October 30, 2024
Fire, pests, and mold, oh my! These are the horror stories that keep our Densho archivists up at night.
We’re wrapping up Archives Month with some of the most horrifying photos from this year… Okay, maybe these are mainly scary to a niche audience of archivists, but still we urge you to keep these frights out of your sight, and more importantly, out of your home archives!
Every archivist’s worst nightmare, a fire. The arson fire at the Seattle Betsuin reignited on January 2nd, and Densho archivists stepped in to help remove archival materials from out of the building into the Densho parking lot.
A pest had made itself at home inside an old cassette tape!
A very scary warning sign on the freezer at the Densho office…
When collections donors loan their items to Densho, they can mail a box to our office in Seattle. This package hadn’t been properly filled, so the outer box arrived damaged. Thankfully the contents inside were alright!
Rubber bands left behind in the archives often fuse to newsletters and other papers.
Rusty paperclips holding an archival document together.
Signs of fire damage are visible on this paper from Amache.
Want to avoid recreating these terrors at home? Learn how to properly preserve your own family archives here >> https://densho.org/collections/historical-materials/preserve/