By Rebecca Helgeson, Collections Manager
Collections management, like most jobs, consists of many different tasks. Organizing, data entry, processing new accessions, and dealing with pests are all important, but one of the most important parts of my job is making sure that each item is stored properly to maintain its current condition as best as possible. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when deciding how best to house an object: what material is it made of, is it structurally sound or does it need support, can it be stored with items made of similar materials or should it be stored separately, etc, etc, etc?
When I first started at FHC, I found this object waiting for me on a shelf:
At first glance, I assumed these were hip boots. This seemed like a fairly straightforward item to store, but, when I unfolded the object, I discovered that these are actually a pair of very large waders, a discovery that made things a bit more complicated:
Normally, when I’m trying to store an object, my main concerns have to do with material and stability, but there is another major consideration when working with textiles: how to maintain the object’s shape. Clothing items should not be folded if at all possible because long-term storage in a folded position can lead to creases that over time become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of. When the object is made out of something like rubber or vinyl, this is an even greater concern, because this creasing can lead to breakage.
The easiest solutions to keeping an object from being stored folded is to either place it in a box large enough that it can lie flat or, if it is structurally sound, to hang the item on a padded hanger. Unfortunately, neither of these solutions was possible for these waders. Although the straps are still intact and sturdy, they are not sewn to the waistband; they are attached to the waders with buttons. Over time, the stress of the weight of the waders would weaken the threads holding the buttons onto waistband until they eventually broke. As for a box, we frankly just don’t have room for a one that big.
So, what was I to do with these waders? They need to be stored without creasing or creating stress on the buttons and without taking up an inordinate amount of space. After looking into the problem, the solution I came up with was to make them stand up all on their own.
The first thing I did was give the waders a vertical foundation. I thought cardboard tubes, like those that rolls of paper or fabric are sold on, would be a good solution for this. Unfortunately, archival tubes made of acid free cardboard are all to fat to fit inside the shoe part of the wader, and getting all the way down into the foot seemed very important for proper structure. Fortunately, we had 2 skinny standard cardboard tubes and lots of wide tinfoil. By wrapping the tubes in tinfoil, I was able to use the non-archival tubes as support without the waders coming in contact with its acidic material:
Next, it was stuffing time. Using chunks of ethafoam (an inert foam used in archival storage) and wads of acid-free tissue paper, I was able to get these waders on their feet again. A little cotton string around the ankles kept the feet from splaying out so that the waders remain standing instead of doing the splits:
Collections care is full of puzzles like these that need to be solved, and this was a particularly satisfying solution. These waders, once they have a fabric cover to keep away dust, will stay in good condition like this indefinitely, but there’s more to it than that. Smaller institutions, like FHC, have limited storage space, and the need to come up with creative space saving solutions that don’t compromise object integrity is a constant issue. While sometimes we are forced to deal with an object taking up a large footprint of limited space, I’m pleased that this time we didn’t have to make that concession. We were able to store this object in a way that preserves it properly, while, at the same time, saving room for other objects that cannot be so accommodating.