Paper documents found in the arctic

I am currently working on a conservation project concerning the
documents from the ill-fated expedition of S. A. Andree to the North
Pole in 1897. After 33 years the remains of the expedition were
found, including diaries and logbooks. When the documents were found
in 1930 they were wet and partly frozen. They were dried in
different ways, and put in envelopes and boxes. Since then they have
not been treated, as far as I know.

If anyone has experience of working with paper documents found in
the Arctic or the Antarctic, please do not hesitate to contact me.
For example, I would like to know more about how paper reacts to the
freeze-thaw cycle, and drying of this kind of wet archaeological
paper. I am also interested in comparative conservation reports from
other related objects, such as Willem Barents's diary, G. W. De
Long's diary, R. F. Scott's diary, or other documents found after
several years in Artic/Antarctic climate, and their present
condition. I have not found much written about this topic in the
conservation literature. I am very grateful for any help,

Gunilla Tornvall
Paper Conservator
Center for History of Science
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Box 50005
SE-104 05 Stockholm
Sweden


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:11
                 Distributed: Thursday, August 12, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-18-11-031
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