Keeping and digitising old letters, diaries and documents

In your mother's cupboard there is a shoebox of letters, held together by a rubber band that lost its stretch long ago. Letters from the war, from an aunt in Canada, from your father when he was still engaged. With them, a diary with a little lock, a folder of newspaper cuttings and a photo album with sticky pages. This article helps you keep them without damaging them, and share them without having to handle them much more.

The short answer

Store paper flat, in acid-free folders and boxes, somewhere cool, dry and dark. Remove paper clips, rubber bands and sticky tape, but do not force anything. Make a copy of newspaper cuttings and keep them separately. Do not unfold brittle letters. Scan in colour at 300 to 400 ppi and keep a master as a TIFF. And photograph an album with sticky pages as it is before you take anything out.

Storing: what to do and what not to do

Do	Don't
Folders and boxes made of acid-free and lignin-free board	Ordinary envelopes, cardboard boxes from the shop
Store flat, in folders rather than envelopes	Rolling up or cramming together
Sleeves made of polyester, polypropylene or polyethylene	Sleeves made of PVC
Cool, dry, dark and stable	Attic, cellar or garage
Carefully removing paper clips, rubber bands and rusting staples	Sticky tape, glue, new paper clips

Archives do not all give the same figures for temperature and humidity, but they agree on the essentials: cool, dry, dark and above all without large fluctuations.

Newspaper cuttings: keep them apart

Newsprint is acidic, and the acid migrates into the paper around it. So make a copy on acid-free paper, and keep the original separately from your letters and documents.

Fragile letters: leave them folded

Only unfold an old letter if the paper is still strong and supple. If it is stiff or brittle, leave it folded and ask a conservator for advice. Old handwritten letters were often written in iron gall ink, which slowly damages the paper over time: one more reason to be careful. And do not keep refolding a letter along the same folds.

Scanning and transcribing

• Resolution: guidelines for archives recommend 250 to 400 ppi for handwritten material. At home, 300 to 400 ppi is a good choice.
• Colour: scan in colour, even if the letter looks black and white. The tone of the paper and the ink tells you something.
• Files: keep the master as a TIFF. For documents of several pages, such as a diary, PDF/A is suitable.
• Transcribing: type out a letter exactly as it stands, with the original spelling. Mark any word you cannot read with [?]. That way someone else can have another try later.

The photo album with sticky pages

Albums with self-adhesive pages and a plastic sheet over them were popular for years. For photos they are bad news: the adhesive layer is acidic and can eventually bond to the photo. Here is how to go about it:

1. First photograph or scan every page as it is, with everything written on it. The order and the captions are information.
2. If a photo comes away by itself, or a thin card slides behind it because the glue has dried out, you can remove it carefully.
3. If it is stuck fast, cut around the photo, or leave it where it is.
4. If anything starts to tear or crease, stop straight away and ask a conservator for advice.

And afterwards

A letter is more than its text: the handwriting, the paper, the stamp. So keep both the scan and the transcription, and note who wrote it and to whom. In The Memory Palace you can hang a letter in the same room as the photos of the same people, with the story alongside, so that whoever comes later reads them together.

For photos on paper, read our article on digitising old photos, and to date an old photo, our article on dating an old photograph.