Treasure Chest Thursday - Preserving the Time Capsule

For the past several weeks, I've been going through my great grandmother, Frances Lowe's small suitcase of belongings that the family has dubbed the Time Capsule. It's been a fun voyage back in time, clear back to the late 1800's and then forward to the early 1960's. Now that I've sorted through the entire suitcase, I've realized the importance of properly preserving these items for another generation or more.

The photos, booklets and other paper items were easy to store in two appropriately sized document and photo boxes.

The precious little leather shoes were a bit more of a challenge. I want to thank Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist for some great advice on storing and displaying them (as well as storing some of the other items). Sally truly is practical in her approach to archiving.

The shoes were in excellent condition for being way over 100 years old. The leather was still soft and supple so I was able to gently stuff them with acid free tissue paper and place them in this special box with a clear lid.

The other artifacts went into this acid free box that is also buffered, so a couple of items like the leather wallet were padded with unbuffered acid free tissue paper.  Apparently leather doesn't do so well if it's in contact with buffering agents (thanks again Sally!). The same goes with the wooden letters.

I may have to put the wonderful smelling Bottle of ??? in the box with Frances' dress just to be able to enjoy the smell when we open the box with the dress.

Finally, I've printed off all of these posts, including everyone's wonderfully helpful comments and the emails to and from family members regarding the photographs that needed identifying. They will also be placed with this collection. After all, what would be the point of this entire project if what I've learned isn't passed on?

Next, it's time to wrap up with some comments about what I've learned from this project.

Here are links to the other posts in this series as well as a couple of related articles:

The Time Capsule
First Steps
The Time Capsule's Top Layer
Part 2
Teacher's Certificate
Teacher's Certificate #2
Baby Shoes
Sewing Anyone?
Help! Do You Know What This Is?
Frances' Necklace
A Bottle of???
Embroidery
More Stuff To Sort
Doilies
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Dress
Pictures, Announcements, etc.
Preserving the Time Capsule
Sorting Saturday - The Time Capsule is Sorted. What I learned.
COG-Scrapbooking Your Family History! Frances Lowe
Treasure Chest Thursday-You Are My Treasures

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