Do you preserve newspaper clippings?

Bill Burk · Jun 4, 2014

High School graduation lists are in this week's newspaper and I plan to save it for future...

Newspaper yellows with age, but I've read magnesium and hydrogen peroxide can help preserve it...

I've done it but antacid pills chopped up don't really dissolve in peroxide, and I end up with white flecks on the paper.

Do you preserve newsprint or have any advice how to do it?

Only loosely darkroom related because I use my trays to perform the operation and dry the paper as if they were prints... so there is a process involved...

Just curious.

summicron1 · Jun 4, 2014

put it in an archival sleeve and keep it in the dark, mostly. I have heard of de-acid sprays, but newsprint is about the cheapest paper around, I can't think of anything that will make it archival.

A sleeve will keep it from breaking apart over the eons. For what it's worth, I just got done sorting a huge stash of 1930s news clips that were stored loose in big steel boxes and they held up pretty well, considering.

snapguy · Jun 4, 2014

Ink Stained Wretch

Being that I am a former Ink Stained Wretch (newspaperman) I have more newspapers and newspaper clips than I can even remember. I have them from the 1950s and onward and the ones that have been kept in the dark are in fine condition.

Truzi · Jun 4, 2014

My mom is trying to save trees via newspapers, lol. She has all sorts of old papers and clippings. Also, I had been a journalist for a while, and saved my stories. In both cases, absence of light and air seem to preserve them better. A front page (or top of the pile in my mom's case) yellows quickly, but pages not exposed seem to do well. Exposed edges tend to yellow, though.

You could ask at your largest local library/university library - one that may have conservators. They may have some advice. You could scan them and have the files wet-printed at your local minilab, lol. Scanning and printing with a laser printer may last longer before yellowing. Scans might be nice, but then you have the perpetual back-up cycle do deal with.

Hmm... keep in mind what this website is about... you could make your own "microfilm" copies as well.

Bill Burk · Jun 4, 2014

Found a relevant reference for the idea...

http://www.rsc.org/education/eic/issues/2013March/paper-conservation-cellulose-acid-hydrolysis.asp

... if acid is causing decomposition... deacidify it. Wash in a mild alkali...

so my old Mylanta tablets dissolved in Hydrogen Peroxide may not be a bad idea after all...

Interesting that in the preservation sciences, they are concerned about rare and valuable papers in bulk and can't risk soaking in something like that.

But a scrap of newspaper with the picture of the local cabdriver volunteering to help kids get a ride home from the prom... No big deal if I ruin it... but if I successfully de-acidify it, it may not be crackly and brown in 50 years.

summicron1 · Jun 5, 2014

well, the point of the sleeve is that, 50 years on, it may be crackly, but the sleeve keeps it from falling apart. If you try to soak newsprint in anything, I worry it will fall apart, and certainly never dry the same way.

Xmas · Jun 5, 2014

summicron1 said:
well, the point of the sleeve is that, 50 years on, it may be crackly, but the sleeve keeps it from falling apart. If you try to soak newsprint in anything, I worry it will fall apart, and certainly never dry the same way.

Truzi is clever Id photo too, but Id also scan and print with laser or archival ink on premium paper and file in different location.

Truzi · Jun 5, 2014

One problem I noticed when scanning my personal "morgue" was the paper is so thin you could see the print on the other side of the sheet. I used GIMP to get rid of it (and black specs). It was just type, so high contrast was okay for my purposes.
I imagine wetting paper may give you a similar problem - though hopefully it would go away once dry.

Newspapers are cheap - get a few of each one you want a clipping of and try different things.

Joe VanCleave · Jun 6, 2014

Being as dry xerography toner is more stable than printer's ink (toner being mostly carbon black), I'd think that scanning and printing onto archival paper using a B/W laser printer (which uses xerography) might be more archival than trying to preserve the original newsprint.

And if you could print B/W laser to polyester film (trade name "Mylar,") it'd be archival out to around 500 years.

~Joe

BrianShaw · Jun 6, 2014

I asked that question about some 19th century news clippings I value. A university library conservation person suggested deacidifying spray, encapsulation, and dark storage... and the emphasis was on the last two items.

Jim Noel · Jun 6, 2014

No I don't attempt to keep newspaper clippings.
If I want to save the info I find that scanning them and saving them on the HD is a good use for the scanner.

Do you preserve newspaper clippings?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency