Nineteenth century letters - condition and access?

[keerawa]

In a story I'm working on, there is a collection of letters written in the 1830's that the narrator is granted access to at a historical society.

So - is this plausible? What kind of condition would these documents be in? Would they need to be in a sealed, special room? Would you need gloves? Any details you can give me would be much

Comments

[seanchaidh]

It really depends. You'd want to look up issues about paper conservation. The paper made before the late 19th century is actually really good quality, compared to what we've had for the last one hundred years. If it wasn't damaged previous to getting donated to the historical society, it probably will be in a decent condition. White gloves, depending on the institution, may be worn, but maybe not. It depends.

Also, what kind of historical society is it? If it's your average "we don't have a lot of money" historical society, they might have basic storage that tries to control humidity and insects, but maybe not.

[curtana]

Seconding this. In a well-maintained, professionally-run archive with adequate funding and facilities, the papers would be stored in climate- and humidity-controlled conditions, in the dark so as not to fade the ink, but provided they were in good shape, they could be taken out for brief periods for study. In a small local historical society, which might be staffed by volunteers and have no professional archivists, where documents and fragile artifacts are stored could vary from "a room where we keep the temperature a bit lower than the rest of the building" to "the attic/basement of our historic home, which has water pipes running all through it and is one inch away from total disaster." In order for the patron to use them, however, they'd most likely be brought out of wherever they're stored by the archivist/volunteer/whatever and consulted in a reading room/library/whatever room the place has for visitors

[fisher_queen]

I've handled some first folios of Shakespeare with my bare hands, though I'm told that most rare book rooms have a glove policy. the amount of time we spent with the books during our grad student visit was really short, so the librarian heading it up said that it wasn't necessary. Offhand, I would guess that it would depend on the type and quality of stationary that you're looking at, along with how the letters have been treated over time. If they were preserved fairly early on, I imagine they would be in better shape. I have some books from the 1860's onward in my private collection which have definitely seen better days, but I've also seen some excellent examples of far earlier books that were donated to these places in enough time that they could be better preserved

[wishfulaces]

It will depend on the collection, the historical society granting access, and, yes, the condition the collection is in. 1830s paper is generally sturdier and longer-lasting than paper made after the 1850s (higher cotton content), so if the letters were preserved in good conditions, the letters should be in fairly good condition. Ink may have eaten through the paper in spots, folds may be weaker, etc., but otherwise good condition

[kenazfiction]

I routinely handle such letters in my work. They hold up much better than you might expect because the paper has a high cotton and/or linen content. They may have a lot of wear along the creases, and can easily tear where they've been folded, but they can be handled carefully. Sometimes, when iron gall ink has been used, the ink may eat through the paper. Most of the letters I've seen from that era have been folded in on themselves numerous times and then sealed with wax-- in essence, the letter becomes its own envelope.

Images of 19thc. folded letter and a sample of a letter where iron gall ink has eaten away at the paper:

[reynardo]

I'm looking at that acidic ink and my mind is going "wow" - a) that the ink did that, but b) that apart from those points, the paper looks in really good condition.

All those pictures look in such wonderful condition, like something that was made a few years ago as a theatre prop. Amazing how the difference in paper quality can let it last so long.

[kenazfiction]

I know! I've worked with illuminated manuscripts from the 15th century that still look pristine, while I've had cheap paper from the 1960s crumble in my hands. Good paper will literally last a lifetime-- crappy paper might not even last a few decades!

[ffutures]

I work with 19th century and early 20th century illustrated magazines quite often - up to say 1910 they're mostly printed on very good paper which stays in excellent condition, after that you start getting cheap pulp papers which seem to disintegrate if you breathe on them too hard. There are exceptions, of course, in both directions, but generally speaking I'd sooner work with something from the 19th century than the early 20th.

[alicephilippa]

The paper itself can have a marked impact on the fading of the inks used. Acidic papers are notorious for fading inks.

Some inks, such as blue-black fountain pen ink were designed to be of archival quality and to resist fading. Some inks can fade under the right conditions (wrong conditions if you are an archivist) to almost illegibility in just a few years.