I’ve recently been given my Grandfather’s World War II Diary from his time spent in Libya.
At the moment I have it stored in one of these (a real one, not a toy one!) along with all my other important documents, letters etc.
It seems to hold up pretty well inside there, but I intend to scan it, then store it indefinitely somewhere in my home. As far as I know the ammo box is reasonably well sealed. It is out of direct sunlight.
Are there any precautions or steps I could take to ensure that it stores well over a long period of time?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated…I’d like to pass it on to my children someday, so I’d hate to be the one to drop the ball
I have dozens of similar diaries in my collection. If, ever, you wish to part with it drop me a line.
In terms of preservation you’ll be astonished how well such can hold up. Keep it closed (therefore not exposing the pages to sunlight) and dry and it will be good for a VERY long time. Seriously, the oldest one I have is almost 200 years old and it’s still legible.
Should you fear you can’t keep it safe the best thing I can recommend to you is donating it to a local university library. They’ll have special collections rooms that will be able to maintain it under near-ideal conditions.
I’m not sure if you can or want to do this but if you want it public, you might want to put it on Project Gutenberg. If you do scan it the people at Distributed Proof-readers might be able to put it on the net for everyone forever. http://www.pgdp.net
