Wet label paper

The following appeared on the Natural History Collections Mailing List
and is reproduced here with permission.

It would be interesting to get some paper conservators involved in the
following question, it's been floating around the natural history
community for a long time, but I've never seen any input from people who
really know paper.

    Date: 13 Apr 95
    From: William Slack <william_slack [at] bull__cc__usm__edu>
    Subject: Wet label paper

    NHCOLL Subscribers:

    In January I queried the subscribers of TAXACOM for suggestions
    about alternative wet museum label sources, in particular for
    alcohol preserved fishes.  We received several responses to our
    question including the suggestion that we address this group with
    the problem.  We print museum labels on a Toshiba dot matrix printer
    using a 5" x 1300' continuous roll of Byron Weston Resistall stock
    with perforations.  We have had very good results with this method
    and would very much like to continue with it.

    However we are finally faced with the problem that most other
    museums have been experiencing...we can't get any paper.  University
    Products has discontinued their supply of Byron Weston Resistall and
    our efforts to obtain TYVEK or FORBON in the dimensions we are
    accustomed to have been unsuccessful. With regards to my earlier
    request, Alexandra Snyder responded that a "Curation Newsletter"
    would be coming out soon and that the issue of wet label paper was a
    major focus of this upcoming newsletter.  What solutions have you as
    curators or collection managers come up with to address the dilemma
    of a diminishing paper supply and can anyone suggest any additional
    sources for wet label paper?  Also, does anyone have an idea when
    the curation newsletter will be out?  Thanks for all the help and
    any suggestion will be helpful.

    Stephen T. Ross
    Todd Slack
    Museum of Ichthyology
    University of Southern Mississippi

Jessica S. Johnson, Assistant Conservator
Materials Conservation Lab, Texas Memorial Museum
University of Texas at Austin
PRC #122, 10100 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78758
512-471-6090
Fax: 512-471-6092

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 8:84
                  Distributed: Monday, April 17, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-8-84-004
                                  ***