This past April we sent four of the land records books from the late 1800’s to be preserved by Kofile Technologies in Vermont. The pages were found to have Chlorophenol Red, which is acidic. Acidity is a major cause of paper deterioration and must be dealt with if the records are to be preserved.
The conservation of these books required deacidification using non-aqueous magnesium oxide; mending and reinforcement of paper using Japanese tissue and reversible adhesives where necessary; and encapsulation of the pages using archival grade polyester. The fully restored books are now back at the registry and available to the public. The books have also been scanned and will be available soon on MassLandRecords.com under UnIndexed Property Search. Below are some photos of the process.
