04-17-2022, 07:15 PM
So today was Easter and as tradition dictates, I had a visit with my 90+ year old grandma.
She's always showing interesting old photographs and trying to make the youngsters (anybody under 50) understand the history of the family.
We've all seen old pictures that are faded, that is very common.
But what about old writings that have faded over the decades?
She showed me this notebook which was begun by one of her uncles, with the earliest recorded date I could say for certain being 1909, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was even older.
It was amazing to read the pages...
Some of the strongest writing, still very legible and dark, was the OLDEST writing. You could tell it had been written by someone getting on in age at the time, who had been very accustomed to writing in the 1800s...
The penmanship was just DIFFERENT then. It's VERY tell-tale of that specific era. The 1700s and 1800s.
So let's say this writing was from ~1909...
There were pages later in the book which had obviously been written on with ink, and they were faded to illegibility.
As an archivist at heart, I find this FASCINATING.
We all know, if we want our writings to last, we use acid-free paper, and a pencil...
And after seeing this notebook today, I like my different pretty ink colors and all the variety those type of writing instruments offer...
But I am gonna be using a pencil to write from now on, and opting for acid-free archival quality paper whenever possible.
After what I saw, I can tell you for certain that what matters is writing in pencil. The paper, if not acid-free, will degrade and yellow over time, but the writing will still be very much visible.
To make it last 100+ years, acid-free paper and pencil are the answer, and if you're writing anything involving family record, or even your own journals/diaries, you need to care enough to use the proper materials because odds are, SOMEBODY in the family (or otherwise) is gonna keep it.
She's always showing interesting old photographs and trying to make the youngsters (anybody under 50) understand the history of the family.
We've all seen old pictures that are faded, that is very common.
But what about old writings that have faded over the decades?
She showed me this notebook which was begun by one of her uncles, with the earliest recorded date I could say for certain being 1909, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was even older.
It was amazing to read the pages...
Some of the strongest writing, still very legible and dark, was the OLDEST writing. You could tell it had been written by someone getting on in age at the time, who had been very accustomed to writing in the 1800s...
The penmanship was just DIFFERENT then. It's VERY tell-tale of that specific era. The 1700s and 1800s.
So let's say this writing was from ~1909...
There were pages later in the book which had obviously been written on with ink, and they were faded to illegibility.
As an archivist at heart, I find this FASCINATING.
We all know, if we want our writings to last, we use acid-free paper, and a pencil...
And after seeing this notebook today, I like my different pretty ink colors and all the variety those type of writing instruments offer...
But I am gonna be using a pencil to write from now on, and opting for acid-free archival quality paper whenever possible.
After what I saw, I can tell you for certain that what matters is writing in pencil. The paper, if not acid-free, will degrade and yellow over time, but the writing will still be very much visible.
To make it last 100+ years, acid-free paper and pencil are the answer, and if you're writing anything involving family record, or even your own journals/diaries, you need to care enough to use the proper materials because odds are, SOMEBODY in the family (or otherwise) is gonna keep it.