Monocurate | Neighbors of Terrytown Magazine
FROM THE ARTICLE:
Family preservation is a broad term. It means keeping photographs, correspondence, military memorabilia, student records, childhood items, so on and so forth. In reality, the meaning of family preservation depends on the family. For me, it meant tracking down photographs after my mother’s sudden death when I was 16. Unfortunately, at that age, I didn’t have the foresight to save anything of importance from our house. Throughout the following years, I spent countless hours trying to track down photos my younger siblings and I could share. Despite this effort, there are gaps in the photo collection I managed to assemble that span decades. More so, there is a lack of context, a missing narrative, and an irrecoverable loss of family history. I don’t know how many photographs, personal papers, and other sentimental items were lost when we cleaned out my Mom’s house. I’ve since learned this is not an unusual problem to have, devastating nonetheless.
It is actually incredibly common that important family items are thrown out. This isn’t purposeful or malicious. Instead, it is almost always the result of two key factors, a lack of organization and missing annotations. It’s easy to look through a drawer and toss all of the paper contents without a second thought, to throw away photos of nameless strangers (after all who is this person), to overlook a broken watch, or simply not look through all the boxes in the attic before donating. Much like my family did.
After graduating with my Master's in Library and Information Science, I worked for the public sector as both an archivist and conservation paper technician. However, it quickly became apparent that archival services were not accessible for most people. Not only were most people unaware of what an archive is, but they also didn’t know how archival services could apply to them. Yet, we all have boxes of sentimental items-- whether that is a box of photographs, important papers, diaries, childhood art projects, an important piece of clothing, or a record collection. There is no obvious path on how best to preserve, handle, and, more importantly, pass these items down. On numerous occasions I found myself offering advice to friends and family, but I didn’t have the tools, supplies, or space to help them go forward with such a project.
When quarantine happened, I, like many others, found myself faced with looming uncertainty. Widespread closures of public institutions left me with some extra time on my hands, and I used this opportunity to reflect on my experiences in public archives. I couldn’t shake the feeling that however much I enjoyed my work, it was becoming increasingly disconnected from our day-to-day lives. I created Monocurate with the hope of filling the need for archival and preservation services on a personal level.
What sets Monocurate apart from traditional archives is that our services are meant for everyday people. At the moment, we don’t work with institutions, take government contracts, or the like. We also don’t store collections on site. We strictly cater to the local community and other small businesses by offering personalized and affordable archival and preservation services, in combination with educational workshops. Our archival and preservation work is meant to be accessible for frequent and future use. We don’t want our clients to be worried about handling family photographs from the 1800s. Instead, we encourage our clients to interact with their history by giving them the peace of mind that items are properly preserved and protected! In addition, we work with clients to get all of their important documents, photographs, and sentimental items in one place, labeled, and included in an itemized inventory to prevent loss.
We offer a full suite of services regardless of the size or value of a client’s collection. We truly believe in archives for all by making our services modular and affordable. We don't employ a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather, one personalized to the needs of the client and their collection.
We also employ basic conservation techniques such as dry cleaning paper and photographs, deacidification, mending, and flattening services. But much like an archive, library, or museum, our method of storage and arrangement are all museum-grade and follow traditional archival principles, which means we arrange, describe, and apply preventative preservation techniques to the collection as a whole down to the item level. Our services offer more than just re-boxing items. We also create inventories, digitize collections, provide research assistance, and conduct oral histories. We even perform appraisals of art, historical documents, and letters, whether for donation, estate, insurance, or other purposes.
We are proud to work with clients who have trusted us with their late grandmother's cookbook, their mother’s poetry collection, family photos, wedding dresses, small businesses legacy collections, and mixed media collections. All of which we believe are invaluable and worth preserving.
Here are some preservation tips for you to use at home:
Never use a pen to write on the back of photographs, always use a pencil
Store photos away from sunlight in acid-free envelopes, folders, or tissue paper
Always store documents in cardboard boxes, never plastic
Include context, even if just a note tucked in a folder
Back up your digital life in 3 places (cloud, local, usb)
Record your family history and organize it chronologically
Don’t overpack boxes, always provide breathing room for objects
