to be safely peeled off the underlying page.
Thereafter, however, we switched to some form of synthetic glue that is much harder to remove, requiring acetone and thus a fume hood. Not progress, then...

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170
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