The Art of Archival Framing

How to display and preserve your paper treasures

Are you guilty of "loving not wisely but too well" when you frame your prized photographs, prints, and documents for display?

Are your pen-and-ink drawings and your maps doing a slow burn because they come in contact with framer's mats, gray pressed board, or corrugated cardboard?

Has a wood knot appeared on your deed signed by John C. Calhoun because wooden boards have backed its frame for fifty years?

Have those photographs you matted so handsomely or slid so carefully into plastic frames wrinkled, faded, or grown mold in a few short years?

If so, here are some tips to help you avoid these little tragedies. 

The Object

• Oversize or embrittled materials and faded photographs are unlikely candidates for display. Copy your original, frame the copy, then preserve your original in archival enclosures. You will find more tips on oversize materials to the right. 
• Water colors, pastels, and unfaded photographs will endure only if you hang them for short periods. Use them as part of a rotating display.
• Your documents will need treatment. Let a conservator deacidify them before they are framed.

Mounting

• Do not dry mount any valuable photograph, art work, or document. The process is almost irreversible.
• Hinge your document at the top with acid-free, alkaline, or Japanese handmade paper.
  Add support corners at the bottom using inert polyester, acid neutral, or alkaline paper. Support corners made from any of these materials are readily available, or you can make them yourself.
• Use only wheat paste, methyl cellulose, or ethulose in the framing process. DO NOT use rubber cement, Elmer's glue, or even pressure sensitive tapes that are labeled "archival." ALL pressure sensitive tapes are acidic.

Matting

• Mat your treasures ONLY on 100 percent rag museum board. And keep those with special value away from colored mats--the dyes are acidic.
• If you want some color, place a buffer board of white or cream between your treasure and the dyed mat. And use this buffer even when you "float" your document on top of the mat.

Backing

• Beware of "chip boards," cardboard, and wood. These are highly acidic and will mount an attack from behind.
• Beware of foam core backing. Its paper lining is usually acidic and the core emits harmful gas as it deteriorates.
• Beware of brown kraft paper.
• Back your documents with museum board, archival-quality corrugated board, Japanese paper, a binder's paper such as KitaKata, any other acid-free, buffered tissue, or polyester paper that is chemically stable and strong.

Glass

• DON'T let the glass touch your documents, photographs, or works of art. If it does, your treasure will become damp when the humidity rises. Photographs will stick to glass when their gelatin emulsion is damp.
• DO place enough matting between the glass and your treasure to prevent contact.
• DO NOT use double glass. If you cover your treasure with glass front and back, you will expose it to intensified fluctuations in temperature and humidity.
• If your treasure will be exposed to natural or florescent light: DO cover it with Plexiglas UF-3 to filter out the ultraviolet rays.
• DO NOT use Plexiglas with media that will flake--your charcoal or pastel sketches, your chipped paint or ink, or your water colors. Static electricity created by the plastic in the glass will pull the media off its paper support.

Framing

• A metal frame is the frame of choice. Don't scratch it, and keep it away from water.
  DO NOT use a metal frame if you live in extreme humidity. The humidity will oxidize the metal.
• Wooden frames are rich in lignin, a natural acid. Before you use one, seal it with a polyurethane NOT made with formaldehyde.

Placement
Now that you know how to frame your treasure, where will you put it? Your choice is critical. One wrong move, and the protection you've gained from your meticulous framing is lost.

• DO NOT place your treasure in direct sunlight OR expose it to florescent lighting without the protection of an ultraviolet shield.
• Choose an interior wall if you can. Objects placed on outside walls are more vulnerable to external changes in temperature and humidity and to the condensation that often forms in cold weather. High humidity fosters mold growth.
• Keep your treasures away from water. DO NOT put them in, near, or under a bathroom.
  Keep them away from windows. Left near windows, your treasures are targets for rain, humidity, pollutants, and condensation.
• Rotate your display--frame a number of your treasures alike, display some and store the others carefully, preferably flat in an interior closet. DO NOT stand them on end nor store them in an attic or basement. Rotation is good for your treasures. The attention you give them increases their significance.

Summary

1. Show your treasure to a conservator; get some advice.
2. Copy your FRAGILE treasure for display; DON'T hang the original.
3. Avoid dry mounts, tape, and acidic glue; use acid-free, alkaline, or Japanese paper and a neutral, water activated paste.
4. Mat and back your display with white or cream museum board.
5. Frame your display with metal or sealed wood.
6. Don't let glass touch your documents, photographs, or works of art.
7. Place your exhibit with care.
8. Rotate your displays every few months to "rest" the materials.
9. Use Plexiglas UF-3 to filter out ultra-violet rays.