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How to preserve that Inaugural keepsake newspaper

12:51 PM Thu, Jan 22, 2009 |
By Sheila Lennon    Email this author |   Email this entry

If you're intending to frame your souvenir copy of Tuesday's Inaugural newspaper, this tip may seem counterintuitive: Have a high-quality copy made at a copy shop and frame that. Newsprint is a sawdust composite which isn't meant to last millenia.

But you want the original on the wall! Getting the yellow out of old aged newsprint at Google Answers is a poorly formatted but well-researched collection of newspaper preservation and restoration info and formulas from around the Web. From a dead link at a dead site, librarypreservation.org, they have saved,

"...newsprint... contains lignin, a material that is highly photo-sensitive. Newsprint will darken significantly if exposed to light for any period of time and in any degree of light intensity. I recommend that you have high quality photocopy facsimiles made and display them instead. Good photocopy equipment, especially in commercial shops, such as Kinko, can now produce very credible copies of even large format materials."

From Preserving history: Here's how to keep that historic newspaper for years to come (pdf),

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If you're willing to let it age on your wall -- not an awful idea to me, this isn't the Gettysburg Address -- UV-filtering glass can help.

inauguration_wrap1.gifTrying to get a ballpark sense of cost, I ran across a site called thePaperFramer that will frame your inaugural newspaper at prices starting at $35.95 for a 12 1/2"-by-22" newspaper. (That's the size of The Providence Journal, at right, and The Washington Post. The New York Times is 12 inches wide by 22 long. ) A "conservation upgrade" to non-glare UV acrylic costs $26.95 more.

The double wrapper of the Journal's Inauguration issue is 25" x 22" -- custom framing for that would be $56.95, with a $44 non-glare UV acrylic conservation upgrade; if you're going all the way, you'll need two papers, framing for each side, and a big empty wall.

From thePaperFramer FAQ: "UV glazing will help prevent fading, but conservation treatment of the paper is required to retard yellowing."

Lifehacker addresses this in (How Do I Preserve Newsprint for Archive or Display?):

First off, you don't want to leave the paper folded in the middle-- you'll want to lay it out flat, as creases and folds where paper meets paper will break down over time. Secondly, you'll want to keep it away from direct light and moisture. In the former case, the paper will discolor and the inks fade. In the later, the paper can mildew or, if it contacts water directly, turn into pulp. More basic tips can be found at eHow.

Newsprint and other papers have acid in them, and when those acids interact with the environment the paper will break down. You can either try to de-acidify the paper or protect it. You can soak the paper in a bath of milk of magnesia, or use an acid-neutralizing spray like Archival Mist.

There are recipes in that Google Answers link for the milk of magnesia and club soda bath. Make sure you test the ink on a page that you're not keeping from the same newspaper to make sure it won't run, before using this method. And don't use aluminum pans. (I'd try the whole process once on a section front I wasn't keeping, to be sure I get it right.)

If you're more into keeping the keepsake than displaying it, The Miami Herald offers some tips at How to preserve today's newspaper

Store the newspaper flat, out of direct sunlight and in low humidity, and not in anything plastic that can trap mold-inducing moisture. Invest in buffered, acid-free tissue paper to lay between the pages and to cover the front and back. It can be bought at art supply stores or ordered online from archival storage suppliers. The Smithsonian offers a list of suppliers here. Price will vary depending on the thickness and size of the paper, but expect to find packages of multiple sheets costing about $1 per sheet. You may also be able to find it more cheaply on eBay.



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