|
Land-grant documents dating back as far as the Revolutionary War often
require cleaning and flattening.
These are usually on vellum (animal parchment) until about 1820, paper
after that. Typically, they have been folded multiple times, sometimes
have a wax or metal seal attached by means of a ribbon which pierces the
document. Almost always, these need to be placed in a humidity
chamber for a period of several hours to a couple of days in order to
allow the document to relax sufficiently that it can be unfolded and then
dried under mild restraint prior to further treatment.
|
