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Sat 16 Nov, 2002 07:41 pm
On the news this evening there was a report about Ernest Hemingway's possessions in Cuba, including some 9000 books and assorted loose paper of completed and uncompleted manuscripts, decomposing in the tropical heat and humidity of the house in which Papa resided some 40+ years ago. Suddenly there is this big archival emergency. I don't get it. This is simple technology, isn't it? Maintaining a certain temperature and humidity range? But now what do they do to remove excess moisture without making everything too dry and brittle? And when there is lack of uniformity as in a collection of books/papers of varying thickness, materials of construction, age, degree of damage - how can you do it at all without taking everything down and treating them differently?
I'm no expert here but I do know from my sister (She worked the "Rare Books" section of the libraries at both Yale Univ. and MIT) that there are bacteria and fungi that attack the paper and inks themselves so it's more than just maintaining temp and humidity.
Since Hemmingway's papers appear to have already met with damage they'll have to stabilize them as they are (i.e. kill off all the molds, fungi, etc..) and then store them properly.
The acidity of the paper is a big factor. Paper began to be made by machine about 1840, and the process left a high level of acid in the paper. This paper is subject to disintegration, literally. The break down occurs faster under tropical conditions. The only cure is to deacidify the documents.
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