Our conservator has been working on restoring items for Oldham Archives, including town charters from 1858 onwards and a Freedom of the Borough record for Sarah Lees who was named Oldham’s first woman Freeman of the Borough in 1909.The pictures below show the condition of the items before being restored.
The conservation process started with brushing and using a foam eraser to remove any dirt which had built up over time. The items were then placed in a humidification cabinet for roughly 4 – 5 hours depending on size and condition. Once this had been completed they were then placed in a wood laminating press between sheets of multisorb, which is acid free blotting paper, after 2 – 3 days they were removed. Here are the finished items.
Our conservator now has his own show on @CultureFM, an arts, culture and heritage ‘twitter station’. You can follow the story of his last show here and look out for future tweets under the hashtag #nicpaper.
