THE PREPARING OF URVASTE CEMETERY PLANS FOR DIGITIZATION
Year:
Anno 2017/2018
Category:
Conservation
Autor:
Küllike Pihkva
The National Archives of Estonia
Keywords: tracing papers, conservation, preparing for digitization.
The poster describes the preparing of the plans for digitization. The main emphasis was placed on tracings.The collection of Urvaste cemetery plans is comprised of eighteen originals.
Material: tracing paper, wood pulp paper. Plans consist of drawings with notes on different parts of the cemetery. Originals are hand-coloured manuscripts.
Dating of the items is 1947 – 1948. The previous owner was the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. The current owner is the National Archives of Estonia.
The condition before conservation was poor. The collection exhibited a wide range of classical damage categories. Seriously damaged plans on tracings were not able to fulfill their function as a source of information. Most of the plans had been originally bound into two cardboard covers without any covering and titles. By the time the plans reached the Archives, they had been roughly separated from covers and were disorderly pressed together.
Conservation treatments: all collection was dry cleaned, straightened using a Gore-Tex® and repaired according minimum principle; also new suitably-sized enclosure was made. After the conservation, digital copies have been created.
Aim of conservation work was preparing for digitization, improving the condition of severely damaged plans, to stop the degradation of mechanical damage on tracing plans, restoring and ensuring the usability and preservation of the collection. Main purpose was to improve the access to content of artefacts before belonging to the congregation – after creating digital copies the local information became accessible; in the future holding the conserved materials in archives is the best practice for how to preserve originals for next generations.
