How do you pack over 1,200 books for storage? Very carefully…
Volunteers learned the procedure for packing up General Wallace’s books.
Working in pairs, packing volunteers pulled books from the shelves individually, cross-referenced each title with the list to make sure we have a record of it, and made a packing list for each box. We did NOT use white cotton gloves like we usually do to handle artifacts because the cotton can catch fragile pages or bindings and do more harm than good. Instead, we washed our hands REALLY well several times during the workday.
The books were packed carefully in boxes lined with buffered tissue, and more fragile books were tied with white twill tape to make sure they don’t fall apart when moved.
Collections Manager Amanda McGuire (center) led the charge by instructing volunteers and troubleshooting problems, and Wabash Archivist and Museum Board Member Beth Swift gave a ton of professional assistance!
We got a few surprises, too: who knew there were books behind books? No wonder we couldn’t locate them during the inventory!
Now the boxes are numbered and ready to store. Thank you to all our packing volunteers and staff who came in especially for packing day!
