Friday, May 28, 2010

What's hiding in your attic?

In June, we will be unveiling (pun intended) our Bossier weddings exhibit! Do you have anything to add to the display? We're looking for photos, marriage licenses, fancy invitations, clothing, jewelry, and any other mementos from those special days in Bossier Parish. Please consider donating items to the historical center so future generations can share in the memories. If you can't bear to part with treasured originals, we'd love to have the chance to scan your photos and paper documents. We can add the copies to our collection.



This photo (1997.054.088) is from a Plain Dealing wedding in the 1910s. We can't identify the happy couple. Can you?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Here's What We're Doing At the Spring Festival Tomorrow...

Also, try cleaning seed cotton - by hand! It's easier said than done.


Here's a REAL bale of cotton, at Frogmore Cotton Plantation & Gins near Ferriday, LA in Concordia Parish.











Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Spring Festival 2010

This Saturday, May 22, join the Bossier Parish Library at the Louisiana Boardwalk from 10 am - 3 pm for our Spring Festival!

The Historical Center will have a booth with games and photos.

For more information, please view our flyer.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Preservation Pointers

To celebrate Preservation Week, we'll be listing some quick steps you can take to protect your collection.

Many people have old photo albums and scrapbooks in their collection. The vast majority of these are not photo-friendly and will permanently damage your family photos. Scrapbooks were frequently made with an acidic black paper that deteriorates quickly. You'll notice that the edges of this black paper start to break and flake away, often leaving fragments behind on shelving and in boxes. Glue and tape were commonly used to adhere photos and other items to scrapbook pages. These adhesives can cause yellowing and may also embrittle the photos. Generally, you will want to keep a scrapbook intact, especially if the creator has handwritten labels on the pages. It can be helpful to place acid-free tissue paper between the pages. This will prevent items from pressing directly against one another and causing discoloration.

Magnetic photo albums have pages lined with thin strips of glue and covered with a clear plastic covering. The glue will discolor photos - sometimes after only a decade of storage. If you are able, slowly and cautiously peel your photos away from the glue backing for proper storage. Unfortunately, this glue can be very sticky and you need to be sure that your photos will not tear. If you can't remove them from the pages without rips, then it is better to leave them in the album. Scan the photos while they are in the album so you can make copies. Keep these copies in polyethylene photo sleeves.

Acid-free tissue paper and polyethylene photo sleeves can be found at most archival suppliers. Check with local craft stores, too. Always read the product specifications, as some products may be called "archival" when they really are not preservation-quality.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

National Preservation Week


Mark your calendars!

The first national collections Preservation Week, themed "Pass it On!" takes place May 9-15. Preservation Week will inspire actions to preserve personal, family and community collections of all kinds, as well as library, museum and archive collections. It will raise awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing ongoing preservation information.

The Historical Center is celebrating Preservation Week with an exhibit, "Practical Preservation", that will suggest simple steps to help you make sure your treasures and memories last a lifetime and are passed on to future generations.

Pam Carlisle, Local History and Outreach Specialist at the Historical Center, will be presenting a FREE workshop, Practical Preservation - Making Family Memories Last, at 5:30 on Tuesday, May 11 at the Bossier Central Library meeting room at 2206 Beckett Street in Bossier City. Registration is not required.

For questions, call us at (318)746-7717 or email pcarter@state.lib.la.us

You are invited to bring documents, photographs, and objects to the Historical Center to receive tips on storage and handling. Please consider allowing us to scan any Bossier-related photographs and documents so that we may have copies for our collection. With your help, we can pass Bossier Parish history on!

Visit the American Library Association's website for more information on Preservation Week.