Best way to store a vintage contract
 

I recently picked up a 1929 Contract of Richard "Cannonball" Redding. It appear like for most of history it has been stored folded. Given its age (and the fact that the paper it is on is not particularly thick) I was wondering whether that was the best way to store it, or stored some other way.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Jeff,
I believe the answer for me would depend on doing with it in your collection.

If you want to display it where you could look at it, I would consider carefully sliding it open into a one pocket Ultra Pro page. This would be my personal choice. If you're not going to display it, slide it in it's current folded state into a one pocket page with archival white cardboard. The other alternative would be to store it folded in a photo top loader.

I've acquired several boxing contracts over the years, which I store/display in full unfolded length in the single pocket pages of oversized art portfolio albums. The albums can be purchased with colored backboards that accentuate the white paper of the contracts. They're easily stored, and mountable on small tabletop easels.

Just make sure whatever you use is archival quality and keep it out of sunshine. That way there won't be damage from the environment there might be otherwise. I have my 1930s-1950s Burdick letters in archival quality Ultra Pro pages in a binder.

My vote would be to store it the same way it has been stored for 88 years. It looks pretty good to me.;)

I have been staring at that contract for over 10 years on Ebay, glad to see if finally made it to a good home.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I neglected to mention that it is a little too large to fit into a page-sized holder, and those are the largest soft sleeves that I have. Guess I'll leave it folded for now and see what I can get at an upcoming show...



Haha, I've been watching it for quite some time before throwing out an offer, and now it has gotten me researching his career and I've already come across some pretty cool stuff (like the fact that in 1929 he Managed and played on the same team as his son, and they often played in the same games together, even pitching in the same game at least a couple of times.

I have not looked at their Website in a while, but a company called Light Impressions sells a wide variety of archival display and storage products. They may have something that will work for you.

On items too large you can try cutting a side of an archival page and it will slip in. Depending on the size it can work. I have done it to help stuff that is a little bit too big and many times it works, sometimes the item IS too big though. Also, Ultra Pro makes top loaders that are up to HUGE in size. I have a lot of documents too big for other pages in those. An 11x14 would almost certainly work for you AND they are archival quality.