Cushioning, and what not to use

The material touching the specimen for the next thirty years deserves more thought than it usually gets.

Two jobs

Position. Holding the specimen still and at the angle you want it seen.

Protection. Absorbing shock when the drawer is opened hard or the box is dropped.

A material can do one well and the other badly, which is why storage cushioning and transit packing are different choices.

What works

Polyethylene foam, closed-cell, inert and stable. The default answer for long-term storage.

Polyester fiber wadding, inert, and it does not compress permanently.

Acid-free tissue, crumpled, for filling voids.

Mounting putty in small amounts for positioning, reversible and used sparingly.

What does not

Cotton wool, which snags fine crystals, holds moisture and feeds pests. It is the traditional material and it is the wrong one.

Ordinary polyurethane foam, the soft yellow kind, which breaks down into an acidic crumbly residue, often stuck to the specimen.

Newspaper for anything but transport. Acidic, and the ink transfers.

Rubber bands and adhesive tape, which perish, and whose residue is a conservation job.

Anything that smells when the box has been shut for a month.

In transit versus in storage

Transit wants volume: bubble wrap, paper, a box inside a box, everything immobilized. It is temporary and inertness matters less.

Storage wants inertness and stability, and can use far less material because nothing is being thrown around.

The failure is leaving transit packing in place. Material bought at a show arrives wrapped in newspaper and foam, goes into a drawer, and stays that way for years, which is how a collection acquires an acid source in every box.

References