Our supplies order came in and we are thrilled!
Proper housing means the world for the preservation of artifacts in the archive. For instance, the Whims are now grouped in small batches in a manner that will prevent them from slumping or bumping against other materials.
We're also breathing sighs of relief and delight at being able to properly store the precious textiles (letter sweaters! White Day blouses! Class banners!) in boxes that allow for air flow but protect from light, dust, and crushing.
The light was a particular concern for us with the textiles. When we first inventoried the collections we noted that several garments were in a window display in the Broadway Performance Hall lobby, receiving regular sunlight as filtered through the building's front doors. While these were attractive items that nicely publicized the archives and the history of BHS, it subjected them to faster degradation than if they were stored out of the light. We decided that given their limited supply, they were too valuable to subject to such conditions. Hopefully future archivists can professionally photograph these items to create the broadest access to them in digital surrogates.