another miscellaneous campaign objects collection with matches

We received yet another miscellaneous collection of political campaign objects, encompassing both state and national politicians. We have political collections with a wide variety of political campaign objects in them, including clothing, like shirts and hats, banners, bumper stickers, pins, flags, stickers or decals, name cards, dolls, statues, bobbleheads, household and personal care objects, like combs and nail files, photographs, brochures, postcards, calendars, notebooks, balloons, pencils, etc. 

There are 3 main archival challenges with these collections: 1) stickiness of bumper stickers and pins. The foil part often falls off making the backs sticky or items are stuck or melted together due to chemical change over time. 2) pokey pins that can send you to an ER for a tetanus shot. As an archivist I am constantly getting papercuts and occasionally, despite my best efforts. Most of the time it is from various objects people used before paperclips were widely available. Straight sewing pins were widely used in place of paperclips. When they rust onto the paper they are nasty and painful to remove without destroying the paper. Various types and sizes of nails, screws, clamps, diaper pins, ladies hair and hatpins were used. And paper clips also rust over time and become stuck to the paper, just like straight pins. I stay updated with my tetanus shot and encourage my students to do likewise. 

The third challenge in political collections is matchbooks full of matches. I blogged about this before. Matches are not good to have in your collections if you hope to avoid fires. The chemical coating and composition of matches can chip and deteriorate overtime.  I always remove the matches from the matchbook covers and soak them in water for a day or two, then I dispose of them. The information on the matchbook cover is more historically important to retain than the matches themselves. I don't think most politicians give out matches anymore, but matches where popular when most people smoked, so they are often donated and found in historical collections. My archival advice is to avoid any metal clips or pins, matches, or anything with a sticky side in your collections to help preserve anything you would like to preserve. If you have questions about anything in your personal or family collections, please contact me.

You may have noticed the "That's my Girl!" political pin in the photograph at the top of this blog. entry. This pin is an image of Lenore Romney, Governor George Romney's wife who was First Lady of Michigan, 1963-1969, and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 1970. Today, most of us find it insulting as women to be referred to as a girl.  Sexism and racism are part of our history and culture and examples are found in many archival collections.