I have a close friend of mine who served in LAH as a Pioneer. He has a large number of original award and other documents pertaining to his career during the war. He has asked me what to do to preserve it. His own initial idea was to laminate them!!!!! (YIKKESS....I know).

He does not want to display them on the wall, and my own initial idea is to use PVC sleeves and put them in a binder. But I don't know if PVC will react with the paper. Any input I can get from those of you with experience on this will be greatly appreciated.

I was planning to do this for him and would also like the documents to be shown in a respactable way together with some of his period photographs......

Erik

i think i read somewhere that ren wax can be used for papers, documents........dont do this until someone else chims in! where the hell did i see that? let me see if i can find link, i may be wrong!
if you google renwax, it has been recommended for paper preservation, i did not provide links, as it is sold in our website.
i would wait and see if any other members have used,(on paper) and how much to apply, hope this helps.

Look up comic book stores in the phonebook. You will be able to buy acid free cardboard and plastic bags in several sizes. They come in a few types from cheap to archival quality. You should be able to find something that will work. I have a few award doc's protected this way. I then put it into a plastic sleeve in a binder.

Yes, acid free backing boards and Mylar bags...

Heres some good reading:

Talas

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Take Gaspare's advice, there are several companies out that sell similiar items. I dont have access to my computer or I would give you some other sites. for the acid free paper backing with the clear mylar bags. They even have a spray that takes the acid out of the paper that mueseums use. If I can find the sites I'll post them tonight.