Is anything scarier to archivists than...Eeeewwww!..mold!

http://www.cdc.gov/mold/faqs.htm

Ever since we acquired the IPA Collection and Luther Gulick Papers a year and a half ago, we’ve quarantined several bins worth of books and papers that looked as if they might — emphasize might — be contaminated by mold. We even spent about $700 on an AllerAir 6000 Exec Air Purifier to make sure we weren’t inhaling any dangerous pathogens.

http://www.allergybegone.com/allerair-6000-exec-air-purifier.html?gclid=CNKRztqcu8kCFUYWHwodA5cOZg

Cut to the chase: an expert conservator we consulted, Jennifer Sainato, examined the materials and assured us we were not dealing with any chemical or biological Armageddon. Still we needed to handle the items with care and do some further testing.

From the report:

Mold

There are about four plastic bins of materials with dry mold within the collection that were never processed due to safety issues. The materials were wrapped in zip lock bags to provide an extra layer of safety and include archival folders, books, reports, and some photographs…the materials are indeed safe to handle…

If there is mold on especially significant materials, the dry mold can be brushed off safely in house. Mold typically appears on the cover of the book. We may want to remove the cover, take an image or copy of the cover and then discard it. We can also use soot sponges and remove the mold carefully with masks and gloves in vicinity to our air purifier, which was purchased to filter out harmful particles in the air…

The good news is that the items are well worth preserving.

We found books by our namesake, Bernard M. Baruch, who worked alongside Gulick in mobilization for World War II.

Some were autographed by Gulick.

Others were autographed to Gulick by the authors.

We’ll keep working our way though the piles in search of more treasures.