I am formulating a project to rehouse 9,000 35mm negatives into correct Archival storage and need to find out whether the enclosures they are currently stored in are Archival or not. I have tried to find out who supplied them but to no avail. They were bought sometime in the 90’s but that is all the information I have. The enclosures are showing no signs of degradation, unlike other’s used within the collection which are very obviously not of archival standard.
I do not have access to any type of equipment which can do this easily, so have decided to use a pH Pen and pH indicator strips. I plan to test three samples. One from a known archival enclosure, the second from a known non-archival enclosure and the third the enclosure in question. All details of the planned testing are detailed below. Test 1: pH Pen - Use the pen, as instructed, on each sample. Note colour changes. Test 2: Damp test - Dampen each sample, fold in half, sandwich a pH indicator strip between fold and leave under a weight overnight. Note colour changes Test 3: Wet test - Blend samples into distilled water, leave overnight and test with pH indicator strips. Note colour changes. I would be grateful for some feedback as to whether this testing will give me accurate results. Thank you. Rachel Davis, Conservator, BBC Archives. ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] Searchable archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/
