Caring for Your Family Treasures : A Concise Guide to Caring for Your Cherised Belongings

Few of us think to preserve our family treasures until it's too late. Now, this practical guide shows just how to safeguard cherished photo albums, a fragile wedding dress, antique furniture, and numerous other precious family heirlooms for future generations.

Clearly written care instructions accompany a lively visual presentation that includes information boxes, checklists, and full-color pictures showing how to preserve leather-bound books, scrapbooks, family documents and other treasures on paper, home movies and videotape, clocks and watches, holiday ornaments, silverware, jewelry, musical instruments, military mementos, dolls, teddy bears, toy soldiers, and more. The text identifies organic and inorganic materials, items that are sensitive to humidity, and the special care required for each. Security and insurance issues, and the best materials and tools for cleaning, display, and storage, and where to find them, round out this immensely useful volume.

HERITAGE PRESERVATION, currently chaired by professional art conservator INGE-LISE ECKMANN, is a national, nonprofit organization working to preserve America's collective heritage for present and future generations. Its programs and publications gather and share information from respected preservation professionals on caring for photographs, historic documents, books, works of art, buildings, natural-science specimens, and family heirlooms.

JANE S. LONG, former coordinator of special projects for the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, is director of the National Task Force on Emergency Response and a consultant for Heritage Preservation.

RICHARD W. LONG has worked with the Brookings Institution, the Commission on the Operation of the Senate, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He now writes and consults.

160 illustrations, 140 in full color, 73/4 x 9"

Although there are plenty of guidebooks on preserving museum-quality antiques, this book is unique in that it focuses on the care and handling of precious family heirlooms such as old silver, wedding gowns, scrapbooks, photos, books, and dolls. It was assembled under the guidance of Heritage Preservation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving cultural artifacts, sites, natural science specimens, buildings, and works of art. (It has also published the highly regarded Caring for Your Collections and, more recently, Caring for Your Historic House.) In addition to providing solid and easy-to-understand information on object preservation, the book offers advice on where to find archival supplies, genealogical information, and, if need be, a professional conservator. The many color photos show how artifactual damage is caused and in some instances how it can be treated. Highly recommended for all public libraries and for decorative arts collections everywhere. Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.