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Preservation Week 2014 Textiles is today’s post. This year Preservation Week is from April 27-May 3. A joint effort by the archives, library, and museum professions, Preservation Week is designed to share professional expertise on preservation of historical materials with individuals and organizations.

As part of this celebration, this retired archivist and Sassy Jane are featuring five posts this week on preserving your family history papers, photographs, data. and textiles.

Genealogists are family historians and sometimes they’re museum curators too. If you need to preserve family textiles – Grandma’s quilt, Mom’s wedding dress, Great-great-grandma’s needlework sampler – then here are six quick tips for you.

Preservation Week 2014 Textiles

1. Textiles like the same environment you do. No basements, no attics, no garages, no place where the temperature and humidity cycle up and down constantly.

2. Gravity is not your friend. Store textiles horizontally and roll rather than fold. If you do have examples hanging vertically, take a tip from museums and let them “rest” horizontally from time to time.

3. If you have to fold, pad the folds with acid-free tissue paper from a reputable dealer like Hollinger.

4. Avoid letting your textiles be exposed to direct sunlight and incandescent light. Sunlight comes into your house and on to your walls according to the seasons, so make sure that exposure is from safe from direct year-round.

5. Buy wardrobe boxes from reputable archival supply vendors like Hollinger to store textiles. Don’t hang them up.

6. Check the backs of framed textiles and remove cardboard, wood, and other highly acidic backing materials. Replace with acid-free mat board from a reputable framing store.

That’s it for today’s post on Preservation Week 2014 Textiles. Check all week for posts on preserving your family history.