Folded documents

George R. Leake III <taliesin<-a t->mail< . >utexas< . >edu> writes

>... Unfolding these hundreds (if not thousands) of
>pages would necessitate the need for the purchase of many flat file
>cases--cost alone makes such a prospect daunting--but even in a
>relatively large building like the Ransom Center, space for such
>storage units is at a premium.
>
>If the folded items do not open to a large size, then one would
>still have to deal with issues of access, housing and damage to the
>individual pieces. Certainly in general vellum is more hardy than
>paper, and the fact that these pieces date to the 19th century
>suggest a fairly likely chance they are on poor quality paper, but
>beyond such vagaries, one cannot say much without diligent
>assessment.

I solicit Mr. Leake's opinion on the question of folded documents in
what is likely its most common instance: 20th Century letters twice
folded to envelope size, where storage for oversize documents is not
the controlling issue.

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:39
                Distributed: Thursday, October 23, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-39-006
                                  ***