Preserving letters

How do people preserve letters ? I have quite a few (mostly from my father
to my grandmother when he was serving in the Navy during WWI). Most of them
have many pages and are on very thin paper. They are still in the cigar box
that my grandmother kept them in and are folded as they were in the
envelope. Is keeping them individually in plastic 'pockets' the best way to
go or should I scan them and store them in some other way ?

Chris Watts...

Do not under any circumstances use the sort of plastic pockets sold in
stationers. Some special ones are avaialable but don't use even them unless
advised to do so by a qualified conservator.

Scanning them, using equipment that won't damage the originals, is a good
idea.

But whatever you do, seek the advice of a conservator before you do it. You
local archives office will advise.

bg302...

Have you considered transcribing them? Depending on how many letters you
have and their length, the content may be as valuable as their physical
nature.

I have done this in many cases, particularly recently where text documents
are transmitted by scanning and sending an image of a typescript or
manuscript page. A .TXT file occupies very little disk space compared to
images.

It all depends on your faith in the longevity of current technology!!