> On Wed, 28 May 2003, Charles wrote: > > > (an archivist would completely dismantle the album, but that may > > not be your next step at this point.) > > I'm pretty sure a professional archivist would recoil in horror at > the thought. An album disassembled loses its value as an artifact > and as a historical source. Have you tried shining a bright light > (say, a flashlight) though the pages to see if you can make out the > writing on the back? > > Webmaster: Cynthia Van Ness, MLS -- roots@bfn.org I have an officer's commission (British Army) from 1854 signed by Victoria. When I took it to be "preserved" in ventilated, acid-free plastic sheets, they took the tax stamps off of the reverse in order to get the glue off of them. Then then reattached the stamps with archival glue. It seems that even 150-year old glue is acidic. The archivist said that they always remove and reattach stamps from documents. It scared me, but it turned out OK. Lenny "Lenny Abbey" <LAbbey@mindspring.com>