The posters have to be humidified before they will
flatten out properly. The Missouri State Archives
has an excellent, illustrated description of how
this can be done:
www.sos.state.mo.us/archives/localrecs/conservation/notes/humidification.asp
Their "Humidifying with a Chamber" method is very
easy and inexpensive -- the "chamber" is nothing
more than a Rubbermaid storage container! For really big
posters or maps, it's possible to use a clean, lidded
plastic trash barrel with a smaller diameter plastic
trash can or wastepaper basket: fill the trash barrel
with about 6 inches of water; place the rolled item into
the smaller wastepaper basket; then put the basket into
the barrel, put the lid on, and wait until the item relaxes
(anywhere from half an hour to 8 hours). The item won't
unroll to a completely flat state while in the round
wastepaper basket, but it should relax sufficiently to
be flattened out elsewhere.
Conservation OnLine (CoOL) is a great resource for
preservation info. Their website and discussion list
archives (Cons DistList) are searchable, and they have
an extensive listing of "Conservation/Preservation
Information for the General Public":
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/index.html
--K.A. Bayruns
Seattle, Washington
At 02:43 PM 2/24/05 -0500, you wrote:
I m trying to move
old posters into a flat file. The posters have been rolled up for a
while. Does anyone have any good ideas for flattening them?
Stacking books on them doesn t seem to be working.
Thanks
Suzanne Kammin
Manger of Resource Collections/Archives
The Studio in a School Association, Inc.