RE: glass lantern slide packing/transportation suggestions

[Patti Gibbons <pgibbons@uchicago.edu>]

Thanks Bryan for this great information. It is very helpful,
Patti

At 04:37 PM 1/23/2007, you wrote:

Hi Patti,  we have moved large quantities of glass lantern slides and glass negatives for several collections. The way we did it was to individually sleeve each slide to protect the emulsions and to group them into cartons with a a piece of blue board between each. (The blue board shims cushion the glass and stiffen the packing. We also placed a piece of foamcore in the bottom of each carton as a stiffener to limit the flexibility of the carton. (Cartons are flexible, particularly when heavy and glass hates flexibility!) Glass is heavy so the cartons we used were only 12" long and not much larger than the width and height of the glass. We also lined the carton sides with 1/4 " micro foam and shimmed in any space with additional micro foam so that there was no movement inside the cartons. We packed these cartons into 14" cube cartons with a 3/8" piece of plywood on the bottom (again as a stiffener and to prevent the bottom from coming out of the cartons)and fully lined with 1" museum foam. The 14" cartons were an ideal size and weight for easy handling and storage on shelving.  When we moved them on our truck we lined the floor with 1" soft foam which not only adds additional cushioning, but prevents the cartons from sliding inside the truck. Any empty spaces between cartons were bolstered using rolled up foam and truck pads as fillers. I hope this information will help you. Best regards, Bryan Cooke

---

From: pacinlist-bounces@pacin.org [ mailto:pacinlist-bounces@pacin.org] On Behalf Of Patti Gibbons
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:47 AM
To: pacinlist@pacin.org
Subject: glass lantern slide packing/transportation suggestions

Hello,

I am preparing to move a collection of about 5,000 glass lantern slides from an off-site storage facility that is about 200 miles away and am looking for packing and transportation suggestions that will help prevent physical damage during transport. Some slides are currently inside old fashion lantern slide cabinetry (narrow drawers with dividers) and some are simply stacked in piles.

Ideally I'd like to hire art packers and shippers, but the budget won't allow on this project. It looks like we will be packing and shipping ourselves. I'm planning to transport the collection on land (we hope to rent a moving truck with air ride suspension).

My initial thoughts about packing are to sleeve the negatives and then pack them into archival boxes such as those available at the links below. Then pack the negative storage boxes inside larger packing containers with padding.

Talas sells lantern slide boxes with dividers:
http://apps.webcreate.com/ecom/catalog/product_specific.cfm?ClientID=15&ProductID=20794

Gaylord sells a lantern slide box without dividers. Would anyone caution against this mode of packing?
http://www.gaylordmart.com/adblock.asp?abid=1204&sid=E0AFC9B73359471289947D37D19CCB&search_by=desc&search_for=negative%20box

I would be interested in advice anyone has for moving glass lantern slides, or any feedback on using the products above. Thanks in advance for your help!

Patti

Patti Gibbons
Preservation Manager
Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
t (773) 702-6027, f (773) 702-3728
pgibbons@uchicago.edu